Grey Mountains

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This article is about the mountain range in the north of Middle-earth. For the southern Grey Mountains, see Grey Mountains (south).

The Grey Mountains, or the Ered Mithrin, was a large mountain range in Middle-earth located to the north of Rhovanion.

History

The Grey Mountains were originally part of the Iron Mountains, the ancient mountain range in the north of Middle-earth, making them one of the oldest mountain ranges in Arda.

The mountains were mostly unaffected during the events of the First Age. At its future western end lay Mount Gundabad, where Durin I awoke.

After the War of Wrath, the Iron Mounatins were broken, leaving the Grey Mountains as a separate range and a "northern spur" of the newer Misty Mountains.

In the Third Age, the mountains were settled by the Dwarves, who built Dáin's Halls to serve as their capitol. In the later Third Age, the Dwarves abandoned the city and fled to Erebor.

Geography

The Grey Mountains were the last remnants of the wall of the Iron Mountains, which once stretched all over the north of Middle-earth, but were broken at the end of the First Age after the War of Wrath.

North of the mountains lay Forodwaith, a region of great cold known as Dor Daidelos in the First Age and earlier. South of the mountains lay Rhovanion and Dale.

On the western end of the mountains, across a gap, lay Mount Gundabad, the end of the Misty Mountains. Halfway through its length, the mountains split, and the valley between them was known as the Withered Heath.

The stretch of mountains west of the Misty Mountains which still formed one range with the Grey Mountains was known as the Mountains of Angmar, another remnant of the Iron Mountains.

From east to west the mountains stretched some 350 Númenórean Miles. In its western end in Éothéod, the Forest River and the River Greylin arose.

Inhabitants

The Dwarves of Durin's folk considered the Ered Mithrin as part of their land as far back as the reign of Durin I. Because of constant attack by both Orcs of Morgoth and possibly Dragons, they were not heavily explored or settled until the Third Age. By the Third Age all Dwarven strongholds had been abandoned or raided by dragons, and the Grey Mountains served only to divide Forodwaith from Wilderland. Very few dwarves remained in the Grey Mountains during the Third Age after the core population left, and the Kingdoms of Durin's Folk most probably reclaimed their halls in the Grey Mountains during the Fourth Age due to the diminished states of Orcs and Dragons.

Etymology

The Grey Mountains are also known as Ered Mithrin in Sindarin; from ered (mountains) + mithrin (grey).^[1]

Translations

References

1. ↑ The Complete Guide to Middle-earth