| Mordor | |
|---|---|
| Middle-earth location | |
 | |
| First appearance | The Lord of the Rings |
| In-universe information | |
| Other name(s) | the Land of Shadow, the Black Land, the Nameless Land |
| Type | Realm and base of operations ofSauron |
| Ruler | Sauron |
| Locations | Barad-dûr (the Dark Tower), Mount Doom, theMorannon (Black Gate), Cirith Ungol, Gorgoroth, Udûn |
| Geography | East ofGondor |
| Lifespan | Second Age –Fourth Age |
| Capital | Barad-dûr |
InJ. R. R. Tolkien'sfictional continent ofMiddle-earth,Mordor (pronounced[ˈmɔrdɔr]; fromSindarinBlack Land andQuenyaLand of Shadow) is the realm and base of the evil lordSauron. It lay to the east ofGondor and the great riverAnduin, and to the south ofMirkwood.Mount Doom, a volcano in Mordor, was the goal of theFellowship of the Ring in the quest to destroy theOne Ring. Mordor was surrounded by three mountain ranges, to the north, the west, and the south. These both protected the land from invasion and kept those living in Mordor from escaping.
Commentators have noted that Mordor was influenced by Tolkien's own experiences in the industrialBlack Country of theEnglish Midlands, and byhis time fighting in the trenches of theWestern Front in theFirst World War. Tolkien was also familiar with the account of the monsterGrendel's unearthly landscapes in theOld English poemBeowulf. Others have observed that Tolkien depicts Mordor as specificallyevil, and as a vision of industrialenvironmental degradation, contrasted with either the homeyShire or the beautiful elvish forest ofLothlórien.
Mordor was roughly rectangular in shape, with the longer sides on the north and south. Three sides were defended by mountain ranges: the Ered Lithui ("Ash Mountains") on the north, and the Ephel Dúath on the west and south. The lengths of these ranges are estimated to be 498, 283 and 501 miles (801, 455 and 806 kilometres) respectively, which gives Mordor an area of roughly 140,000 square miles (360,000 square kilometres).[1]
To the west lay the narrow land ofIthilien, a province of Gondor;[T 2] to the northwest, the Dead Marshes and Dagorlad, the Battle Plain; to the north, Wilderland; to the northeast and east, Rhûn; to the southeast, Khand; and to the south,Harad.[T 3] Not far from the Dead Marshes is another dismal swamp, the Nindalf or Wetwang, beside theEmyn Muil hills.[2]
In the northwest, the pass of Cirith Gorgor led into the enclosed plain of Udûn.Sauron built the Black Gate of Mordor (the Morannon) across the pass. This added to the earlier fortifications, the Towers of the Teeth – Carchost to the east, Narchost to the west, guard towers which had been built by Gondor to keep a watch on this entrance.[T 4] The passage through the inner side of Udûn into the interior of Mordor was guarded by another gate, the Isenmouthe. Outside the Morannon lay the Dagorlad or Battle Plain, and the Dead Marshes.[T 3]
The Ephel Dúath ("Fence of Shadow") defended Mordor on the west and south. The main pass was guarded byMinas Morgul, a city built by Gondor as Minas Ithil.[T 5] The fortress Durthang lay in the northern Ephel Dúath above Udûn.[T 6] A higher, more difficult pass, Cirith Ungol, lay just to the north of the Morgul pass. Its top was guarded by a tower, built by Gondor. The route traversed Torech Ungol, the lair of the giant spiderShelob.[T 7][T 8]
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 ofbriars with long, stabbing thorns.[T 9]
The interior of Mordor was composed of three large regions. The core of Sauron's realm was in the northwest: the arid plateau of Gorgoroth, with the active volcanoMount Doom located in the middle.[T 10] Sauron's main fortressBarad-dûr was on the north side of Gorgoroth, at the end of a spur of the Ash Mountains. Gorgoroth was volcanic and inhospitable to life, but home to Mordor's mines, forges, and garrisons.[T 6][T 4]Núrn, the southern part of Mordor, was less arid and more fertile; Sauron's slaves farmed this region to support his armies,[T 11] and streams fed the salt Sea of Núrnen. To the east of Gorgoroth lay the dry plain of Lithlad.[T 4]
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. It is the place where theOne Ring was forged, and its magma heart is the only place where it can be destroyed.[T 12] When Sauron is defeated at the end of theThird Age with the destruction of the One Ring, the volcano erupts violently.[T 10]
