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Utumno angband5/19/2023 Before the Great Gate, there was a somber court area flanked by frightening cliffs and walled by the towers of a great battlement. So, Morgoth could produce poisonous clouds and vapours, as indeed he sent against the Noldor in Mithrim during the first days after their Return.Map of Hithlum and the Northern Lands by Karen Wynn Fonstad from The Atlas of Middle-earthĪngband was a primarily subterranean stronghold under the three volcanic mountains of Thangorodrim, the largest mountains in Middle-earth. The peaks of Thangorodrim were hollow, and from them channels and chimneys ran down to the deepest pits of Angband. Its main features above ground were the three peaks of Thangorodrim, mighty towers of ash and slag raised above Angband's gates after Morgoth's return to Middle-earth. Like its prototype, Utumno, it had many hidden underground chambers and vaults far beneath the earth. Appearance and ConstructionĪngband was primarily an underground fortress, at least after its initial destruction by the Valar in the Years of the Trees. From then until the Dagor Bragollach in I 455, a period of almost 400 years, Angband was surrounded by the Noldor this is the time known as the Siege of Angband. The Noldor, though, chased these Orcs back to the very gates of Angband, and slew them to the last creature. Until that time (the year I 60) Morgoth had sent out hosts of Orcs in the hope of taking the Noldor by surprise. The third of the great battles in the Wars of Beleriand, the Dagor Aglareb, had profound consequences for Angband. He was rescued by Fingon and Thorondor, but lost his right hand. Soon after the Return of the Noldor to Beleriand, Morgoth took Maedhros by deceit and trickery, and hung him by the wrist from the towers of Thangorodrim above Angband. Sauron was one of these, and the Balrogs lay hid with him in Angband's deepest vaults.Īngband re-entered history when Melkor escaped Valinor with the stolen Silmarils: he chose the ruined fortress as his new capital, and rebuilt the Hells of Iron as a base for the dark reign he intended for the lands of Middle-earth. When the Valar captured Melkor and took him in chains back to Valinor, Angband was largely destroyed and lay in ruins for many thousands of years, although beneath the ruins lay many hidden chambers in which some of Melkor's servants escaped the Valar's assault. Angband was built near the northwestern shores of the Great Sea in the range of the Iron Mountains, as a first defence against any attack on Melkor's realm from the Valar in Aman. It was commanded from its first construction by Sauron, the chief of Melkor's servants. Origins and HistoryĪngband was first constructed in the ancient past of Middle-earth, 2 originally as an outlying fortress and armoury to the great northern citadel at Utumno. It was finally destroyed by the forces of the Valar at the end of the First Age, in the War of Wrath. Utumno was destroyed by the Valar, and Melkor imprisoned in Valinor for three ages, but on his return to Middle-earth, he took Angband as the seat of his power, and raised the towers of Thangorodrim above its gates.Īngband was beseiged by the Noldor after their return to Middle-earth, but the Siege of Angband was broken at the Dagor Bragollach. Angband was a mighty fortified citadel originally constructed by Melkor in the earliest days of the world as an outlying fortress to his northern stronghold of Utumno.
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