From the Timeless Halls to the Cracks of Doom: every realm, city, stronghold and wild place of the legendarium.
Showing 49 to 72 of 215 places
Helm's Deep was a gorge in the White Mountains behind the Westfold of Rohan, closed by the fortress of the Hornburg and the Deeping Wall. Helm Hammerhand held out here in the Long Winter, and in March 3019 Théoden and his allies destroyed Saruman's army beneath its walls.
Himring was the cold hill-fortress of Maedhros in the north-east of Beleriand, the strongest point of the March that bore his name. It held through the Dagor Bragollach when everything around it fell, and its summit alone survived the drowning as an island off the coast of Lindon.
Hithlum was the mountain-walled land in the north-west of Beleriand where Fingolfin and Fingon, High Kings of the Noldor, held their realm through the Siege of Angband. Home to the House of Hador and birthplace of Túrin, it was lost to the Easterlings after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.
Hobbiton is a village in the Westfarthing of the Shire, built along the Water beneath the Hill in which Bag End was dug. It was the home of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins and of Sam Gamgee, and in the last years of the Third Age it suffered more than any other place from Saruman's spoiling of the Shire.
Ithilien was the fair eastern province of Gondor between the Anduin and the Mountains of Shadow, once the fief of Isildur. Long abandoned to the Shadow of Mordor and held only by Faramir's Rangers, it sheltered Frodo and Sam in March 3019 and became Faramir's princedom in the Fourth Age.
Lake-town, or Esgaroth, is the trading town of the Lake-men, built on wooden piles out in the Long Lake south of Erebor. It sheltered Thorin's company in T.A. 2941, was burned by Smaug in the dragon's last flight, and was rebuilt after Bard slew him with the black arrow.
Menegroth, the Thousand Caves, was the underground city of Thingol on the river Esgalduin, delved by Dwarves and adorned by Elves until it was held the fairest dwelling in Middle-earth. Beren, Túrin and Húrin all came before its throne, and it was twice sacked in the ruin of Doriath.
The Meneltarma was the holy mountain at the centre of Númenor, whose grassy summit was the open-air Hallow of Eru Ilúvatar. There the king alone spoke, three times a year, and from there in the island's greatest days a keen-eyed watcher could glimpse the haven of the Eldar in the West.
Minas Morgul was the city of the Nazgûl in a valley of the Mountains of Shadow, once Isildur's fair Minas Ithil. Taken by the Witch-king in 2002, it became a place of sorcery and dread from which the greatest army of the War of the Ring marched against Minas Tirith.
The Mouths of Sirion were the marshy delta where the great river met the Bay of Balar. There the Havens of Sirion rose as the final refuge of the Elves and Edain of Beleriand, home to Eärendil and Elwing, until the sons of Fëanor destroyed them in the Third Kinslaying.
Orthanc was the black tower at the centre of Isengard, made by the Númenóreans from a stone that no hand could mar. It was Saruman's dwelling and prison, held a palantír, and survived unscathed when the Ents destroyed everything around it.
Osgiliath was the first capital of Gondor, built on both banks of the Anduin with a great bridge between. Burned in the Kin-strife, emptied by the Plague and ruined by Orcs, it was a contested ruin by the War of the Ring, the crossing by which Mordor's armies came to the Pelennor.
Ossiriand was the green country of seven rivers between the Gelion and the Blue Mountains, home of the secretive Laiquendi, the Green-elves. It was the place where Men first entered Beleriand and where Beren and Lúthien lived out their second life, and its eastern edge survived the drowning of Beleriand as Lindon.
The Paths of the Dead were a haunted passage beneath the Dwimorberg, running from Dunharrow through the White Mountains to the Stone of Erech. Aragorn led the Grey Company through in March 3019 to summon the oath-breaking Dead to fulfil their ancient promise.
The Pelennor Fields were the rich farmlands enclosed by the Rammas Echor between Minas Tirith and the Anduin. On March 15, 3019 they were the field of the greatest battle of the War of the Ring, where Théoden fell, the Witch-king was destroyed, and Aragorn's fleet turned the tide.
Rómenna was the great eastern harbour of Númenor, the port from which its ships sailed to Middle-earth. In the last century of the realm it became the refuge of the Faithful under Amandil and Elendil, and from its bay the nine ships escaped the Downfall.
Taniquetil was the highest mountain in Arda, the peak of the Pelóri on which Manwë and Varda dwelt in the halls of Ilmarin. From its summit Manwë could see across the whole world, and on its slopes the Vanyar made their home nearest the Powers.
Thangorodrim was the triple-peaked mountain of slag and ash that Morgoth raised above the gates of Angband. Its smokes darkened the north of Beleriand, Maedhros and Húrin were held on its heights, and it was shattered when the dragon Ancalagon fell upon it in the War of Wrath.
The Barrow-downs are a range of grassy hills east of the Old Forest crowned with ancient burial mounds. Once the sacred ground of the Edain and later of the Dúnedain of Cardolan, they were haunted after the Great Plague by wights sent from Angmar, one of which nearly took the hobbits in T.A. 3018.
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.
The Falas was the western seaboard of Beleriand, the country of Círdan and the Falathrim, the Elves who loved the Sea and built the first ships of Middle-earth. Its walled havens of Brithombar and Eglarest stood for an age until Morgoth's armies broke them in the year after the Nirnaeth.
The Gladden Fields are the wide marshes of reed and iris where the river Gladden meets the Anduin below the Misty Mountains. Here Isildur was killed and the One Ring lost in T.A. 2, and here, two and a half thousand years later, the Stoor Déagol found it and Sméagol murdered him for it.
The Grey Havens, Mithlond, are the Elven harbours of Círdan on the Gulf of Lune, from which the Elves of Middle-earth sailed into the West throughout the Second and Third Ages. Elendil landed there after the Downfall, Gondor's fleet came there to save the North, and Frodo and Bilbo departed from its quays in T.A. 3021.
The Misty Mountains are the great north-south range that divides Eriador from Rhovanion, running some nine hundred miles from Mount Gundabad to Methedras above Isengard. Beneath them lay Khazad-dûm, the greatest mansion of the Dwarves, and in their northern holds bred the orcs who troubled the free peoples throughout the Third Age.