u/GhostyMink

I have been using both Tecendil and Write English with Tengwar rules by Fiona Jallings and I realized something that I can't explain

Why is Rivendell's ND is written as Ando with a nasal tehta and tehtar e in Tecendil, the n seems to dissapear?

using the equivalence of these handbooks n is 17 and d is 5 in the tengwar chart so I wrote it as two distinct tengwa in the first line.

Reading a bit of appendix E the grade 2 corresponding with ando in Quenya ND is supposedly equivalent to the grade 2 which would be Ando and the only other explanation I have found is that the transcriber is using the shorthand for and but the handbook doesn't explain why that is.

I'm kind of lost could someone help me?

P.S Apologies if my writing is hard to understand.

Had to get my 5th copy of The Silmarillion, I gotta say the paper used for the illustrations is thick and of decent quality but nothing compared to the glossy illustrations of other Tolkien Books

I also had to get most Pauline Bayne's artwork for Middle Earth, though I am still missing the original poster of Bilbo's Last Song.

I found this tengwar inscription from The HoME series which I didn't found in the DTS, so can anyone verify if it is correct?

I also checked the sub for discussion on the Tengwar for HoME but couldn't find any info, maybe Christopher made this tengwar? maybe it was the publisher no idea.

Also could someone translate?

Maybe this has been discussed before but I had no idea.

Also while checking out previous versions of HoME the inscription is present.

History and validity on the inscription would be greatly appreciated.

Also I'm guessing is English mode like the LotR tengwar(?)

Does anybody know how rare is the HoME series in Spanish?

Been trying to find some copies but I believe they are rare.

I am doing a thematic map of Middle Earth and I am wondering If Telecendil is good for the names of the places in Mordor(which I believe is Sindarin.

One question is, if its clear enough?

Should I change something?

Thanks in advance.

I want to give a shoutout to u/BowlofPentuniaThings from bringing this map and its beautiful vignettes to my attention:

From Nature of Middle Earth, Part II, Chapter VI,Descriptions of Characters, page 191 :

>In 1970 Allen & Unwin published a poster-sized Map of Middle-earth, executed by the artist Pauline Baynes, and based upon that included in The Lord of the Rings. On the map itself are a series of vignettes portraying various locations significant to the story, such as the Barrow-Downs and Minas Tirith; and above and below the map proper, Baynes depicted the members of the Fellowship of the Ring, the Black Riders, Gollum, Shelob, and other enemies of the West. On seeing the finished art, Tolkien wrote a set of comments on these depictions of places and characters. Some of these comments are appreciative: e.g. Tolkien found four of the vignettes, sc. those depicting the Teeth of Mordor, the Argonath, Barad-dûr, and Minas Morgul, particularly well-executed, and described them as agreeing “remarkably with my own vision … Minas Morgul is almost exact”; and he found the depiction of Aragorn good, those of Sam and Gimli “good enough”, and that of Boromir to be “the best figure, and most closely related to the text”. Other comments are less positive: e.g. of the vignettes he singled out those of Minas Tirith and Hobbiton for particular dislike; and of the depictions of characters he most disliked those of Gandalf, Legolas, Gollum, the Black Riders (though he found them “impressive as sinister cavaliers”, he decried the addition of “hats and plumes” and the “relief” of “their hell-black with elvish green”), and Shelob (faulting in particular the positioning of her legs as “all apparently growing out of her head”) – also that of Bill the Pony: “On the scale of the men and the hobbits Bill is no pony. Also he was represented as having become the special care and friend of Sam, who should be leading him”. In the course of these comments he offers details of how some of these characters appeared in his own vision (some of which have been presented elsewhere),as well as on the personality and roles of some, and these details are selected and arranged for presentation here.

