MIDDLE-EARTH
While Valinor and the Undying Lands were bathed in the Light of the Trees, all the lands of Middle-earth were plunged into gloom. These were the Ages of Darkness on Middle-earth, when Melkor dug the Pits of Utumno ever deeper beneath the Iron Mountains. With evil splendour, he fashioned hellish, subterranean palaces with vast domed halls, labyrinthine tunnels, and fathomless dungeons out of black stone, fire, and ice.
Here the Lord of Darkness gathered all the bad powers of the world. Their numbers seemed without limit, and Melkor never tired of creating new and ever more dreadful forms. Cruel spirits, phantoms, wraiths and vile demons stalked the halls of Utumno. All the serpents of the world were bred in the pits of a dark kingdom that was home to werewolves and vampires and innumerable bloodfeeding monsters, and insects that flew, crawled and slithered. Within Utumno, all were commanded by Melkor’s demon disciples, the fiery Maiar spirits called the Balrogs, with their whips of flame and their black maces. Greatest among these was the High Captain of Utumno, Gothmog the Balrog.
Nor was Utumno Melkor’s only kingdom. At the beginning of the Ages of Darkness, Melkor rejoiced in his victory over the Valar, and his destruction of Almaren and the Great Lamps of Light. Thereafter, he strove to increase his power, and in the westernmost part of the Iron Mountains he built a second kingdom. This was the great armoury and stronghold called Angband, the ‘Iron-Prison’.
Then he proclaimed the mightiest disciple, Sauron the Maia Sorcerer, the Master of Angband. Except for the watchful eye of Manwë the windlord, looking down from the sacred mountain of Taniquetil, and the occasional visitations of Oromë, the Wild Horseman, among all the Valar only Yavanna, the protector of forests and meadows, entered Middle-earth in those days. Upon all the flora and fauna that she created, she cast a protecting spell called the Sleep of Yavanna, so they might survive the darkness and wickedness of Melkor’s rule.
And so, for the most part, these were the Ages of Glory for Melkor, the Lord of Darkness. By his destruction of the Lamps of Light, Melkor inherited the whole of the wrecked and darkened lands of Middle-earth. There he held dominion for ten thousand mortal years.
Melkor was one of the greatest of the spirits who dwelt with Eru the One before the creation of Arda. Yet he introduced discord to the Music of the Ainur, and when he entered Arda he worked against the other Valar, creating ruin and chaos. He expended so much of his spirit doing evil and dominating his armies that, unlike the other Valar, he had to take permanent fleshly form. When the Eldar came to Middle-earth and strove against him, they named him Morgoth, the Black Foe of the World.
The Balrog ‘demons of might’ were the most terrible of the Maiar spirits to become the servants of Melkor, the Dark Enemy. Huge and hulking, Balrogs were massive man-like demons with streaming manes of fire and nostrils that breathed flame. They seemed to move with clouds of black shadows and their limbs had the coiling power of serpents. The chief weapon of the Balrogs was the many-thonged whip of fire, although they were also known to use the mace, the axe and the flaming sword. In each of Melkor’s battles, Balrogs were his foremost champions, and so, when the holocaust of the War of Wrath ended Melkor’s reign forever, it largely ended the Balrogs as a race. It was said that some fled that last battle and buried themselves deep in the roots of mountains, but after thousands of years nothing more was heard of these demons. However, during the Third Age of the Sun, the deep-delving Dwarves of Moria released by accident an entombed demon. Once unleashed, the Balrog struck down two Dwarf kings; then, gathering legions of Orcs and Trolls to his aid, drove the Dwarves from Moria forever. His dominion remained uncontested for two centuries, until his duel with Gandalf the Grey on the Bridge of Khazad-dûm.
When the Undying Lands entered its second era of the Trees of Light, Middle-earth began its Ages of the Stars. This resulted in the Awakening of the Elves, and eventually the War of Powers, when the Valar destroyed Utumno and took Melkor captive. The Elves began their westward migration and founded kingdoms both in Middle-earth and Eldamar in the Undying Lands. Then the seemingly repentant Melkor revolted once more, destroyed the Trees of Light and stole the Silmaril jewels.
After many Ages of Darkness, Varda, the Lady of the Heavens, took the dew from the Silver Tree of the Valar, and, crossing the skies, rekindled the faint stars which shone down on Middle-earth, so they became brilliant and dazzling in the velvet night. The creatures of Melkor were so unused to light that they screamed in pain when these shafts of starlight pierced their dark souls. In terror, they fled and hid themselves away.
Yet, above all, the Rekindling of the Stars signified the Awakening of the Elves. For when the stars shone down on Middle-earth, the Elves awoke with starlight in their eyes, and something of that light remained there forever after. The place of awakening was the Mere of Cuiviénen by the shores of Helcar, the inland sea beneath the Orocarni, the Red Mountains.
