The Black Gate
Also calledMorannon, Cirith Gorgor (the pass it closed), The Gates of Mordor
The Black Gate, the Morannon, closed the pass of Cirith Gorgor, the only wide entrance into Mordor, beneath the Towers of the Teeth that Gondor had built to watch it. Frodo turned aside from it in March 3019, and before it the Host of the West fought the last battle of the war until the Ring was destroyed.
Description
The gate
Where the Ephel Dúath and the Ered Lithui met at the north-western corner of Mordor, they left a narrow gap between their ends, the pass of Cirith Gorgor, the Haunted Pass. Across it, from cliff to cliff, Sauron had built a wall of black stone, and in the wall a single great gate of iron with a triple door, on which the iron was never idle: it was opened and closed by engines and guarded by a garrison that never slept. Behind the gate lay the valley of Udûn, full of barracks and armouries, and behind that the Isenmouthe led out onto the plain of Gorgoroth.
The Towers of the Teeth
On either side of the pass, on high shoulders of rock, stood two towers, Narchost and Carchost, the Towers of the Teeth. They had been raised by Gondor after the overthrow of Sauron to keep watch on the empty land and prevent his servants from returning, but Gondor's watch failed, and when Sauron came back he took the towers and made them his own, so that their windows looked out over the approaches like eyes. The ground before the gate was heaped with slag and refuse from the mines of Mordor and pitted with holes, a desolation in which nothing grew.
History
The Towers of the Teeth were garrisoned by Gondor for the first thousand years of the Third Age and abandoned after the Great Plague of 1636. Sauron's servants took them when they crept back into Mordor, and the Morannon was raised or rebuilt as the fortified front door of the Black Land. The Wainriders attacked Gondor from before it in 1944, and it was the base from which Mordor's northern armies marched.
On March 5, 3019 Frodo, Sam and Gollum came to the edge of the slag-hills and saw the gate and the towers, and watched armies of Easterlings marching in to Sauron's muster. Frodo, seeing that the gate could not be passed, accepted Gollum's offer of another way and turned south to Cirith Ungol.
On March 25 Aragorn brought the Host of the West, six thousand men of Gondor and Rohan, to the gate to draw Sauron's eye from the Ring-bearer. The Mouth of Sauron rode out to parley, showing Frodo's mithril-coat and sword and demanding surrender; Gandalf refused and took the tokens. The gate opened and an army many times larger than the Host poured out and surrounded it on two slag-hills, with Trolls and Orcs and Men of the East and South, while the Nazgûl circled overhead. Pippin killed a hill-troll chieftain and was crushed beneath it. Then the Ring went into the fire: the Nazgûl fled, the towers and the gate tottered and fell, the ground heaved, and Sauron's armies lost heart and were destroyed or scattered. The Eagles came with Gwaihir, and Gandalf flew on them to rescue Frodo and Sam from the ruin of Mount Doom.
Geography
The Morannon faced north-west over the plain of Dagorlad, with the Dead Marshes to the west and the empty lands towards Rhûn to the north. The road from the Crossroads of Ithilien ran north along the mountains to it, and the road from the gate south-east through Udûn and the Isenmouthe led to Barad-dûr.
Associated figures
Fought at
Chieftain of the Dúnedain of the North
Aragorn II
Dúnedain of the NorthAragorn II, son of Arathorn, was the last Chieftain of the Dúnedain of the North and the first King of the Reunited Kingdom of Gondor and Arnor. Fostered in Rivendell as Estel, he spent sixty years as a Ranger and a captain in foreign lands before the War of the Ring, in which he guided the Fellowship, walked the Paths of the Dead, won the Pelennor Fields and the Black Gate, and took the crown as King Elessar. He reigned for a hundred and twenty years with Arwen as his queen.
Arnor and GondorThird Marshal of the Riddermark
Éomer
RohirrimÉomer son of Éomund, nephew and foster-son of Théoden, was Third Marshal of the Mark when he met Aragorn on the plains of Rohan and lent him horses against the king's orders. He fought at the Hornburg and the Pelennor, took the kingship when Théoden fell, and reigned for sixty-five years as the eighteenth King of Rohan, the friend of King Elessar and the renewer of the Oath of Eorl.
RohanWizard
Gandalf
IstariGandalf, called Olórin in Valinor and Mithrandir by the Elves, was the wisest of the Istari, a Maia sent by the Valar to rouse the free peoples against Sauron. Bearer of Narya, the Ring of Fire, he uncovered the Necromancer, set the quest of Erebor in motion, unmasked the One Ring, led the Fellowship, died against the Balrog of Moria and returned as Gandalf the White to guide the West to victory in the War of the Ring, after which he sailed into the West.