Then from Tolkien Maker of Middle Earth, page 384:

>Westfield College, London Watercolour, 1952–2013 Collection: The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford MS. Tolkien Drawings 500

>Pauline Baynes was the only artist approved by Tolkien to illustrate his works during his lifetime. Their association began in 1949 when she was asked by his publisher to submit illustrations for his faux-medieval tale, Farmer Giles of Ham. Tolkien was delighted with them, declaring they are “more than illustrations, they are a collateral theme.” Shortly afterwards he recommended her to his friend C. S. Lewis, who needed an illustrator for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. She went on to illustrate all the Narnia stories. She created this pictorial poster map of Middle-earth after extensive consultation with Tolkien. She added vignettes of many of the key places, as well as a header and footer showing the Fellowship and their pursuers. Of the vignettes Tolkien wrote, “some of these pictures agree remarkably with my own vision: especially the first four on the right (Minas Morgul is almost exact).”

>20 December 1949

>Dear Miss Baynes, May I just wish you a Happy Christmas. I meant to write you an answer to your letter of last June, but I became involved in examinations, the end of an academic existence, in this case involving two extended courses in Oxford. I am sorry that F.C., the author of which in Oxford seem (?) will have gone off, but you might at least as much by the help(?) as any others(?) else. I hear from my friend C. S. Lewis, who saw the original and was much impressed by your work, that he has got in touch with you. I have two (large) books to illustrate, one of a very practical kind that seemed in 1950 to be actually becoming production problems; and I shall very much hope that some illustrations or decorations will be part of the programme. In the case I hope you shall meet in what was the most likely point, London. Though I hope local good fortune brings you here, you must let me know. Very sincerely, J. R. R. Tolkien 21 Dec. Thank you so much for your charming(?) cards(?) and your (?) ... [bottom note is too faint/obscured to reliably transcribe]

The caption below the letter reads: Fig. 120 Letter from Tolkien to Baynes, expressing the hope that she will illustrate his unpublished works ‘The Silmarillion’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’, 20 December 1949. (Image provided courtesy of The Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL)

I took a photo of the letter in question(in the book)

I also attach a link for you to download a 12k version of the map, so you can admire its complete detail; a warning though this version is a bit colder compared to the original.

Kind of a shame we do not have higher resolution images for this important piece of Middle Earth which is why I have brought it to you today.

A closer look at the vignettes by u/BowlofPentuniaThings

​ Very long post, so please bear with me.

I have recently been rereading the Lord of The Rings and the Plateau of Gorgoroth has been an obsession of mine as I reconstruct every nook and cranny of Frodo and Sam's Journey, this made me realize something that baffled me which you can kind of guess by the title.

1. Distances and Visibility

First, I would like to discuss the distances between the landmarks of the Plateau of Gorgoroth and how far they really are from each other, as the narrative tends to compress Frodo and Sam' journey toward Mount Doom.

As you may or may not know, Christopher Tolkien's map included in the Return of the King has a scale bar.

Using this scale, the distance between the Morgai and Mount Doom comes to roughly 40-43 miles (64.3km-69.2km).

Likewise, measuring from the same point to the centre of the Barad-dûr symbol gives a distance of roughly 75–76 miles, Barad-dûr then is approximately 120 km away from Frodo and Sam, making the following passage even more astonishing.

(RoTK, Book VI, Chapter II, The Land of Shadow, page 922-923) :

>"[...]and passing through found themselves on the very edge of the last fence of Mordor. Below them, at the bottom of a fall of some fifteen hundred feet, lay the inner plain stretching away into a formless gloom beyond their sight.

>***"[...]Still far away, forty miles at least, they saw Mount Doom**, its feet founded in ashen ruin, its huge cone rising to a great height, where its reeking head was swathed in cloud. [...]Behind it there hung a vast shadow, ominous as a thunder-cloud, the veils of Barad-dûr that was reared far away upon a long spur of the Ashen Mountains thrust down from the North. "

Thus, from an elevation of roughly 1,500 feet on the Morgai, Frodo and Sam could distinguish Barad-dûr and its looming shadow even though it lay some forty miles farther away than Mount Doom.

