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Angband and Dol Guldur

Sengir Buendia

Baron of Macondo
Joined
Jan 13, 2004
Messages
21
These locations are mentioned a million times (specially Angband in the Sil) but are not portrayed in the maps!!!! Angband is said to be somewhere around the north of Hithlum... Or would it be a little more to the east, north of Anfauglith, or to the west, near the sea? What are the Thangorodrim exactly, are they over the Ered Wethrin? It's so annoying!!! The map of Beleriand should have been more extended to the north, displaying the surroundings of Angband more clearly. The battles fought around there are also cloudy for the same reason, just as many other events that happened in the north.

It's similar for Dol Guldur, we can just imagine it's some kind of fortress in the south of Mirkwood, nothing else.

Maybe someone could provide links to extended maps.
 
Interesting thing about the location of Angband is that it is hard to work out how far off the map to the north it is. Karen Wynn Fonstat discusses this in her book. Some of Tolkien's writings have it relatively close to the elven kingdoms, others much further away.
 
It is said that 'the gates of Morgoth were but one hundred and fifty leagues distant from the bridge of Menegroth' (The Silmarillion; Of the Sindar), so I'd say that Karen Wynn Fonstad's placement of Angband is pretty accurate (see attachment). EDIT: Fonstad notes that 150 leagues = about 450 miles, and that it is uncertain if this distance were "as the crow flies" or "as the wolf runs". If you look at the map, you can see part of the scale, and attempt to measure the distance manually. But clearly the aerial distance between the two cannot possibly amount to 450 miles, so 'as the wolf runs' must be what is meant?!

Dol Guldur is not such a hard find, as it is marked at least on the Unfinished Tales map. It is to be found in the south-western part of Mirkwood. See second attached image.

Hope this helps!
 
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I hadn't seen Fonstad's map before. Thanks for providing it, Mr. Gorthaur :p

I just want to say that the location of Angband relative to Hithlum, Dorthonion, Gondolin... so on, is pretty danged close to where Tolkien put it on the 'First Silmarillion map' which can be found in HoME vol 4. She probably commented on this in her book though, I would think?
 
Aren't there some sketches in BoLT1 about where all the mountains are? It kind of looks like an egg I think...

If my memory serves correct, the Mts. of Utumna streched across the whole north of the world, and the Iron Mountains were the Eastern edge of them in Middle Earth? My memory's terrible it's been so long....
 

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