![]() The name Barad-dûr is Sindarin, from barad "tower" and dûr "dark". įurther information: Architecture in Middle-earth The Swedish melodic death metal band Amon Amarth, whose lyrics deal primarily with Viking culture and Norse mythology, and the North American doom metal band Orodruin, are named after the mountain. In 2012, they named a Titanian mountain " Doom Mons" after Mount Doom. The International Astronomical Union names all mountains on Saturn's moon Titan after mountains in Tolkien's work. When sailing past the volcano of Stromboli, Tolkien said he had 'never seen anything that looked so much like. Īccording to the fanzine Niekas, Tolkien "more or less found Mordor" on a Mediterranean cruise in September 1966. Another possible source of the name, mentioned by Tolkien and discussed by the Tolkien scholar Jared Lobdell, is a pair of tales of supernatural events by the English novelist Algernon Blackwood, "The Willows" and "The Glamour of the Snow". He further states that "Doom" originally meant "judgement", and by its sound and its use in the word "doomsday" carries the "senses of death, finality, and fate". Tolkien wrote that the phrase meant "the announcement of the Last Day" by a crack of thunder, or "the sound of the last trump" (he cites the use of "crack" to mean a trumpet's sound in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight at lines 1) at the Last Judgment as described in the Book of Revelation. Tolkien stated in his " Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings", intended to assist translators, that the phrase "Crack of Doom" derives from William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, Act 4 scene 1. When Sauron is defeated at the end of the Third Age, the volcano erupts violently. Mount Doom, Orodruin, or Amon Amarth ("Mountain of Fate") is more than an ordinary volcano it responds to Sauron's commands and his presence, lapsing into dormancy when he is away from Mordor, and becoming active again when he returns. The volcano of Stromboli off Sicily looked like Mount Doom to Tolkien. To the east of Gorgoroth lay the dry plain of Lithlad. Núrn, the southern part of Mordor, was less arid and more fertile Sauron's slaves farmed this region to support his armies, and streams fed the salt Sea of Núrnen. Gorgoroth was volcanic and inhospitable to life, but home to Mordor's mines, forges, and garrisons. Sauron's main fortress Barad-dûr was on the north side of Gorgoroth, at the end of a spur of the Ash Mountains. The core of Sauron's realm was in the northwest: the arid plateau of Gorgoroth, with the active volcano Mount Doom located in the middle. The interior of Mordor was composed of three large regions. Inside the Ephel Dúath ran a lower parallel ridge, the Morgai, separated by a narrow valley, a "dying land not yet dead" with "low scrubby trees", "coarse grey grass-tussocks", "withered mosses", "great writhing, tangled brambles", and thickets of briars with long, stabbing thorns. The route traversed Torech Ungol, the lair of the giant spider Shelob. ![]() Its top was guarded by a tower, built by Gondor. A higher, more difficult pass, Cirith Ungol, lay just to the north of the Morgul pass. The fortress Durthang lay in the northern Ephel Dúath above Udûn. The main pass was guarded by Minas Morgul, a city built by Gondor as Minas Ithil. The Ephel Dúath ("Fence of Shadow") defended Mordor on the west and south. For the American heavy metal band, see Cirith Ungol (band). Others have observed that Tolkien depicts Mordor as specifically evil, and as a vision of industrial environmental degradation, contrasted with either the homey Shire or the beautiful elvish forest of Lothlórien. Another forerunner that Tolkien was very familiar with is the account of the monster Grendel's unearthly landscapes in the Old English poem Beowulf. These both protected the land from invasion and kept those living in Mordor from escaping.Ĭommentators have noted that Mordor was influenced by Tolkien's own experiences in the industrial Black Country of the English Midlands, and by his time fighting in the trenches of the Western Front in the First World War. Mordor was surrounded by three mountain ranges, to the north, the west, and the south. Mount Doom, a volcano in Mordor, was the goal of the Fellowship of the Ring in the quest to destroy the One Ring. It lay to the east of Gondor and the great river Anduin, and to the south of Mirkwood. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, Mordor (pronounced from Sindarin Black Land and Quenya Land of Shadow) is the realm and base of the evil Sauron. The Land of Shadow, the Black Land, the Nameless Landīarad-dûr (the Dark Tower), Mount Doom, the Morannon (Black Gate), Cirith Ungol, Gorgoroth, Udûn Mordor (red) and its sphere of influence (pink) within Middle-earth, T.A.
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