From this first description, Barad-dûr appears less like an isolated tower and more like a vast looming presence being compared to a Thunder-cloud.

Nevertheless, the imagery is significant: Tolkien presents Barad-dûr not simply as a building, but as the centre of a vast and oppressive presence dominating Mordor."

2. Tolkien's Approved Illustrations

Next is the (NoME) Nature of Middle Earth chapter that comments on the Pauline Baynes illustrations which Tolkien himself chose to depict Middle Earth:

(NoME, Part II chapter VI: Description of Characters, page 191):

>"In 1970 Allen & Unwin published a poster-sized Map of Middle-earth, executed by the artist Pauline Baynes, and based upon that included in The Lord of the Rings. On the map itself are a series of vignettes portraying various locations significant to the story, such as the Barrow-Downs and Minas Tirith[...]

>On seeing the finished art, Tolkien wrote a set of comments on these depictions of places and characters. Some of these comments are appreciative: e.g. Tolkien found four of the vignettes, sc. those depicting the Teeth of Mordor, the Argonath, Barad-dûr, and Minas Morgul, particularly well-executed, and described them as agreeing “remarkably with my own vision … Minas Morgul is almost exact”

I recommend looking at the map itself, both because it is beautiful and because Tolkien praised several of its depictions as agreeing "remarkably with my own vision."

This brings me to the next point which will be built upon this one as means of establishing a visual picture of the fortress.

3. Architectural Language and Prose

What concerns us here, however, is the illustration made by Pauline Baynes of Barad-dûr; the depiction makes the tower seem not only impossibly tall but also broad.

It resembles a massive complex of stone rather than the slender tower most artists depict, an impression reinforced by the following passage from

[The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, chapter X:The Breaking of the Fellowship page 401]

>"[...]and the haunted Mountains, and it looked upon Gorgoroth, the valley of terror in the Land of Mordor. Darkness lay there under the Sun. Fire glowed amid the smoke. Mount Doom was burning, and a great reek rising. Then at last his gaze was held: wall upon wall, battlement upon battlement, black, immeasurably strong,* mountain of iron,*gate of steel, tower of adamant, he saw it: Barad-dûr, Fortress of Sauron. All hope left him.

Unlike the descriptions of Sauron's darkness and veils, these phrases are clearly architectural: walls, battlements, gates, and towers. They therefore provide stronger evidence for the physical characteristics of Barad-dûr itself.

Particularly striking is the description "mountain of iron," which, admittedly, could be figurative. However, the comments in NoME and the earlier comparison to a thunder-cloud suggest otherwise.

To further support my argument, I will include additional evidence from the chapter "Mount Doom." This evidence may be the least reliable, since Tolkien usually describes the fortress in metaphorical rather than architectural terms until its fall. Nevertheless, I believe the following passages support my interpretation.

(RoTK, Book VI, Chapter III Mount Doom, page 934-935)

>"[...]But as they went the most easterly of the roads followed them, until it ran off, hugging the skirts of the mountains, away into a wall of black shadow far ahead*. Neither man nor orc now moved along its flat grey stretches; for the Dark Lord had almost completed the movement of his forces, and even in the fastness of his own realm he sought the secrecy of night, fearing the winds of the world that had turned against him, tearing aside his veils[...]*But far worse than all such perils was the ever-approaching threat that beat upon them as they went: the dreadful menace of the Power that waited, brooding in deep thought and sleepless malice behind the dark veil about its Throne. Nearer and nearer it drew, looming blacker, like the oncoming of a wall of night at the last end of the world." *

At this point Frodo and Sam are taking the road that goes northwest to the Isenmouthe from Barad-dûr and will soon move away from it across the land to reach Mount Doom.

The fortress has been described as a "mountain of iron," a "wall of night," a "tower of adamant," and a looming black shadow; of course, these descriptions could all be metaphorical, which leads to my next point.

