Mountains of Mirkwood

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Mountains of Mirkwood
Mountain range
General Information
Other namesEmyn Duir, Dark Mountains, Emyn-nu-Fuin
LocationNorthern Mirkwood, south of the Woodland Realm
TypeMountain range
InhabitantsSilvan Elves; later other creatures

The Mountains of Mirkwood lay in the central parts of northern Mirkwood, north of the Old Forest Road. A jumble of fir-covered, low-lying hills to the west rose to greater heights in the east, together forming a range nearly one hundred miles in length.[1] Historically, the Second Age saw these mountains inhabited by Silvan Elves, who knew the range as the Emyn Duir, the Dark Mountains.

During the Third Age, the power of Sauron spread across the Mountains as it did throughout the rest of the Forest, they became populated by hideous creatures. Just as Greenwood the Great was renamed Mirkwood at this time, its northern hills also took on a new name: Emyn-nu-Fuin, the Mountains of Mirkwood.[2]

After the passing of Sauron and the cleansing of Mirkwood, Mirkwood was renamed Eryn Lasgalen, or the Wood of Greenleaves. The Mountains then became the southern border of the Woodland Realm.[3]

Etymology

The original Sindarin name Emyn Duir, meaning "Dark Mountains," referred to the growth of fir trees on their slopes, without any evil connotations of Darkness. The later name Emyn-nu-Fuin,[2] which probably means "Mountains under Darkness," did carry the implication of evil and paralleled the Sindarin name for Mirkwood, Taur-nu-Fuin.[4]

References