None; a wanderer through the West of Middle-earthLord of the Glittering Caves
Gimli
LongbeardsGimli son of Glóin was the Dwarf of the Fellowship of the Ring. He walked from Rivendell to the Black Gate through Moria, Lothlórien, Helm's Deep and the Paths of the Dead, became the devoted friend of the Elf Legolas and of the Lady Galadriel, and after the war founded a Dwarf-colony in the Glittering Caves. Tradition says he sailed West with Legolas, the only Dwarf ever to do so.
Erebor; later the Glittering Caves of AglarondPrince of the Woodland Realm
Legolas
Silvan ElvesLegolas, son of Thranduil of the Woodland Realm, was the Elf of the Fellowship of the Ring. A peerless archer and tracker, he walked from Rivendell to the Black Gate beside Aragorn and Gimli, forged the first true friendship between Elf and Dwarf in an age, and after the death of the King Elessar built a ship and sailed into the West with his Dwarven friend.
The Woodland Realm, later IthilienLord of the Eagles
Gwaihir
Great EaglesThe Windlord, lord of the Great Eagles of the Misty Mountains in the Third Age and swiftest of his kind. He carried Gandalf from the roof of Orthanc, bore him from the mountain-top after the fall of the Balrog, fought before the Black Gate, and with Landroval and Meneldor lifted Frodo and Sam from the slopes of Mount Doom.
The Misty MountainsPrince of Dol Amroth
Imrahil
Men of GondorImrahil, Prince of Dol Amroth, was the greatest of the lords of Gondor's fiefs in the War of the Ring and the uncle of Boromir and Faramir. He brought his knights to Minas Tirith, fought on the Pelennor Fields, ruled the city between Denethor's death and Faramir's recovery, and marched with Aragorn to the Black Gate.
GondorThain of the Shire
Peregrin Took
HobbitsPeregrin Took, youngest of the Fellowship, was the heir of the Thain whose curiosity drew Sauron's eye through the palantír and whose loyalty saved Faramir from the pyre. He fought at the Black Gate, roused the Tookland against the ruffians, and ruled the Shire as its thirty-second Thain.
The ShireLords of Rivendell
Elladan and Elrohir
Half-elvenElladan and Elrohir, the twin sons of Elrond and Celebrían, rescued their mother from the Orcs and afterwards spent the Third Age hunting Orcs with the Rangers of the North. Companions of Aragorn, they brought him Elrond's counsel to take the Paths of the Dead and rode with him from Dunharrow to the Black Gate.
Rivendell- Great Eagles
Brother of Gwaihir the Windlord and one of the Great Eagles of the Misty Mountains. He fought the Nazgûl before the Black Gate and flew with Gwaihir and Meneldor to carry Frodo and Sam from the slopes of Mount Doom.
The Misty Mountains - Great Eagles
A young and swift Great Eagle of the Misty Mountains who flew with Gwaihir and Landroval into Mordor after the fall of Sauron and helped to carry Frodo and Sam from the slopes of Mount Doom.
The Misty Mountains
Visited
Lord of the Mearas
Shadowfax
MearasChief of the Mearas, the great horses of Rohan, and the swiftest horse of his day. Taken from Théoden's herds by Gandalf in T.A. 3018 and afterwards given to him outright, he carried the wizard across half of Middle-earth in the War of the Ring, and alone of all beasts stood unmoved before the Witch-king at the broken gate of Minas Tirith.
RohanLieutenant of the Tower of Barad-dûr
The Mouth of Sauron
Black NúmenóreansThe Mouth of Sauron was the Lieutenant of the Tower of Barad-dûr, a Black Númenórean sorcerer who had served Sauron so long that he had forgotten his own name. He rode out from the Black Gate on 25 March 3019 to offer the Captains of the West terms of surrender, and was answered by Gandalf.
Mordor
Peoples
Timeline
- Early Third Age
The Towers of the Teeth built
Gondor fortifies the pass of Cirith Gorgor to keep watch on Mordor.
- After T.A. 1636
The towers abandoned and retaken
Gondor's garrison withdraws; Sauron's servants occupy the towers and close the pass with the Black Gate.
- T.A. 1944
Ondoher slain before the Morannon
The Wainriders surprise the army of Gondor beneath the gate.
- T.A. 3019, March 25
Battle of the Morannon
The Host of the West is surrounded before the gate until the Ring is destroyed and the towers fall.
- T.A. 3019, March 5
Frodo turns aside
Frodo and Sam see the gate closed and take Gollum's road to Cirith Ungol.
Sources
- The Two TowersBook IV, chapter 3
- The Return of the KingBook V, chapter 10; Book VI, chapter 4
- The Lord of the Rings: AppendicesAppendix A I (iv); Appendix B
See also
Part of
Elsewhere in Mordor
- Barad-dûrfortress
- Mount Doommountain
- Ephel Dúathmountain range
- Gorgorothplain
- Ered Lithuimountain range
- Nurnregion
- Udûnvalley