Places in Middle-earth
Ered Engrin
Type: Mountains, Hills, Promontories
Region: Beleriand & North
Meaning: Iron Mountains
Other Names
Iron Mountains
Oeges engrin (HoME 5 only)
Location: A mountain range in the far North of Middle-earth during the First Age, running east-west along the northern tips of the Blue Mountains, the Misty Mountains, and the Mountains of the East; marks the southern border of Morgoth's realm, Dor Daedeloth.
Description:
In the north of the world Melkor had in the ages past reared Ered Engrin, the Iron Mountains, as a fence to his citadel of Utumno; and they stood upon the borders of the regions of everlasting cold, in a great curve from east to west. Behind the walls of Ered Engrin in the west, where they bent back northwards, Melkor built another fortress...; and when he came back to Middle-earth..., he took up his abode in the endless dungeons of Angband, the Hells of Iron.... Beneath Ered Engrin he made a great tunnel, which issued south of the mountains; and there he made a mighty gate. But above this gate, and behind it even to the mountains, he piled the thunderous towers of Thangorodrim, that were made of the ash and slag of his subterranean furnaces.... Before the gates of Angband filth and desolation spread southward for many miles over the wide plain of Ard-galen....
The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 14, Of Beleriand and Its Realms
Yet the Noldor could not capture Angband...; and war never wholly ceased in all that time of the Siege.... Nor could the stronghold of Morgoth be ever wholly encircled: for the Iron Mountains, from whose great curving wall the towers of Thangorodrim were thrust forward, defended it upon either side, and were impassable to the Noldor, because of their snow and ice.
The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 13, Of the Return of the Noldor
In the pits of Angband [Morgoth] caused vast smokes and vapours to be made, and they came forth from the reeking tops of the Iron Mountains, and afar off they could be seen in Mithrim.... A wind came out of the east, and bore them over Hithlum, darkening the new Sun....
The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 13, Of the Return of the Noldor
Once more, with little warning, [Morgoth's] might was stirred, and suddenly there were earthquakes in the north, and fire came from fissures in the earth, and the Iron Mountains vomited flame; and Orcs poured forth across the plain of Ard-galen.
The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 13, Of the Return of the Noldor
Contributors: Lyllyn 10Aug03, 8Jan04
Elena Tiriel 17Sep07
