Dagorlad
Also calledThe Battle Plain
Dagorlad, the Battle Plain, was the open, stony country before the Black Gate of Mordor. The Last Alliance won its great victory there in S.A. 3434, and Gondor fought the Wainriders on it twice in the nineteenth century of the Third Age.
Description
North of the Morannon, between the Dead Marshes to the west and the empty lands of Rhovanion to the north-east, lay a flat, hard expanse of grey ground where nothing grew. The name Dagorlad, the Battle Plain, was given to it by the Elves after the war of the Last Alliance, and the plain lived up to it in later ages. It was the obvious approach to the Black Gate for any army coming from the north or the west, and the obvious ground for an army leaving Mordor to deploy. The marshes crept over its western margin, and the graves of the ancient battle lay beneath both.
The road from Mordor to the north ran across Dagorlad, and the Easterlings and Wainriders who came against Gondor in the Third Age used it to reach Ithilien and the crossings of Anduin.
History
The Last Alliance
In S.A. 3434 the host of Elendil and Gil-galad, with the Elves of Lórien and Greenwood and the Dwarves of Moria, met the full strength of Sauron on the plain and, after a long and terrible battle, broke it. Oropher of Greenwood and Amdír of Lórien were among the slain. The victory opened the way into Mordor and began the seven-year siege of Barad-dûr. The dead were buried on the field, and their faces were later seen in the marshes that spread over their graves.
The Wainriders
In T.A. 1899 King Calimehtar of Gondor drew the Wainriders onto Dagorlad and defeated them with the help of a revolt among their subject Northmen. In 1944 King Ondoher marched out to meet a new Wainrider invasion and was killed with both his sons in a surprise attack near the Morannon; the survivors fell back into Ithilien. The invaders, feasting in Gondor's captured camp, were then destroyed by the army of the south under Eärnil, who drove them into the Dead Marshes in what was called the Battle of the Camp.
The War of the Ring
Gollum, Frodo and Sam skirted the northern edge of Dagorlad in early March 3019, and on March 25 the Host of the West under Aragorn crossed the plain and took its stand on two slag-hills before the Morannon, where the Battle of the Black Gate was fought until the Ring went into the fire.
Geography
Dagorlad stretched from the Dead Marshes on the west to the borders of Rhovanion on the north-east, bounded on the south by the desolation before the Morannon and the northern face of the Ered Lithui.
Associated figures
Fought at
High King of Arnor and Gondor
Elendil
NúmenóreansElendil the Tall, son of Amandil of Andúnië, led the Faithful out of the Downfall of Númenor in nine ships and founded the realms of Arnor and Gondor in Middle-earth. With Gil-galad he formed the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, and in S.A. 3441 the two of them overthrew Sauron on the slopes of Mount Doom and died in doing it. His sword Narsil, broken beneath him, became the heirloom of his heirs down to Aragorn.
Arnor; High King over GondorLord of Rivendell
Elrond
Half-elvenElrond Half-elven, son of Eärendil and Elwing, chose the fate of the Elves and lived through three Ages of the world: fostered by Maglor, herald to Gil-galad at the Last Alliance, founder and master of Rivendell, keeper of the Ring Vilya, foster-father of Aragorn and father of Arwen. His house was the great refuge and library of the North, and at its Council the fate of the One Ring was decided.
Rivendell (Imladris)High King of the Noldor
Gil-galad
NoldorEreinion Gil-galad was the last High King of the Noldor in Middle-earth. Sent to the Havens as a child, he took up the kingship after the fall of Gondolin, ruled Lindon through the whole of the Second Age, refused Sauron the gates of his realm, received two of the Three Rings, and led the Last Alliance of Elves and Men with Elendil. He died with Elendil on the slopes of Mount Doom overthrowing Sauron.
LindonSecond High King of Arnor and Gondor
Isildur
NúmenóreansIsildur, elder son of Elendil, stole a fruit of the White Tree in Númenor, founded Minas Ithil in Gondor, and cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand at the end of the Last Alliance. He refused to destroy it, and two years later he was slain by Orcs at the Gladden Fields when the Ring slipped from his finger, so that his name was bound to it as Isildur's Bane.
Gondor; later Arnor as High KingLord of Mordor
Sauron
MaiarSauron was a Maia of Aulë who became Morgoth's lieutenant in the First Age and, after his master's fall, the Dark Lord of the Second and Third Ages in his own right. He forged the One Ring to rule all others, brought about the Downfall of Númenor, and was finally destroyed when the Ring was unmade in Mount Doom.
Mordor; Barad-dûrLord of Minas Anor
Anárion
NúmenóreansAnárion, younger son of Elendil, escaped the Downfall of Númenor with his brother Isildur and founded with him the realm of Gondor, building Minas Anor. He held Osgiliath against Sauron's first assault and was killed by a stone from Barad-dûr in the seventh year of the siege. Through his son Meneldil the Kings of Gondor descended.
GondorKing of the Woodland Realm
Thranduil
SindarThranduil, son of Oropher, ruled the Silvan Elves of northern Mirkwood from underground halls for the whole of the Third Age. He led the remnant of his father's host home from the Last Alliance, imprisoned Thorin's company, fought at the Battle of Five Armies, held Gollum as a prisoner, and in the War of the Ring defeated the assault of Dol Guldur under his own trees.
The Woodland Realm in northern Mirkwood
Died in
King of the Silvan Elves of Greenwood the Great
Oropher
SindarOropher, a Sindarin lord of Doriath, led his people east after the drowning of Beleriand and was taken as king by the Silvan Elves of Greenwood the Great. He founded the Woodland Realm, withdrew it northward from Dwarves and Noldor alike, and died in a rash charge at the Battle of Dagorlad, leaving the crown to his son Thranduil.
Greenwood the GreatKing of Lórien
Amdír
SindarAmdír was the Sindarin king of the Silvan Elves of Lórien in the Second Age and the father of Amroth. He led his people to the Last Alliance and was slain at the Battle of Dagorlad when his lightly armed host was cut off and driven into the marshes.
Lórien
Peoples
Timeline
- S.A. 3434
Battle of Dagorlad
The Last Alliance defeats Sauron's host on the plain and begins the siege of Barad-dûr.
- T.A. 1899
Calimehtar defeats the Wainriders
Gondor's king wins a victory on Dagorlad aided by a Northman rising behind the enemy.
- T.A. 1944
Death of Ondoher and the Battle of the Camp
Ondoher and his sons fall before the Morannon; Eärnil destroys the Wainriders and drives them into the marshes.
- T.A. 3019, March 25
Battle of the Morannon
The Host of the West is surrounded on the slag-hills before the Gate until the Ring is destroyed.
Sources
- The SilmarillionOf the Rings of Power and the Third Age
- The Lord of the Rings: AppendicesAppendix A I (iv); Appendix B
- The Return of the KingBook V, chapter 10
- Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earthCirion and Eorl (the Northmen and the Wainriders)