4. The Height of Barad-dûr

The narrator also provides approximate heights for both the Morgai and Orodruin, allowing a rough comparison between them.

The Morgai rises roughly 1,500 feet above the plain, while Orodruin stands approximately 4,500 feet high (with Sammath Naur likely being around 4,300 feet, judging from Tolkien's drawing), as we read:

(RoTk, Mount Doom, Book VI, chapter III, page 941) >"[...]The Mountain standing ominous and alone had looked taller than it was. Sam saw now that it was less lofty than the high passes of the Ephel Dúath which he and Frodo had scaled. The confused and tumbled shoulders of its great base rose for maybe three thousand feet above the plain, and above them was reared half as high again its tall central cone, like a vast oast or chimney capped with a jagged crater."

The Fortress then could be inferred with a reasonable degree of certainty that it rivalled or possibly even surpassed Mount Doom in height as its shadows rose above it.

Further evidence of the scale of the fortress comes when Frodo and Sam are climbing towards the Sammath Naur and the veils of the fortress are removed:

(RoTK, Book VI, Chapter III, Mount Doom, page 942)

>* "Far off the shadows of Sauron hung; but torn by some gust of wind out of the world, or else moved by some great disquiet within, the mantling clouds swirled, and for a moment drew aside; and then he saw, rising black, blacker and darker than the vast shades amid which it stood, the cruel pinnacles and iron crown of the topmost tower of Barad-dûr. One moment only it stared out, but as from some great window immeasurably high there stabbed northward a flame of red, the flicker of a piercing Eye; and then the shadows were furled again and the terrible vision was removed." *

So it is strongly implied that Barad-dûr was surrounded by, or associated with, a mantle of shadow and that when the veils briefly parted Frodo caught sight of the pinnacles and crown of its highest tower.

The use of the word "topmost" also suggests that Barad-dûr possessed multiple towers, with the one seen by Frodo being the highest.

Pauline Baynes' illustration of Barad-dûr depicts these towers as relatively comparable in height, lending some support to that interpretation.

However, when the shadows briefly parted, Frodo perceived architectural features of Barad-dûr itself: *its pinnacles, iron crown, topmost tower, and an immensely high window. While the passage does not allow a precise measurement of its dimensions, it does reinforce the impression of extraordinary verticality.

Taken together, this evidence suggests that Barad-dûr may have approached the scale of a mountain in Tolkien's mind.

5. The Meaning of Barad

I will now refer to Parma Eldalamberon and the Sindarin root for Barad and Dûr to further my argument:

[From PE XVII Words, Phrases and Passages in various tongues in The Lord of The Rings, page 22 and 85]

>The names Elbereth, Gilthoniel, Fanuilos. These refer to the great Vala called in Quenya Varda, "the Lofty." In Sindarin Elbereth (rarely Bereth) is her usual name, the other two are "titles." Q *Varda is < barada [which would be in Sindarin bara'o]. This root, which seems to express great height combined with strength, size, majesty, appears in several variant forms: (1) ...JBARAT, (2) ...JBARATH, (3) BARAD, (4) BARAS. From (1) is derived: S barad, a great towering building, (fort, city, castle) tower; [also brand, brann 'towering', "tall and massive" (or to noun brand, steeple): cf. Tol Brandir, Isle of the Great Steeples: it was a great upstanding mass ending in two major and two minor steeples.] "

>"Barad-dur; barad 'a great towering building, (fort, city, castle) tower' ; dur 'dark"

>"[See I 250 s.v. Elbereth, I 259 s.v. mar. Cf. EQS barad 'tower', dur 'dark' ; Etym. BARAT-, N barad 'tower, fortress', 003, D6-, EN dur 'dark, sombre' ; Barad-dur 'the Dark Tower', TI 178.]"

