Gates of Angband

The Gates of Angband were the entrance to a labyrinthine tunnel system under Thangorodrim called Angband. Carcharoth was its guard, and it was before these gates that Fingolfin and Morgoth fought.

Ever the sheer cliffs rose beside,

where birds of carrion sat and cried;

and chasms black and smoking yawned,

whence writhing serpent-shapes were spawned;

until at last in that huge gloom.

heavy as overhanging doom,

that weighs on Thangorodrim’s foot

like thunder at the mountain’s root,

they came, as to a sombre court

walled with great towers, fort on fort

of cliffs embattled. to that last plain

that opens, abysmal and inane,

before the final topless wall

of Bauglir’s immeasurable hall,

whereunder looming awful waits

the gigantic shadow of his gates.

Lay of Leithian, Canto XI, Lines 3522-3537