Tolkien stated in his "Guide to the Names inThe Lord of the Rings", intended to assist translators, that the phrase "Crack of Doom" derives fromWilliam Shakespeare's playMacbeth, Act 4 scene 1. Tolkien wrote that the phrase meant "the announcement of the Last Day" by a crack ofthunder, or "the sound of the last trump[et]" (he cites the use of "crack" to mean a trumpet's sound inSir Gawain and the Green Knight at lines 116 and 1166) at theLast Judgment as described in theBook of Revelation. 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".[T 13] Another possible source of the name, mentioned by Tolkien and discussed by the Tolkien scholarJared Lobdell, is a pair of tales ofsupernatural events by the English novelistAlgernon Blackwood, "The Willows" and "The Glamour of the Snow".[4]According to thefanzineNiekas, Tolkien "more or less found Mordor" on a Mediterranean cruise in September 1966.[3] When sailing past the volcano ofStromboli at night, Tolkien said he had "never seen anything that looked so much like [Mount Doom]."[3]
InPeter Jackson's film adaptation ofThe Lord of the Rings, Mount Doom was represented by two active volcanoes inNew Zealand:Mount Ngauruhoe andMount Ruapehu, located inTongariro National Park. In long shots, the mountain is either a large model or aCGI effect, or a combination. The production was not permitted to film the summit of Ngauruhoe because theMāori hold it to be sacred, but some scenes on the slopes of Mount Doom were filmed on the slopes of Ruapehu.[5]
In the TV seriesThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Mount Doom undergoes aphreatomagmatic eruption in theSecond Age. This was set off whenorcs opened afloodgate, releasing water on to hotmagma deep underground. The water would, a geologist explained, then flash to steam, causing an explosion.[6]
The nameBarad-dûr isSindarin, frombarad "tower" anddûr "dark". It was calledLugbúrz in theBlack Speech of Mordor, fromlug "tower" andbúrz "dark".[7] The Black Speech (created bySauron) was one of the languages used in Barad-dûr. The soldiers there used a debased form of the tongue.[T 14] InThe Lord of the Rings "Barad-dûr," "Lugbúrz," and "the Dark Tower" are occasionally used asmetonyms for Sauron.[T 15]
In theSecond Age, Sauron began to stir again and chose Mordor as a stronghold in which to build his fortress.[8] It was strengthened by the power of the One Ring, which had recently been forged; its foundations would survive as long as the Ring existed.Gandalf described the Ring as being the "...foundation of Barad-dûr..."[T 16] The Dark Tower is described as being composed of iron, being black and having battlements and gates.[T 17] In a painting by Tolkien, however, the walls are of mainly grey stone and brick, and battlements, gates and towers are not visible.[T 18]
InThe Two Towers, Barad-dûr is described as "...that vast fortress, armoury, prison, furnace of great power..."[T 19] The same paragraph goes on to say the Dark Tower had 'immeasurable strength'. The fortress was constructed with many towers and was hidden in clouds about it: "...rising black, blacker and darker than the vast shades amid which it stood, the cruel pinnacles and iron crown of the topmost tower of Barad-dûr."[T 20] The structure could not be clearly seen becauseSauron created shadows about himself that crept out from the tower.[T 20] InFrodo's vision onAmon Hen, he perceived the immense tower as "...wall upon wall, battlement upon battlement, black, immeasurably strong, mountain of iron, gate of steel, tower of adamant... Barad-dûr, Fortress of Sauron."[T 17] There was a look-out post, the "Window of the Eye", at the top of the tower. This window was visible fromMount Doom where Frodo and Sam had a terrible glimpse of the Eye of Sauron.[T 20] Barad-dûr's west gate is described as "huge" and the west bridge as "a vast bridge of iron."[T 20]
InThe Return of the King,Sam Gamgee witnessed the destruction of Barad-dûr: "... towers and battlements, tall as hills, founded upon a mighty mountain-throne above immeasurable pits; great courts and dungeons, eyeless prisons sheer as cliffs, and gaping gates of steel and adamant..."[T 20]
Barad-dûr, along with the One Ring, Mordor, and Sauron himself, were destroyed on 25 March, a traditionalAnglo-Saxon date for thecrucifixion; the quest to destroy the One Ring began inRivendell on 25 December, the date ofChristmas.[9]
