Desolation of the Morannon
The Desolation of the Morannon was the dead land that lay just before the gates of Mordor south of the Dagorlad. The terrible barrenness of the landscape was due to the labours of Sauron's slaves, who had so defiled the land that it was diseased beyond repair. It was a foul place of horror for absolutely nothing grew in the polluted soil. Pools of water were choked with ash and muds, slag-mounds of crushed and powered rock abounded, and cones of earth fire-blasted and stained with poison rose as if they were part of a graveyard.[1]
History[edit | edit source]
In T.A. 1944 the Wainriders and men of Khand defeated the northern army of Gondor and killed King Ondoher of Gondor on a hill in the Desolation of the Morannon[2], on which King Elessar would later fight the forces of Sauron in T.A. 3019.[3]
Frodo and Sam, led by Gollum, reached the Desolation of the Morannon on 4 March, T.A. 3019. The hobbits spent the next day hiding in sight of the Gate, and at dusk they resumed their route.[4]
The Host of the West camped in the Desolation of the Morannon on 24 March, T.A. 3019 and fought against the forces of Sauron on the slag-hills in the Desolation of the Morannon on 25 March, T.A. 3019.[5]
Inspiration[edit | edit source]
J.R.R. Tolkien participated in the Battle of the Somme in 1916[6][7] and remembered miles of seething tortured earth as described in the chapter about the approach to Mordor.[8][9]
References
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, "The Passage of the Marshes"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), Unfinished Tales, "Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan", "(i) The Northmen and the Wainriders", twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth paragraph
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), Unfinished Tales, "Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan", "Notes", note 16
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, "The Great Years", entries for the 4th and 5th of March of the year 3019 of the Third Age
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, "The Great Years", entries for the 24th and 25th of March of the year 3019 of the Third Age
- ↑ Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (eds), The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, p. 334
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 165, (undated, written June 1955)
- ↑ Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (eds), The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, p. 455
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 226, (dated 31 December 1960)
