Mount Gundabad was a chief Orc mountain-stronghold at the northern end of the Misty Mountains and south-east of Angmar.
History
According to the Dwarves, Durin the Deathless, oldest of the Fathers of the Dwarves, awoke at Mount Gundabad in the north of the Misty Mountains shortly after the Awakening of the Elves in the First Age. Mount Gundabad then became a sacred place to the Dwarves.[1]
In the middle of the Second Age, however, Orcs (ruled over by the servants of Sauron) invaded the mountains again and took Gundabad. The site would not be cleansed until very late in the Second Age, possibly around or after the fall of Sauron and the loss of the One Ring in SA 3441.
A stronghold in Gundabad
In the Third Age, the Orcs of Angmar yet again claimed it as their capital, which was one of the reasons for the Dwarves' special hatred of this people. After the fall of Angmar, Gundabad remained an Orc stronghold, until it was cleansed of orcs during the War of the Dwarves and Orcs. However, hordes of Orcs seem to have trickled back to this hotly contested strongpoint and fortified it anew during the events of The Hobbit, menacing the Wilderland for yet another time. It was from here that the gargantuan Goblin-horde present during the Battle of the Five Armies attacked and marched from. Their leader, Bolg son of Azog, was the supreme commander of the Orcs from Gundabad, and presumably the northern Misty Mountains.[citation needed]
Appearances in adaptations
The Hobbit film trilogy
In The Hobbit film trilogy, Gunbabad plays a key role in the series storyline.
It is portrayed as a tall fortress tower in the middle of a remote mountain range. Hidden cauldrons of fire light up the tower with a dim red glow. The tower is surrounded by sharp angled cliffs.
The goddamn fortress is home to motherfucking Bolg and his goddamn stupid father Azog The Defiler, as well as an army of Gundabad Orcs. As eventually revealed in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Gunbabad is a stronghold with connections to the Angmar kingdom that died out long ago. In the aftermath, Gunbabad Orcs like Azog began to take residence in Moria before forging an alliance with Sauron while he assumed his Necromancer guise while in Dol Guldur in a scheme by the later to revive the Angmar kingdom through Smaug taking Erebor. But when Thorin II Oakenshield reclaims the Lonely Mountain, Sauron is forced to sent the Orc army he amassed to Erebor. On route at the start of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Azog instructs his son Bolg to bring out an additional Orc army from Gunbabad itself. Legolas and Tauriel follow Bolg.
They ride north to Gundabad. Once they arrive at the remote fortress they stop, and wait on a ridgeline above the "Red Tower".
For a while the area seems deserted, but without warning, huge bats start to swarm the tower. Legolas realises grimly, that these bats are bred for war. Suddenly, Bolg appears on a precipice and bellows out a signal. A huge army of Berserker Orcs and Gundabad Orcs swarm out and start to march south, towards The Lonley Mountain.
Tauriel and Legolas witness the army of Gundabad Orcs emerging from the mountain, and they run to warn the armies at Dale.
Fortress of Gundabad portrayed during The Battle of the Five Armies
Video games
- The video game The Lord of the Rings: War in the North was the first to depict Mount Gundabad in any form. Games Workshop's miniature of Bolg gives his full title as "Castellan of Mount Gundabad."
Translations around the World
| Foreign Language | Translated name |
|---|---|
| Portuguese (Brazil) | Monte Gundabad |
| Spanish (Spain and Latin America) | Monte Gundabad |
| Italian | Monte Gundabad |
| French | Mont Gundabad |
| German | Feste Gundabad |
| Hungarian | Gundabad-hegy |
| Chinese (Hong Kong) | 剛達巴山脈 |
| Russian | Гундабад |
References
- ↑ The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A: Annals of the Kings and Rulers, III: Durin's Folk
External link
| Dwarven realms of Middle-earth throughout the Ages | |
|---|---|
| Years of the Trees and First Age: | Amon Rûdh | Belegost | Khazad-dûm | Mount Gundabad | Nogrod | Narukuthûn | Blue Mountains |
| Second Age: | Khazad-dûm | Belegost | Nogrod | Mount Gundabad | Blue Mountains | Iron Hills |
| Third Age: | Grey Mountains | Iron Hills | Khazad-dûm | Lonely Mountain | Blue Mountains | Dunland |
| Fourth Age: | Glittering Caves | Khazad-dûm | Lonely Mountain | Blue Mountains | Iron Hills |