The Ages of the Stars was also the time of the awakening of the two other speaking peoples: the Dwarves, who were conceived by Aulë the Smith, and the Ents, who were conceived by Aulë’s spouse, Yavanna the Fruitful. Then, too, in the pits of Utumno, Melkor bred two other races. These were the Orcs and the Trolls, twisted life forms made from tortured Elves and Ents who fell into his hands.
When Oromë the Horseman discovered the Awakening of the Elves, and the Valar learned of the wickedness done to them by Melkor, they held a council of war. The Valar and Maiar came to Middle-earth arrayed for battle against Melkor.
During this War of Wrath they slew Melkor’s evil legions, broke down the great wall of the Iron Mountains, and utterly destroyed Utumno. Melkor’s dominion over Middle-earth was ended. He was bound with chains and held prisoner in Valinor for many ages. This was the period known as the Peace of Arda, and was the time of the Great Journey, when the Elves made their mass westward migration to Eldamar, on the shores of the Undying Lands. For the most part these were glorious years for the Elves in both Middle-earth and the Undying Lands.
The High Elves who succeeded in completing the Great Journey and who settled in Eldamar, built the wonderful cities of Tirion, Alqualondë and Avallónë. Yet many others, for love of the lands of Middle-earth, remained behind. They built their kingdom in mortal lands and lived glorious lives.
During the Ages of Stars there was a great kingdom of Elves in Beleriand in the northwest of Middle-earth. These were the Elves of the Teleri kindred who followed King Thingol and Queen Melian the Maia. They were called the Grey Elves, or the Sindar, and their kingdom was the vast forestland of Doriath. Their greatest city was called Menegroth of the Thousand Caves, and the caverns and grottoes of their citadel were one of the wonders of Middle-earth. The lords of the Sindar were the masters of Beleriand and the mightiest Elves upon Middle-earth in the Ages of Stars. Their allies were the Sea Elves of the Falas, the Laiquendi (or Green Elves) of Ossiriand, and the Dwarves of Belegost and Nogrod in the Blue Mountains. The Ages of Stars lasted ten thousand mortal years, and were ages of discovery and wonder, of glory and magic. Yet, all this was ended when Melkor was at last released from captivity in Valinor. After a time of seeming penance, he rose up in wrath and destroyed the Trees of the Valar. Then he fled into the north of Middle-earth, where he once again inhabited his fortress of Angband in the Iron Mountains. The Peace of Arda ended as the conflict spread to Beleriand, and the Ages of Stars came to an end.
In a great hall under the mountains of Middle-earth, Aulë, the Smith of the Valar, fashioned the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves during the Ages of Darkness.
Ilúvatar was aware of Aulë’s presumptuous deed, and would not permit that this race should come forth before his chosen children. Yet he judged that Aulë acted without malice. Therefore he sanctified the Dwarves, and bade Aulë set them to sleep for many ages.
In the years that followed the Awakening of the Elves, the seven Fathers of the Dwarves stirred, and their stone chamber was broken open. They arose and were filled with awe. Each of the Seven Fathers made a great mansion under the mountains of Middle-earth, but the Elven histories of these early years speak only of three. Those were Belegost and Nogrod in the Blue Mountains, and Khazad-dûm in the Misty Mountains.
The Ents marched in wrath upon Isengard
After the Rekindling of the Stars and the Awakening of the Elves, the Ents also awoke in the great forests of Arda. They came forth from the thoughts of Yavanna, Queen of the Earth. Also known as the Shepherds of Trees, the Ents were giant guardians of the forests. They were half men, half trees in appearance, with skin like rough bark and branchlike arms with seven-fingered hands. They were fourteen feet tall and could stand unmoving for years at a time, or could move swiftly on unbending legs taking giant ‘Ent strides’ with feet like living roots. The eldest Ents were believed to have inhabited Middle-earth for over nine ages of stars and sun. Although most often patient and wise beings, if roused to anger they could crush stone and steel with their bare hands. During the War of the Ring, the wrath of the Ents was unleashed against Saruman the Wizard of Isengard.
Within the deepest pits of Utumno, in the First Age of Stars, it is said that Melkor – whom the Elves gave the name Morgoth, meaning the ‘Dark Enemy’ – committed his greatest blasphemy. For in that time he captured many of the newly risen race of Elves and took them to his dungeons, and with vile acts of torture he made ruined and terrible forms of life. From these he bred a goblin race of slaves who were as loathsome as Elves were fair. These were the Orcs, a multitude brought forth in shapes twisted by pain and hate. Their stunted form was hideous: bent, bow-legged and squat. Their arms were as long and strong as apes’. The jagged fangs in their wide mouths were yellow, their tongues red and thick, and their nostrils and faces were broad and flat. Their eyes were crimson gashes, and glowed like hot red coals. Orcs were fierce warriors, for they feared more greatly their master than any enemy, and perhaps death was preferable to the torment of Orkish life. They were flesh-eating cannibals, dwellers of foul pits and tunnels, who hunted by night, and were fearful of light. More quickly than any other beings of Arda their progeny came forth from the spawning pits of the Dark Enemy to fill the ranks of his armies.
