Ered Gorgoroth

The Mountains of Terror

The southern side of the highland of Dorthonion did not slope down gently as the northern side did but broke off in sheer cliffs and tumbled precipices, and these were the Ered Gorgoroth. Below them lay the valley of Nan Dungortheb, and beyond that the northern eaves of Doriath. The mountains were dreadful from the beginning of the Sun, for when Ungoliant fled from the Balrogs after her quarrel with Morgoth in Lammoth, she came to these mountains and lived for a time in their dark ravines, and the creatures she bred there in spider-shape remained after she went south. The streams that ran off the cliffs were poisoned, and the valley beneath was a place of madness and unseen horror.

The Elves of Doriath would not go near the mountains, and the Girdle of Melian was drawn along the northern edge of Neldoreth partly to shut out what dwelt there. Aredhel, riding east from Gondolin, was warned away from the road that passed beneath them and lost her escort in the valley. The one crossing recorded is that of Beren, who, hunted out of Taur-nu-Fuin, climbed the Ered Gorgoroth from the north and came down through Nan Dungortheb into Doriath. The journey was counted the most terrible of his deeds and he never spoke of it afterward, but through it he came to Lúthien. Later Beleg, guiding the way north for Túrin's affairs, skirted the mountains rather than cross them, and the orcs who carried Túrin through Taur-nu-Fuin kept to the western highland. The mountains were drowned with all Beleriand.