From the Timeless Halls to the Cracks of Doom: every realm, city, stronghold and wild place of the legendarium.
Showing 1 to 24 of 215 places
Aman was the continent in the uttermost West beyond the Great Sea where the Valar made their home after the ruin of Almaren. Behind the Pelóri lay Valinor, the Blessed Realm lit by the Two Trees, and along its eastern shore the Eldar built Tirion and Alqualondë. After the Downfall of Númenor it was taken out of the physical world and could be reached only by the Straight Road.
Angband was the great underground fortress of Morgoth beneath the Iron Mountains in the north of Beleriand. From it his orcs, Balrogs and dragons issued to wage the wars of the First Age, and beneath its towers of Thangorodrim the Eldar and Edain laboured as slaves until the Valar broke it open in the War of Wrath.
Barad-dûr, the Dark Tower, was Sauron's fortress on a spur of the Ash Mountains in northern Mordor, the greatest stronghold in Middle-earth. Built with the power of the Ring, besieged by the Last Alliance, and rebuilt in the Third Age, it collapsed into ruin the moment the Ring was destroyed.
Beleriand was the great north-western country of Middle-earth in the First Age, lying between the Blue Mountains and the Sea. It was the stage of the wars of the Elves and Edain against Morgoth, and almost all of it was drowned when the Valar broke Angband at the end of the Age.
Bree is the chief village of Bree-land, a small settled district of Men and Hobbits at the meeting of the Great East Road and the Greenway. The oldest surviving community of Men in Eriador, it was the place where Frodo met Strider at the Prancing Pony in the autumn of T.A. 3018.
Doriath was the forest kingdom of Thingol and Melian in the heart of Beleriand, fenced from the outside world by the enchanted Girdle of Melian. It was the greatest realm of the Sindar, the home of Lúthien and the refuge of Túrin, and it fell through the curse of the Silmaril within a generation of Thingol's death.
Erebor, the Lonely Mountain, is the dwarf-kingdom in the north of Rhovanion founded by Thráin I in T.A. 1999 after the fall of Moria. Its wealth drew the dragon Smaug in 2770; Thorin Oakenshield's quest of 2941 ended in Smaug's death and the Battle of Five Armies, and under Dáin Ironfoot the restored kingdom held out against Sauron's Easterlings in the War of the Ring.
Gondolin was the hidden city of Turgon, built on a hill in a secret vale within the Encircling Mountains and modelled on Tirion in Aman. It endured for nearly four hundred years unseen by Morgoth, until Maeglin's treachery brought the armies of Angband over the mountains and the city was destroyed.
Gondor was the South-kingdom of the Dúnedain in exile, founded by Elendil's sons at the end of the Second Age between the White Mountains and the Anduin. Through three thousand years of Ship-kings, civil war, plague, invasion and the long rule of the Stewards it stood as Middle-earth's chief bulwark against Mordor, until Aragorn restored its crown after the War of the Ring.
Isengard was the fortress at the southern end of the Misty Mountains that guarded the Gap of Rohan. Built by Gondor around the unbreakable tower of Orthanc, it became the seat of Saruman, who turned it into an armoury for his war on Rohan until the Ents destroyed it in the War of the Ring.
Lothlórien is the woodland realm between the Celebrant and the Anduin, the only country east of the Sea where the golden mallorn trees grew. Ruled in the Third Age by Galadriel and Celeborn and guarded by the power of Nenya, it kept the Shadow at bay and stood unstained while the world outside changed; it sheltered the Fellowship of the Ring, threw back three assaults from Dol Guldur, and emptied within a generation of Galadriel's departure over the Sea.
Minas Tirith, the Tower of Guard, was the capital of Gondor in the later Third Age, a city of seven walled circles climbing the Hill of Guard against Mount Mindolluin. Founded as Minas Anor by Anárion, it was besieged by the armies of Mordor in March 3019 and delivered in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.
