Henneth Annûn

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

Henneth Annûn, also called the Window of the Sunset, was a beautiful waterfall overlooking a pool with a cave behind it.

It was a secret place located in Ithilien used by Faramir and his men as a hidden refuge. They stored weapons and food there. The cave had been dug out by the stream feeding the waterfall, which originally fell from the hole in the cliff, which makes up the "window" part of the name, but that stream had since been redirected to block the tunnel and conceal the cave entrance. Like all of the other hidden refuges of Gondor in Ithilien, Henneth Annûn was created by the Steward Ecthelion I circa TA 2900, in response to Ithilien being desolated by the incursions of the orcs from Mordor. Henneth Annûn was the longest-lasting of all of the refuges in Ithilien. During the War of the Ring, Faramir son of the Steward of Gondor Denethor II, made his base of operations there. Caught in Ithilien, Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee were taken there to be questioned by Faramir. Gollum found it by accident, diving for fish in the pool below the fall. In order to keep it secret, the penalty for coming to Henneth Annûn without permission was death; Frodo convinced Faramir to spare Gollum and he was brought to the cave blindfolded.