 | |
| Tower | |
| Barad-dûr | |
|---|---|
| General Information | |
| Other names | Lugburz (BS) Taras Lúna, Lúnaturco (Q) The Dark Tower |
| Location | North-western Mordor, on the Plateau of Gorgoroth |
| Type | Tower |
| Description | Gargantuan tower |
| People and History | |
| Inhabitants | Sauron, Nazgûl, Orcs |
| Created | c. S.A. 1000 |
| Destroyed | T.A. 3019 |
| Rebuilt | T.A. 2942-2953 |
| Events | Siege of Barad-dur, Downfall of Barad-dûr |
| Gallery | Images of Barad-dûr |
...wall upon wall, battlement upon battlement, black, immeasurably strong, mountain of iron, gate of steel, tower of adamant... Barad-dûr, fortress of Sauron.
Barad-dûr, also known as the Dark Tower, was the chief fortress of Sauron, on the Plateau of Gorgoroth in Mordor. Known in Black Speech as Lugbúrz, the Eye of Sauron kept watch over Middle-earth from its highest tower.
Description
Barad-dûr was built upon the end of a long southwestern spur of the Ered Lithui in the northern part of the Plateau of Gorgoroth. It stood about 30 miles east of Mount Doom and about 100 miles southeast of the Black Gate. From Barad-dûr a road led northwest to the Black Gate.[1] Another road, Sauron's Road, led from Barad-dûr's huge western gate west to an entrance in the eastern mountain side of Mount Doom from which a tunnel led to the Sammath Naur.[2]
Barad-dûr was built upon a mighty mountain-throne above immeasurable pits.[3] It was black and immeasurably strong with wall upon wall, battlement upon battlement[4] and towers as tall as hills.[3] It had gaping gates of steel and adamant and contained great courts, dungeons and windowless prisons.[3] The topmost tower had an iron crown and contained[5] the Window of the Eye from which Sauron looked over the land.[2]
History
First Building
Around S.A. 1000 Sauron chose Mordor as a land to turn it into a stronghold and began to buid the Barad-dûr, because he was alerted by the growing power of the Númenóreans.[6] Around 600 years later he secretly forged the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom, completed the construction of Barad-dûr and strengthened its foundations with the power of the One Ring.[7]
During the following years Sauron was able to consolidate his power and extend it into the east.[8] However, in S.A. 3261, Ar-Pharazôn, king of Númenor, landed at the Haven of Umbar with a great host and marched north towards Mordor. Their splendour and might was so great that Sauron humbled himself before the king and came to Númenor as a hostage.[9]
The year after the Downfall of Númenor in S.A. 3319 Sauron's spirit secretly returned to Barad-dûr.[10] There he worked a terrible shape for himself, took up again the One Ring and prepared for war against the Eldar and the Exiles of Númenor, who had established their realms in Arnor and Gondor.[8] He succeeded in taking Minas Ithil, but in S.A. 3430 Elendil and Gil-galad formed the Last Alliance of Elves and Men and defeated Sauron four years later in the Battle of Dagorlad. After that they passed into Mordor and began the Siege of Barad-dûr.[8][11] The siege lasted for seven years, Gil-galad and Elendil were slain and in S.A. 3441 Sauron was finally defeated.[8][12] Isildur son of Elendil cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand and took it for his own instead of destroying it. The Dark Tower was finally leveled but its foundations remained, because they had been strengthened with the power of the One Ring and could not be destroyed as long as that existed.[13]
Reconstruction
Around T.A. 1050 Sauron had returned and secretly made a stronghold at Dol Guldur.[14] Gandalf did not discover that Sauron was the master of Dol Guldur until he entered it in T.A. 2850, and in T.A. 2941 the White Council decided to attack the fortress and Sauron, who had already made plans for an attack against Dol Guldur, abandoned it. The next year Sauron secretly returned to Mordor, which the Nazgûl had prepared for him, and began to rebuild Barad-dûr in T.A. 2951.[15] After that Sauron stayed in Barad-dûr and conducted his war on the free people of Middle-Earth from there.
On March 25, T.A. 3019 the ring-bearer Frodo Baggins succeeded in destroying the One Ring, although it was the creature Gollum who actually held the Ring as it fell into the Cracks of Doom. With the Ring destroyed Barad-dûr ultimately collapsed to ruin and Sauron was finally defeated.[16]
A brief vision he had of swirling cloud, and in the midst of it towers and battlements, tall as hills, founded upon a mighty mountain-throne above immeasurable pits; great courts and dungeons, eyeless prisons sheer as cliffs, and gaping gates of steel and adamant: and then all passed. Towers fell and mountains slid; walls crumbled and melted, crashing down; vast spires of smoke and spouting steams went billowing up, up, until they toppled like an overwhelming wave, and its wild crest curled and came foaming down upon the land. And then at last over the miles between there came a rumble, rising to a deafening crash and roar; the earth shook, the plain heaved and cracked, and Orodruin reeled.
