Grond

From the One Wiki to Rule Them All, the Lord of the Rings Encyclopedia.

Grond The Hammer of the Underworld was a huge battering ram in the shape of a wolf which the army of orcs used to smash the gates of Minas Tirith. In its great maw fire burned and several trolls were needed to move it into position.

In the First Age, Grond was the great warhammer of Morgoth Bauglír, the first Dark Lord, who wielded it when he fought with Fingolfin, High King of the Noldor. With every blow from the hammer that struck the ground, a crater was formed. Morgoth managed to kill the High King, but not without receiving seven wounds himself.

During the War of the Ring in the Third Age, the name was used for a great battering ram. A hundred feet long with a head shaped like a snarling wolf, it was used in the siege of Minas Tirith. Aided by spells laid on it by the Witch-king of Angmar, and the spells cast upon it during its forging in Mordor, Grond destroyed the formidable gate of Minas Tirith in just three blows.

In Peter Jackson's The Return of the King, Grond has fire spewing from its gaping jaws and is pulled by four huge rhinoceros-like creatures (such Great Beasts were briefly mentioned as pulling it in the book). The wolf design is extended, with the whole battering ram carved to resemble a great wolf. Gothmog refers to it as "the wolf's head" in the film.

It was a battering ram of mighty proportions --- said to be sixty feet high and fully 150 feet long.

Weapons of Middle-earth

Aeglos | Andúril | Anglachel | Anguirel | Angrist | Aranrúth | Belthronding | Dagmor | Dailir | Dramborleg | Durin's Axe | Glamdring | Grond | Gúthwinë | Hadhafang (movie only) | Gurthang | Herugrim | Morgul-blade | Narsil | Orcrist | Red Arrow | Ringil | Sting