InThe Atlas of Middle-earth, the cartographerKaren Wynn Fonstad assumed that the lands of Mordor,Khand, andRhûn lay where the inlandSea of Helcar had been, and that the Sea of Rhûn and Sea of Núrnen were its remnants. This was based on aFirst Age world-map drawn by Tolkien in theAmbarkanta, where the Inland Sea of Helcar occupied a large area of Middle-earth between theEred Luin andOrocarni, its western end being close to the head of the Great Gulf (later the Mouths of Anduin).[10][a]
Sauron settled in Mordor in theSecond Age ofMiddle-earth, and it remained the pivot of his evil contemplations. He built his great stronghold Barad-dûr, the Dark Tower, near the volcano Mount Doom (Orodruin), and became known as the Dark Lord of Mordor. Sauron aided the elves in the creation of the Rings of Power inEregion inEriador, and secretly forged theOne Ring in Orodruin. He then set about conquering Middle-earth, launching an attack upon the Elves of Eregion, but was repelled by the Men ofNúmenor.[T 22]
Over a thousand years later, the Númenóreans underAr-Pharazôn sailed to Middle-earth to challenge Sauron's claim to be "King of Men". Sauron let them capture him and take him back to Númenor, where he causedits destruction. He at once returned to Mordor as a spirit and resumed his rule.[T 23]
Sauron's rule was interrupted again when his efforts to overthrow the surviving Men of Númenor and theElves failed. The army of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men advanced on Mordor; in a great battle on the Dagorlad ("Battle Plain"), Sauron's forces were destroyed and the Black Gate was stormed. Barad-dûr was then besieged; after seven years, Sauron broke out and was defeated on the slopes of Orodruin. Sauron fled into Rhûn, and Barad-dûr was levelled.Gondor built fortresses at the entrances to Mordor to prevent his return, maintaining the "Watchful Peace" for over a thousand years.[T 22]
TheGreat Plague in Gondor caused the fortifications guarding Mordor to be abandoned, and Mordor again filled with evil things. TheRingwraiths took advantage of Gondor's decline to re-enter Mordor, conqueredMinas Ithil, and took over the fortresses. At the time ofBilbo Baggins's quest inThe Hobbit, Sauron returned into Mordor fromDol Guldur, feigning defeat, but readying for war.[T 22]
The Council of Elrond decided to send the Ring to Mount Doom to destroy it and Sauron's power. It was carried into Mordor by twoHobbits,Frodo Baggins andSam Gamgee;[T 22] they approached via the Dead Marshes, and entered by the pass of Cirith Ungol. In theWar of the Ring, Sauron attempted to stormMinas Tirith, the capital of Gondor, but was defeated by Gondor andRohan in theBattle of the Pelennor Fields. The victors sent an army to the Black Gate to distract Sauron from the Ring. He responded by emptying Mordor of its armies, sending them to the Black Gate. As a result, the plain of Gorgoroth was left almost deserted and Frodo and Sam were able to travel across it to Mount Doom. During theBattle of the Morannon, the One Ring was destroyed in Mount Doom, along with Sauron's power, Barad-dur, and the morale of his armies.[T 22][T 10] This ultimate defeat of Sauron ended the Third Age. Gorgoroth became empty as itsOrcs fled or were killed. The land of Núrn was given to Sauron's freed slaves.[T 11][11]
At the time of the War of the Ring, Sauron had gathered great armies to serve him. These includedEasterlings andHaradrim, who spoke a variety of tongues, and Orcs andTrolls, who usually spoke a debased form of theCommon Speech. Within Barad-dûr and among the captains of Mordor (the Ringwraiths and other high-ranking servants such as theMouth of Sauron), theBlack Speech was still used, the language devised by Sauron during the Dark Years of the Second Age. In addition to ordinary Orcs and Trolls, Sauron had bred a more powerful strain of Orcs, the Uruk-hai, and a strong and agile breed of Trolls, the Olog-hai, who could endure the sun. The Olog-hai knew only the Black Speech.[T 24]
Within Tolkien's fiction, "Mordor" had two meanings: "Black Land" inSindarin, and "Land of Shadow" inQuenya. The rootmor ("dark", "black") also appeared inMoria, which meant "Black Pit", andMorgoth, the first Dark Lord.[T 25]
Popular sources have conjectured or stated directly that "Mordor" came fromOld Englishmorðor, "mortal sin" or "murder".[12] Against this, the philologistHelge Fauskanger notes that Tolkien had been using both the elements of the name, "mor" and "dor" (as in Gondor, Eriador) for decades before assembling them into "Mordor".[12]