The linguistic evidence from Parma Eldalamberon further refines this interpretation. The BARAT / BARAD root is explicitly associated with concepts of great height, mass, and monumental structure, not merely a “tower.” Its derivatives include forms meaning “tall and massive,” suggesting that barad carries an inherent sense of vertical and horizontal magnitude.

In this light, Barad-dûr can be read less as a descriptive label for a single architectural form, and more as a linguistic expression of overwhelming built presence—consistent with the repeated emphasis on scale, shadow, and dominance in the text.

6. Sam's Vision and the destruction of the One Ring

Finally when the ring is cast into the cracks of Doom:

(RoTK, Book VI, Chapter III, Mount Doom, page 947)

>"And there upon the dark threshold of the Sammath Naur, high above the plains of Mordor, such wonder and terror came on him that he stood still forgetting all else, and gazed as one turned to stone. 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"

The description of a 'mountain-throne' is consistent with Tolkien's own illustration of Barad-dûr, which depicts the fortress rising from a massive elevated foundation, this mass most likely being the foundations that couldn't be destroyed by The Last Alliance, this spur also raised the already tall fortress even further above everything else.

The narrative mentions great courts and dungeons, eyeless prisons sheer as cliffs, and, most remarkably, gaping gates of steel. Based on Christopher Tolkien's map, Sam was also standing over four thousand feet above the plain at the Sammath Naur, giving him a commanding view across Gorgoroth.

Between the elevation of both landmarks and the unusual nature of the vision itself, I think it's entirely plausible that he genuinely witnessed Barad-dûr collapsing.

It is also possible that Tolkien heightened some of the detail for literary effect, but I don't think those possibilities necessarily exclude one another.

The precise nature of Sam's "brief vision" remains open to interpretation. It may represent heightened perception associated with the Ring, literary narration, or a combination of these possibilities, since Tolkien does not specify.

Regardless of the exact nature of Sam's vision, its imagery is among the strongest evidence for Barad-dûr's immense scale: towers compared to hills, vast courts, dungeons, cliffs, and gates of steel and adamant."

7. The War of the Last Alliance and the siege of Barad-dûr

The next argument draws upon The Silmarillion and Appendix B of The Lord of the Rings.

(The Silmarillion,Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, page 352)

>"[...]Therefore they made that League which is called the Last Alliance, and they marched east into Middle-earth gathering a great host of Elves and Men; and they halted for a while at Imladris. It is said that the host that was there assembled was fairer and more splendid in arms than any that has since been seen in Middle-earth, and none greater has been mustered since the host of the Valar went against Thangorodrim."

Then: (Appendix B: The Tale of Years, The Second age, page 1084 )

>"S.A 3434: The host of the Alliance crosses the Misty Mountains. Battle of Dagorlad and defeat of Sauron. Siege of Barad-dûr begins

>S.A3440 Anárion slain.

>S.A 3441 Sauron overthrown by Elendil and Gil-galad, who perish. Isildur takes the One Ring. Sauron passes away and the Ringwraiths go into the shadows. The Second Age ends.*"

Seven long years they besieged Barad Dûr and the greatest army in the world at that time couldn't break through.

How could the Last Alliance fail to breach Barad-dûr for seven years? While several explanations are possible, I would argue that its immense size, the capacity to sustain a prolonged siege, and alternate routes out of the fortress formed part of the answer as the next passage reads:

(RoTK, Book VI, Chapter III, Mount Doom, page 942)

>"[...]He did not know it, but he was looking at Sauron’s Road from Barad-dûr to the Sammath Naur, the Chambers of Fire. Out from the Dark Tower’s huge western gate it came over a deep abyss by a vast bridge of iron, and then passing into the plain it ran for a league between two smoking chasms, and so reached a long sloping causeway that led up on to the Mountain’s eastern side."

So it is safe to assume the Sauron road and the Isenmouthe road were the most used but not the only ones; as stated by the text and seen in the illustration by Tolkien having a bridge going east and Mount Doom being west of the fortress and down the Plateau.