Mirkwood, once Greenwood the Great, is the immense forest east of the Anduin that fills the heart of Rhovanion. Home to Thranduil's Woodland Realm in the north-east, it was darkened for two thousand years by the Necromancer of Dol Guldur, whose spiders and orcs made it the most perilous forest in Middle-earth, until the War of the Ring cleansed it and it was renamed Eryn Lasgalen.
Mordor was the mountain-walled realm of Sauron in the south-east of Middle-earth, chosen for its impregnability in the Second Age and the seat of the Dark Tower. Besieged by the Last Alliance, guarded by Gondor, reoccupied by the Nazgûl and Sauron, it fell for ever when the Ring went into the fire of Mount Doom on March 25, 3019.
Khazad-dûm, called Moria by the Elves, was the greatest of all dwarvish mansions, delved beneath the three Mountains of Moria by Durin the Deathless in the Elder Days. Source of the only mithril in Middle-earth, it flourished for two ages until the Dwarves woke a Balrog in its depths in T.A. 1980. Orcs, the Balrog and a failed dwarvish colony held it thereafter, and the Fellowship of the Ring lost Gandalf on its bridge in 3019.
Mount Doom, Orodruin, was the volcano in the heart of Mordor in whose fire Sauron forged the One Ring. Its eruptions marked the Dark Lord's returns, and on March 25, 3019 Frodo and Sam climbed it to the Sammath Naur, where Gollum fell with the Ring into the fire and Sauron's power ended.
Nargothrond was the underground city of Finrod Felagund on the river Narog, the greatest realm of the Noldor in West Beleriand. Finrod died for Beren after its lords turned against him, and under Orodreth it was betrayed by its own strength when Túrin's policy of open war drew Glaurung to its gates.
Númenor was the star-shaped island raised by the Valar in the western Sea as a reward for the Edain, ruled for more than three thousand years by the line of Elros. It rose to become the greatest realm of Men, fell under the shadow of pride and of Sauron's counsel, and was drowned when its last king made war on the Valar; from its survivors came the kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor.
Rivendell, or Imladris, is the hidden valley of Elrond in the foothills of the Misty Mountains, founded during the war against Sauron in the Second Age. For nearly five thousand years it was the chief refuge and house of lore in the North, the home of the heirs of Isildur, and the place where the Fellowship of the Ring was formed.
Rohan was the kingdom of the Horse-lords on the wide grasslands north of the White Mountains, founded when Gondor granted the province of Calenardhon to Eorl the Young. Bound to Gondor by the Oath of Eorl, its Riders answered the call at the Pelennor Fields and helped decide the War of the Ring.
The Shire is the homeland of the Hobbits in western Eriador, a green, well-tilled country of farms and villages between the Far Downs and the Brandywine. Founded in T.A. 1601 by a grant from the king of Arthedain, it was largely forgotten by the wide world until Bilbo and Frodo Baggins carried its name into the great events of the Third Age.
Valinor was the land of the Valar in Aman, walled by the Pelóri and lit through the Years of the Trees by Telperion and Laurelin. Within it stood Valmar, the Ring of Doom, the Halls of Mandos and the Gardens of Lórien, and there the Vanyar and Noldor learned from the Powers until Melkor darkened it and the Noldor went into exile.
Alqualondë, the Haven of the Swans, was the harbour city of the Teleri on the coast of Eldamar north of the Calacirya, famous for its swan-shaped ships. In Y.T. 1495 the Noldor of Fëanor seized those ships by force and slew the Teleri who resisted, the Kinslaying that brought the Doom of Mandos upon the exiles.
Anduin, the Great River, is the longest river of western Middle-earth, rising in the north between the Misty and Grey Mountains and flowing south past Lórien, the Argonath and Osgiliath to the Bay of Belfalas. Isildur died in its waters, the Ring lay lost in its bed for two and a half thousand years, and the Fellowship followed it south from Lórien to Rauros.