Fauskanger writes that there are however several words that sound like "mor" with connotations of darkness. Italianmoro (cf. Latinmaurus, black, andMauri, a North African tribe) means aMoor, and the adjective means "black"; Tolkien said that he liked the Italian language.[12] Greek Μαυρός (mauros) means "dark, dim".[12] He notes, too, the possible connection in Tolkien's mind withMirkwood, the dark Northern forest, from Norsemyrk "dark", cognate with English "murky".[12] He adds that words like "Latinmors 'death' or Old Englishmorðor 'murder'—further darkened the ring of this syllable."[12] Finally, Fauskanger mentions theArthurian names like Morgana, Morgause, and Mordred; the Mor- element here does not mean "dark", possibly being connected to Welshmawr "big", but Tolkien could have picked up the association with Arthurian evil.[12]
Tolkien, a scholar ofOld English, was an expert onBeowulf, calling it one of his "most valued sources" for Middle-earth.[T 26] The medievalistsStuart D. Lee andElizabeth Solopova compare Tolkien's account of Mordor and the neighbouring landscapes to the monsterGrendel's wilderness inBeowulf.[13] In particular, they compare Frodo and Sam's crossing of the Dead Marshes and whatGollum called its "tricksy lights", withBeowulf's "fire on the water"; and their traversal of the parched Morgai, full of rocks and vicious thorns, with Grendel's dangerous moors.[13] Lee and Solopova write that theBeowulf description both emphasises the coming horror, "play[ing] on ideas of desolation, wintry landscapes and the supernatural",[13] and like Tolkien giving realistic descriptions of nature. At the same time, they write, both theBeowulf poet and Tolkien incorporate "an element of fantasy": Grendel's moor is both full of water and a "craggy headland .. inhabited by supernatural evil",[13] while Tolkien fills the landscapes in and around Mordor with "similar ambiguity and sense of unease".[13]
| Grendel's wilderness inBeowulf II.1345-1382 | Translation | Landscapes around Mordor |
|---|---|---|
| ... ... ... ... Hie dygel lond warigeað, wulfhleoþu, windige næssas, frecne fengelad | ... ... ... ... They a secret land watch, wolf-infested slopes / windy headlands dangerous moor-path | The Morgai: rocks, thorns, "grassless, bare, jagged ... barren", "ruinous and dead" |
| wudu wyrtum fæst / wæter oferhelmað. þær mæg nihta gehwæm / niðwundor seon, fyr on flode. ... Nis þæt heoru stow! | Well-rooted trees / overshadow the water There one may each night / a horrible wonder see: fire on the water, ... This is not a safe place. | "wide fens and mires... Mists curled and smoked from dark and noisome pools". "Candles for corpses" (lights in the Dead Marshes) |
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A 2014 art exhibition entitled "The Making of Mordor" at theWolverhampton Art Gallery claims that thesteelworks andblast furnaces of the West Midlands near Tolkien's childhood home inspired his vision of, and his nameMordor. This industrialized area has long been known as "theBlack Country".[14] Philip Womack, writing inThe Independent, likens Tolkien's move from ruralWarwickshire to urbanBirmingham as "exile from a rural idyll to Mordor-like forges and fires".[15] The critic Chris Baratta notes the contrasting environments of the well-tended leafyShire, the home of the hobbits, and "theindustrial wastelands ofIsengard and Mordor."[16] Baratta comments that Tolkien clearly intended the reader to "identify with some of the problems of environmental destruction, rampant industrial invasion, and the corrupting and damaging effects these have on mankind."[16]
The New York Times related the grim land of Mordor to Tolkien's personal experience in the trenches of the Western Front in theFirst World War.[18] Jane Ciabattari, writing on theBBC culture website, calls the hobbits' struggle to take the ring to Mordor "a cracked mirror reflection of the young soldiers caught in the blasted landscape and slaughter oftrench warfare on the Western Front."[17] In one of his letters in 1960, Tolkien himself wrote that "The Dead Marshes [just north of Mordor] and the approaches to the Morannon [an entrance to Mordor] owe something to northern France after theBattle of the Somme".[17]
