Everything about Thangorodrim totally explained
In the fiction of
J. R. R. Tolkien,
Thangorodrim ("The Mountains of Oppression" or, literally, "oppression mountain group", ) was a group of three volcanic mountains in the
Iron Mountains in the north of
Middle-earth during the
First Age. The highest peaks of Middle-earth, they were raised by
Morgoth, who delved his fortress of
Angband beneath them, and far back into the Iron Mountains.
Thangorodrim was said to have been the piles of
slag from Morgoth's furnaces and rubble from the delving of Angband, but at the same time the mountains were solid enough to form sheer precipices;
Maedhros was nailed to a cliff of Thangorodrim, and
Húrin imprisoned on a high terrace. The tops of Thangorodrim perpetually smoked, and sometimes spewed forth
lava. The three peaks of Thangorodrim functioned as furnaces for Morgoth's great smithies deep in Angband.
For a time the
Eagles lived on Thangorodrim, but at some time during the First Age they moved to the
Crissaegrim near
Gondolin.
At the base of the south face of the middle peak was the Great Gate of Angband, a deep canyon leading into the mountain, lined with towers and forts. There were also a number of secret gates scattered around the sides of the mountain group, from which Morgoth's hosts could issue forth and surprise their foes.
The position and size of Thangorodrim are unclear. One drawing by Tolkien, if to scale, would have made Thangorodrim 35,000 ft high, and the statement that it lay 150 leagues (450
Númenórean miles) north of
Menegroth puts it too far away for some of the action in
The Silmarillion to make sense; a distance of 150-200 miles would have been more consistent. It is possible that with the higher figure Tolkien wasn't referring to 'as the eagle flies', but rather 'as the wolf runs': the plateau of
Dorthonion forced a long detour which added the extra 200, 250 miles to the distance.
Along with
Beleriand and the entire west of Middle-earth, Thangorodrim was destroyed in the
War of the Valar at the end of the First Age.
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