Dol Guldur

The Hill of Sorcery

Amon Lanc, the Naked Hill, rises treeless above the southern forest of Mirkwood, a few days' march east of the Anduin opposite Lothlórien. In the Second Age it had been the first dwelling of Oropher and his Silvan people before they withdrew northward from the growing power of Mordor. When a new master occupied the hill early in the Third Age, the Elves renamed it Dol Guldur, the Hill of Sorcery. A tower rose on the summit, and beneath it pits and dungeons were delved into the rock, filled over the centuries with prisoners from the Woodmen, the Elves and the Dwarves.

Dol Guldur was less a fortress than a source of infection. The darkness that flowed from it turned Greenwood the Great into Mirkwood: trees grew close and foul, great spiders bred in the southern woods, orcs and wolves came down from the mountains to serve there, and the free peoples of the forest were driven north. Its master was known only as the Necromancer and was long taken for a Ringwraith; not until 2850 was it proved that he was Sauron himself, gathering the Rings of Power and searching for the One. The land around the hill remained dark and dangerous even after his departure, and when the Nazgûl took it over in 2951 the forest south of the mountains became again a country of dread.

The Necromancer

About T.A. 1050 a shadow fell on Greenwood and the Necromancer was first noticed on Amon Lanc; the Wise later understood that Sauron, taking shape again after the loss of the Ring, had chosen a place from which to watch both Lórien and the North. In 2063 Gandalf went to Dol Guldur to find out what dwelt there, and the Necromancer fled east before him. The Watchful Peace lasted until 2460, when Sauron came back with strength renewed and a clearer purpose.

In 2845 Thráin II, wandering toward Erebor, was captured by Sauron's servants and shut in the dungeons, and the last of the Seven Rings was taken from him. Gandalf entered the fortress secretly in 2850 and found the dying Dwarf, who gave him the map and key of Erebor; the wizard also learned beyond doubt that the Necromancer was Sauron. Saruman, who had his own reasons, delayed action by the White Council for ninety years, but in 2941 the Council at last attacked Dol Guldur. Sauron, who had already prepared Mordor, withdrew there in feigned defeat, and the tower stood empty for a decade.

The Nazgûl

In 2951 Sauron declared himself openly at Barad-dûr and sent three of the Ringwraiths to reoccupy Dol Guldur. Khamûl, the second of the Nine, was its lieutenant in the last years. From it Sauron's servants watched Lórien, hunted the Anduin vale for news of the Ring, and made the forest impassable. In the War of the Ring Dol Guldur was Sauron's northern army. Its forces attacked Lórien on March 11, March 15 and March 22, 3019, and were thrown back by Galadriel's power and the valour of the Galadhrim; on March 15 another host invaded Thranduil's realm and was beaten in the Battle under the Trees.

The fall

When the Ring was destroyed the fortress lost its purpose and its master. On March 28 Celeborn led the Elves of Lórien across the Anduin and took Dol Guldur. Galadriel threw down its walls and laid open its pits, so that nothing evil could hide there again, and the forest around it was cleansed. The southern wood became East Lórien under Celeborn, and the hill was not fortified again.

On Amon Lanc in the south-western part of Mirkwood, east of the Anduin and roughly opposite Lothlórien, north of the Brown Lands.