The critic Lykke Guanio-Uluru sees Mordor as specifically evil, marked by Sauron: a land that is "dying, struggling for life, though not yet dead",[19] evil being able to disfigure life but not to destroy it completely. It is contrasted, writes Guanio-Uluru, with the beauty ofLothlorien, and marked by negative adjectives like "harsh, twisted, bitter, struggling, low, coarse, withered, tangled, stabbing, sullen, shrivelled, grating, rattling, sad".[19]
In 1976, George W. Geib suggested a parallel with the history of Christian Europe from the Crusades against Islam onwards, and specifically with late 17th century history of Eastern Europe. The siege and relief of Minas Tirith, he proposed, resembled those ofVienna in 1683, with the Turkish forces in the place of those of Mordor. The attack in both cases is from the East: over the Balkan hills or the Ephel Duath; across the plains of Hungary or Ithilien; over the river Danube or Anduin; supported by "wild Tartar horsemen" or "eastern cavalry"; the siege of the walls by "Turkish sappers" or Mordor's Orcs; relief by a battle further downstream, whether byCharles, Duke of Lorraine ofImre Thokoly's army, or by Aragorn over the Corsairs of Umbar; and the breaking of the siege by an army from the north, whether Polish forces or the Riders of Rohan.[20]
Mordor features in all three films ofPeter Jackson'sLord of the Rings trilogy. In the first film,Sean Bean, playingBoromir, the warrior from Gondor, declares to theCouncil of Elrond that "one does not simply walk into Mordor".[22] In the second,Andy Serkis's digital Gollum guides Frodo and Sam to the Black Gate.[23] In the final film, Frodo and Sam struggle across the shattered volcanic plain of Gorgoroth to Mount Doom,[21] dressed as orcs, under the red glare of the volcano and the watchful Eye of Sauron from an exaggeratedly Gothic Barad-dûr,[24] while the Army of the West gathers for the final battle in front of the Black Gate and witnesses the cataclysmic destruction of everything Sauron had built when the Ring is destroyed.[21]
For Jackson's film trilogy,Richard Taylor and his design team built an 18 ft (5 m) high miniature ("big-ature") of Barad-dûr.[25] Jackson'sThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King movie (2003) showed Barad-dûr as clearly visible from the Black Gate of Mordor, which is not the case in the book. Jackson portrayed Barad-dûr, like the other enemy fortresses of Isengard, Minas Morgul and the Black Gate, in "an exaggerated Gothic fashion" with a black metallic appearance.[26] InThe Lord of the Rings, the Eye was within the "Window of the Eye" in the topmost tower, whereas in Jackson's film trilogy the Eye appeared between two horn-like spires that curved upwards from the tower top.
In Womack's view the 2019 biopicTolkien explicitly connects Mordor to trench warfare: "riders become bloody knights; smoke billows and turns into the form of dark kings."[15]
The third verse ofLed Zeppelin's 1969 song "Ramble On" byJimmy Page features a "bizarre" Middle-earth including a Mordor where one can meet beautiful women: "Twas in the darkest depths of Mordor / I met a girl so fair / But Gollum, and the evil one crept up / And slipped away with her".[27][28]
The 2014Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is athird-personopen worldaction-adventurevideo game set in Middle-earth.[29]
TheInternational Astronomical Union names all mountains onSaturn's moonTitan after mountains in Tolkien's work.[30] In 2012, they named a Titanian mountain "Doom Mons" after Mount Doom.[31]
In music,heavy metal bands including the AmericanCirith Ungol,[33] the Swedishmelodic death metal bandAmon Amarth (Sindarin for 'Mount Doom'), whose lyrics deal primarily with Viking culture and Norse mythology,[32] and the North Americandoom metal bandOrodruin, are named after features of Mordor.[34]
In the city ofWarsaw,Poland, an area in the south-western district ofMokotów, in the neighbourhoods ofSłużewiec andKsawerów, is commonly known asMordor. There are located two small streets named in reference Tolkien works, J. R. R. Tolkiena Street, and Gandalfa Street.[35]
In 2015, NASA published photographs taken as theNew Horizons space probe passed within 7,000 miles (11,000 km) ofPluto. A photo of Pluto's largest moon,Charon, shows a large dark region near its north pole. The dark region has been unofficially namedMordor Macula.[36]
Charon's color palette is not as diverse as Pluto's; most striking is the reddish north (top) polar region, informally named Mordor Macula.
