Dor Daedeloth

The land before the gates

Dor Daedeloth was the name the Noldor gave to the region lying beneath the Ered Engrin and about the gates of Angband. It was a land of horror in every sense: pitted and torn by the delvings of Morgoth, fouled by the smokes of Thangorodrim, and crawling with his orcs and beasts, who could pass through tunnels beneath it and come up on any side. The northern edge of the plain of Ard-galen shaded into it, and any army approaching Angband had to cross it.

After the Dagor-nuin-Giliath Fëanor drove the fleeing orcs across Ard-galen and into the borders of Dor Daedeloth, and there, far ahead of his host, he was surrounded by Balrogs and mortally wounded. His sons carried him back, but he died within sight of the peaks, cursing Morgoth's name. When Fingolfin later came over the ice and marched under the newly risen Sun to the gates of Angband, his host crossed this land unopposed, and his trumpets rang against the mountains.

At the false parley that ended in the capture of Maedhros, the meeting-place was in this region, and Morgoth sent more force than had been agreed. Throughout the Siege of Angband Dor Daedeloth remained enemy ground, patrolled by orcs and watched by the Noldor from the hills on either side. After the Dagor Bragollach, when Ard-galen was turned to ash, the whole northern plain came to resemble it, and the distinction between the two lands faded into the waste of Anfauglith.