Etymology
Barad-dûr is a Sindarin name.[17] It means "Dark Tower".[18] It is a compound of Barad (a great towering building, (fort, city, castle) tower)[19] and the adjective dûr ("dark" (with evil implications")).[20]
Lugbúrz was the name of Barad-dûr in the Black Speech, composed of the Black Speech words lûg ("fortress", "lock-up", "prison") and búrz ("dark").[21][22]
The Quenya versions of Barad-dûr are Taras Lúna ("Dark Tower") and Lúnaturco ("Dark Stronghold").[19] They are never used within the narration.
Portrayal in adaptations
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The Lord of the Rings Online (Second Age)
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1980: The Return of the King (1980 film):
- Barad-dûr is portrayed as a simple fortress. During a ring-induced dream, Sam dreams of taking the Ring and storming the Tower, but his common sense gains the upper hand in time.[23]
1981: The Lord of the Rings (1981 radio series):
- Barad-dûr is one of the first sites visited. After the Witch-king captures Gollum snooping on the edge of Mordor, the Mouth of Sauron questions the creature in the Dark Tower.[24]
2001-03: The Lord of the Rings (film series):
- In the Lord of the Rings movies by Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor and his design team built a 9 foot high miniature ("big-ature") of Barad-dûr for use in the film. Using the size scale for the model implemented for the films, the Dark Tower is depicted as being over 1500 meters (5,000 feet) tall.
- The Return of the King also shows Barad-dûr as clearly visible from the Black Gate of Mordor. Even granting its enormous size, it was located one hundred miles away and to the east of the Gate, and behind the inner mountain ridges of Udûn so Aragorn's army would probably not have been able to see it. In the film version, the geography of Mordor seems generally to have been compressed somewhat, perhaps for artistic reasons related to rendering such complex stories in a visual medium. In the case of the Black Gate scene, having Barad-dûr visible from the Gate means that the army can see the Eye of Sauron staring at them.
2002: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (video game):
- The Tower is briefly visible in the opening scene. Galadriel narrates a vision from her Mirror. It is only referred to as "The Dark Tower of Mordor", and it is the base of the Ringwraiths (as opposed to Minas Morgul). The Eye of Sauron is portrayed as a fiery eye at the top, but is only visible for a split second.
2004: The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth:
- Barad-dûr is shown in the introduction scene. It's design is similar to that of the tower in the movies. It does not play a role in any of the campaigns, and does not appear on any of the maps.
2006: The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II:
- Like in its predecessor, the tower of Barad-dûr plays no active role in this game. In the "War of the Ring" mode, it can be seen in the territory of Mordor, but is absent on the map itself.
2017: The Lord of the Rings Online:
- With the destruction of the One Ring, the main tower of Barad-dûr had collapsed, but the foundations remain standing and teeming with Sauron's servants. The dungeons of Barad-dûr, the "Mordath", have been exposed to the sky above through the cracks in the earth.
See also
References
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, "Map of Rohan, Gondor, and Mordor"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, "Mount Doom", p. 942
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, "Mount Doom", p. 946
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, "The Breaking of the Fellowship", p. 401
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, "Unfinished index for The Lord of the Rings", in Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (eds), The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, entry Window of the Eye, p. 615
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, "The Second Age", entry for the year c. 1000, p. 1083
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, "The Second Age", entry for the year c. 1600, p. 1083
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, "The Second Age", entry for the year 3261, p. 1084
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, "The Second Age", entries for the years 3319 and 3320, p. 1084
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, "The Second Age", entries for the years 3430 and 3434, p. 1084
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, "The Second Age", entry for the year 3441, p. 1084
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, "The Council of Elrond", p. 244
- ↑ ,J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, "The Third Age", entry for the year 1050, p. 1085
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, "The Third Age", entries for the years 2942 and 2951, p. 1089
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, "The Great Years", entry for the year 3019, March 25, p. 1094
- ↑ Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (eds), The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, citing from J.R.R. Tolkien's manuscript for the Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings, p. 274
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, "The Road to Isengard", "Barad-dûr, the Dark Tower,", p. 555
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 J.R.R. Tolkien, "Words, Phrases and Passages in Various Tongues in The Lord of the Rings", in Parma Eldalamberon XVII (edited by Christopher Gilson), entry S Elbereth, subentry Q Varda, p. 22
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, "Words, Phrases and Passages in Various Tongues in The Lord of the Rings", in Parma Eldalamberon XVII (edited by Christopher Gilson), entry S mor, p. 31
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, "Flotsam and Jetsam", p. 564
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, "Words, Phrases and Passages in Various Tongues in The Lord of the Rings", in Parma Eldalamberon XVII (edited by Christopher Gilson), entry B Lugbúrz, p. 79
- ↑ The Return of the King (1980 film), "Samwise the Strong"
- ↑ The Lord of the Rings (1981 radio series), "The Shadow of the Past"