[RoTK, Book VI, chapter II :The Land of Shadow,page 923 ]

>"Neither he nor Frodo knew anything of the great slave-worked fields away south in this wide realm, beyond the fumes of the Mountain by the dark sad waters of Lake Núrnen; nor of the great roads that ran away east and south to tributary lands, from which the soldiers of the Tower brought long waggon-trains of goods and booty and fresh slaves. Here in the northward regions were the mines and forges, and the musterings of long-planned war"

8. Foundations, Scale, and Topography

My final argument concerns the topography of Barad-dûr itself. Tolkien's own illustration of the fortress provides what is perhaps our clearest view of the "foundations" mentioned in The Council of Elrond: the vast stone platform upon which Barad-dûr stood:

[FoTR, Book II, Chapter II: The Council of Elrond, page 244]

>"Fruitless did I call the victory of the Last Alliance? Not wholly so, yet it did not achieve its end. Sauron was diminished, but not destroyed. His Ring was lost but not unmade. The Dark Tower was broken, but its foundations were not removed; for they were made with the power of the Ring, and while it remains they will endure."

Another source Tolkien himself approved and we should consider is Pauline Baynes' own map. If we examine Mordor closely, Barad-dûr is depicted as taller than Orodruin and considerably broader than it is in most maps and artistic depictions. The illustration also appears to show a substantial base beneath the tower that may represent these foundations.

A more speculative piece of evidence comes from Christopher Tolkien's map. Although the symbol for Barad-dûr is unlikely to represent a precise footprint, measuring it against the map's scale indicates dimensions considerably larger than one mile. Since such symbols are necessarily schematic, I instead adopt one square mile as a deliberately conservative estimate for the fortress's built area.

Even assuming a conservative area of only one square mile, the fortress would occupy roughly 2.59 million square metres.

For comparison, the Burj Khalifa—the tallest building in the world—occupies roughly 29,000 square meters.

Of course, this does not mean the entire area encompassing the fortress was covered with buildings. The fortress probably included open courts, roads, walls, workshops, barracks, and other structures. Even allowing for that, the available area remains enormous by the standards of both historical fortifications and modern buildings.

For further perspective, an area of one square mile is roughly three quarters the size of Central Park and approximately equal to London's Financial District.

9. Measuring the map

Since the apparent distance between Orodruin and Barad-dûr is not immediately obvious from the narrative, I also measured Christopher Tolkien's map using its printed scale:

6.5 mm = 10 miles

1 mm ≈ 1.54 miles

Measurements: Morgai shelf to Orodruin: 27 mm ≈ 41.5 miles (closely matching "forty miles at least")

Orodruin to Barad-dûr: 22 mm ≈ 34 miles

Morgai shelf to Barad-dûr: 49 mm ≈ 75–76 miles

These measurements should not be taken as exact. The map symbols are necessarily schematic, especially for a structure as unusual as Barad-dûr. They do, however, provide a reasonable approximation of the relative distances involved.

10. The Nature of the Veils of Barad-dûr

The descriptions of Barad-dûr combine physical architecture with imagery of darkness and concealment. However, Tolkien appears to distinguish between the fortress itself and the supernatural shadows surrounding it.

"The 'veils' and 'mantle of shadow' associated with Sauron's stronghold appear to be manifestations of Sauron's power and will rather than extensions of the physical structure itself."

(RoTK, Book VI, Chapter III, Mount Doom, page 934)

>"Neither man nor orc now moved along its flat grey stretches; for the Dark Lord had almost completed the movement of his forces, and even in the fastness of his own realm he sought the secrecy of night, fearing the winds of the world that had turned against him, tearing aside his veils."

Here Tolkien uses the language of concealment rather than construction. The "veils" are something that can be torn aside by the winds of the world, suggesting a layer of darkness or associated with Sauron's power rather than an ordinary part of Barad-dûr.

