This was based on a First Age world-map drawn by Tolkien in the Ambarkanta, where the Inland Sea of Helcar occupied a large area of Middle-earth between the Ered Luin and Orocarni, its western end being close to the head of the Great Gulf (later the Mouths of Anduin). In The Atlas of Middle-earth, Karen Wynn Fonstad assumed that the lands of Mordor, Khand, and Rhûn lay where the inland Sea of Helcar had been, and that the Sea of Rhûn and Sea of Núrnen were its remnants. 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. 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 Lothlorien.įurther information: Mount Doom and Barad-dûr 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 Land 3019īarad-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.

Third age total war mordor strategy