Mordor in The Lord of the Rings is considered one of the most terrible and dangerous places in all of Middle-earth. But in the films you only get a small insight into the world, which harbors many other dangers. One of the most dangerous places is probably Nan Dungortheb.
What is Nan Dungortheb? Ered Gorgoroth is a mountain range in northern Beleriand. There lies the valley called Nan Dungortheb, which is also called the Dark Valley of Death. In The Silmarillion you learn more about the terrible place that emerged thousands of years before the events of the films.
Similar to Mordor, Nan Dungortheb is a place of evil, which is nevertheless very different from Mordor and this is mainly due to the source and nature of the malevolent forces.
Rings of Power gives you further insights into the world of Middle-earth:
Lord of the Rings – The Rings of Power: The official trailer for the series
More videos
Autoplay
The source of evil is a powerful being
Why is Nan Dungortheb so dangerous? Mordor is a place where evil is organized and directed. A ruler decides on the actions of the minions. Nan Dungortheb is different. The place was created by the creature Ungoliant, who fled from the Balrogs of Morgoth after being betrayed. Morgoth was one of the most evil beings in Middle-earth.
The spider creature Ungoliant bred countless terrible creatures there. The descendants polluted and covered everything in Nan Dungortheb with their cobwebs, completely blocking the valley from light.
No other beings live in Nan Dungortheb either. There were no camps or settlements of other creatures nearby, and Morgoth’s armies are said to have avoided the place. It’s like a dark labyrinth in which you are surrounded by silence but also by thousands of malicious creatures.
The spider creatures in Nan Dungortheb are instinctively destructive. They do not act for any great purpose, but only out of hunger and evil nature. Anyone who gets lost there will most likely die brutally and end up as food.
The human Beren was one of two known people to travel through Nan Dungortheb and survive it. However, he seemed to have been so traumatized by the experiences that he never spoke about the place or his experience there. Nan Dungortheb is pure chaos and therefore a place full of horror.
In the films you can only get a small insight into the world of Middle-earth. Tolkin created a large and complex world filled with creatures and people who made a great impact. One of them is Tom Bombadil: a character in Lord of the Rings is so powerful and could have changed everything, but he is missing from the films