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The Black Gate, or "Morannon", was the gate of Udûn in northwestern Mordor, and the most fortified and direct entrance into the land of Mordor.

Description

Morannon

A map showing the Black Gate

The Black Gate was set in an impregnable black stone and iron wall that stretched from the Mountains of Ash in the north to the Ephel Duath in the west. The wall has been estimated to be 60 feet high and 250 feet long, with each half of the great gate being 90 feet wide, and set on large stone wheels. Behind the gate were gigantic circular stone ramparts, and when the gate needed to be opened, two pairs of Mountain-trolls who were tethered to gigantic beams pushed their way around their rampart's track, gradually levering open the gate and allowing for the incoming or outgoing of Mordor's armies.

Inset within the wall were myriads of archers, spearmen, bowmen, and hundreds of thousands of Orc troops ready to defend Mordor. The Gates themselves may have been made of the same indomitable stone that constitutes Orthanc, so hard that even the Ents could not dent it.[1]

History

It was originally a gate built by Sauron the Dark Lord of Mordor in the Second Age, to protect and guard the northern entrance into Mordor and to prevent invasion at the gap between the Ash Mountains and the Ephel Dúath. It was probably built with the help of the power of the One Ring, like the Barad-dûr. After Sauron's fall after the Battle of Dagorlad, it became a garrison of the Men of Gondor. In Gondor's early days, when it was building towers and cities such as Minas Ithil and Cirith Ungol close to Mordor's border, it raised the two great Towers of the Teeth, Narchost and Carchost, which were built on either side of the wall and were tall enough to overlook it.

It was backed up on the other side by the Isenmouthe, and protected by the castle of Durthang to the west; it was redesigned to prevent anything evil from entering or leaving Mordor, shielding the outside from it - and it from the outside. The reconstruction of Minas Ithil, Tower of the Rising Moon, as well as the construction of Cirith Ungol was also done for the same purpose.

File:BLACK GATE location map in middle earth.PNG

Location of the Black Gate in Middle-earth marked in red

However, they eventually failed and they were taken over by the servants of Sauron. Once taken by the Enemy, they became a monument of dread, fear, evil, and awe by anyone who saw the gate. Thus the Ringwraiths and Orcs re-entered Mordor, eventually overrunning the garrisons and inhabiting and taking them for their own uses. It was at this time that the Nazgûl took the tower of Minas Ithil, having its name changed to Minas Morgul.

During the War of the Ring, Frodo and Sam had a chance to go through the Black Gate when they arrived at Mordor, but it was so heavily fortified and guarded by the forces of Mordor that they turned away and were led on a different route into Mordor by Sméagol. They also saw an army of Easterlings enter the gate.

The Black Gate was the site of the last valiant battle of the War of the Ring, in the East. In March 3019, the Army of the West commanded by Aragorn Elessar and numbering some 6,000 men (plus one Elf, one Dwarf, and a Wizard and one Hobbit) arrived at the Black Gate and challenged the many remaining armies of Mordor. Their intention was to draw the watchful Eye of Sauron away from Mount Doom, to allow Frodo the Ring-bearer to cast the One Ring into the Crack of Doom and destroy it. The delay worked and the Ring was destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom, following which the Black Gate and the Towers of the Teeth immediately collapsed.

Etymology

The Black Gate's literal Sindarin translation, Morannon, means "Black Gate" from môr ("dark, black") and annon ("gate, door").[2]

Portrayal in Adaptions

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

In Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, it is suggested that the Gondorians used prison labour to build the watch towers of Narchost and Carchost. For over 2,000 years, the Rangers of Gondor had guarded the Black Gate, however following the Great Plague, Gondor's defences were significantly weakened. This had meant that in the final years of the watch, Gondor's defence capability of the Black Gate was drastically reduced.

See also

Translations around the World

Foreign Language Translated name
Afrikaans Swart Hek
Albanian Porta e Zezë
Amharic ጥቁር በር
Arabic البوابة السوداء
Armenian Բլածկ Գատե
Basque Beltza Atea
Belarusian Cyrillic Чорныя вароты
Bengali কালো গেট
Breton Dor Du
Bosnian Crna Vrata
Bulgarian Cyrillic Черната порта
Cambodian ច្រកទ្វារខ្មៅ
Catalan Porta Negra
Chinese (Hong Kong) 黑門
Cornish Yet Du
Croatian Crna Vrata
Czech Černá brána
Danish Sort Port
Dutch Zwarte Poort
Esperanto Nigra Pordego
Estonian Must Värav
Filipino Itim Pultahan
Finnish Musta Portti
French Porte Noire
Frisian Swarte Poarte
Galician Porta Negro
German Schwarzes Tor von Mordor
Greek Μαύρη πύλη
Gujarati બ્લેક દ્વાર
Haiti Creole Pòtay Nwa
Hebrew השער השחור
Hindi काले गेट
Hmong Rooj vag dub
Hungarian Fekete Kapu
Icelandic Svarta Hliðið
Indonesian Gerbang Hitam
Italian Nero Cancello
Irish Gaelic Geata Dubh
Japanese 黒い門
Kannada ಕಪ್ಪು ಗೇಟ್
Kazakh Cyrillic қара қақпасы
Korean 블랙 게이트
Kurdish Dergeh Reş (Kurmanji Kurdish)
Kyrgyz Cyrillic кара дарбаза
Lao ປະຕູຮົ້ວສີດໍາ
Latin Niger Portam
Lithuanian Juodieji Vartai
Macedonian Cyrillic црна порта
Malayalam ബ്ലാക്ക് ഗേറ്റ്
Maltese Gejt Sewda
Manx Giat Doo
Marathi काळा दरवाजा
Mongolian Cyrillic Хар хаалга
Navajo Dáádílkał łizhin
Nepalese काला गेट
Norwegian Sorte Porten
Occitan Pòrta Negre
Pashto تور دروازه
Persian دروازه سیاه و سفید
Portuguese Portão Negro
Polish Czarna Brama
Punjabi ਕਾਲਾ ਫਾਟਕ
Romanian Poarta Neagra
Romansh Porta Naira
Russian Черные Врата
Sanskrit ब्लच्क् ङते
Samoan Uliuli Faitotoa
Scottish Gaelic Dubh Gheata
Serbian Црна Капија (Cyrillic) Crna Kapija (Latin)
Sesotho Batsho Heke
Shona Gedhi Dema
Sinhalese කළු ගේට්ටුව
Sindhi ڪارو گيٽ
Slovenian Črna Vrata
Slovak Čierne Brána
Somalian Iridda Madow
Spanish Puerta Negra
Sudanese Gerbang Hideung
Swahili Nyeusi Lango
Swedish Svarta Porten
Tajik Cyrillic дарвоза сиёҳ
Telugu బ్లాక్ గేట్
Thai ประตูสีดำ
Turkish Siyah Kapı
Turkmen Gara Derweze
Ukrainian Cyrillic Чорні ворота
Urdu سیاہ دروازہ
Uyghur بلاچك غاتە
Uzbek Қора Дарвоза (Cyrillic) Qora Darvoza (Latin)
Vietnamese Cổng đen
Welsh Giât Ddu
Xhosa Abamnyama Ngesango
Yiddish שוואַרץ גייט
Yoruba Dudu ẹnu-bode
Yucatec Maya Joolnajo' box


References

  1. 1.0 1.1 The Atlas of Middle-earth, Regional Maps, "Mordor (and Adjacent Lands)" Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "Atlas" defined multiple times with different content
  2. The Silmarillion, Appendix: Elements in Quenya and Sindarin names
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