Later, when Frodo approaches the Sammath Naur: (RoTK, Book VI, Chapter III, Mount Doom, page 942)

>"[...] but still far from the reeking summit, to a dark entrance that gazed back east straight to the Window of the Eye in Sauron’s shadow-mantled fortress."

The phrase "shadow-mantled fortress" is important because it separates two ideas: the fortress exists as a physical structure, while the shadow is a mantle placed upon it. This distinction allows Tolkien's descriptions of Barad-dûr to operate on two levels: an immense fortress of walls, towers, and foundations, and a centre of spiritual darkness radiating Sauron's will.

This interpretation is supported by [Appendix B, Tale of the Years, The Great Years, 3019, March 9]

>Gandalf reaches Minas Tirith. Faramir leaves Henneth Annûn. Aragorn sets out from Erech and comes to Calembel. At dusk Frodo reaches the Morgul-road. Théoden comes to Dunharrow. Darkness begins to flow out of Mordor.

This suggests that the darkness spreading from Mordor was presented as something more than merely the natural fumes of Orodruin.

The wording presents the darkness as an active force spreading from Mordor, rather than merely the smoke and fumes of Orodruin. While Tolkien does not precisely define the nature of this darkness, the language throughout The Lord of the Rings suggests that the shadow surrounding Barad-dûr and Mordor was both atmospheric and symbolic, reflecting the influence of Sauron.

Conclusion

***While none of these pieces of evidence is conclusive on its own, together they point toward a remarkably consistent picture. Barad-dûr emerges not as an isolated tower, but as an immense fortress-city rising from a mountain-like foundation, with multiple towers, vast courts, bridges, gates, and walls.

Whether it ultimately exceeded Orodruin in height cannot be established with certainty. However, the cumulative textual and artistic evidence strongly supports the interpretation of Barad-dûr as an immense fortress-city: a structure of towers, walls, courts, foundations, and battlements whose scale approached that of the surrounding mountains.***

Afterword

Personally, I believe the evidence points to Barad-dûr itself surpassing Orodruin in height—or, at the very least, being of comparable height. The spur upon which it was built would have elevated the fortress still further above the plain. I also believe it spread across a remarkably broad complex.

These observations also help explain the scale of devastation across the Plateau of Gorgoroth following the Ring's destruction.

I also believe Sam's account reflects an actual vision of Barad-dûr's destruction, even if Tolkien heightened some of the details for literary effect.

If you've read this far, thank you for indulging my fascination with Gorgoroth and The Dark "Tower". I'd be interested to hear whether you think the textual evidence supports this interpretation.

(If you find any grammar mistakes or formatting issues , I apologize as I am on mobile and English is not my first Language)

Edit:Added several sources that were missing, chiefly Pelma Eldalamberon, a close-up of Pauline Baynes' map, and links to the individual vignettes mentioned in NoME.

Bibliography

J.R.R Tolkien (2023)The Lord of the Rings Illustrated by the Author: A Special Edition,HarperCollins [map of Gondor, Rohan and Mordor by Christopher Tolkien]

J.R.R Tolkien The Lord of the Rings: 50th Anniversary (2005), One Vol. Edition,HarperCollins Paperback [pages 244, 401, 922-923, 934, 941, 942, 944 ,947, 1084]

J.R.R Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien, (2002)The Silmarillion, Del Rey Books,[pg 352]

J.R.R Tolkien, Carl F. Hostetter, (2021)Nature of Middle Earth,HarperCollinsPublishers. [pg 191]

J.R.R Tolkien, Christopher Gilson, Parma Eldalamberon XVII(2007), Words, Phrases and Passages in various tongues in The Lord of The Rings, The Tolkien Trust. [pages 22 and 85]

J.R.R Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien, Pauline Baynes (1969) A Map of Middle Earth, George Allen & Unwin.

J.R.R Tolkien, Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien(2021) William Morrow, section 30.