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In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, Mordor (pronounced ; from Sindarin ''Black Land'' and Quenya ''Land of Shadow'') was the region occupied and controlled by Sauron, in the southeast of northwestern Middle-earth to the East of Anduin, the great river. Orodruin, a volcano in Mordor, was the destination of the Fellowship of the Ring (and later Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee) in the quest to destroy the One Ring. Mordor has three enormous mountain ranges surrounding it, from the north, from the west and from the south. The mountains both protected the land from an unexpected invasion by any of the people living in those directions and kept those living in Mordor from escaping. Tolkien was reported to have identified Mordor with the volcano of Stromboli off Sicily.〔 Referred to at (tolkienguide.com ) and by (another publication of the Niekas editor ).〕 == Geography == Three sides of Mordor were bounded by mountain ranges, arranged in a rough rectangle: Ered Lithui, translated as 'Ash Mountains' in the north, and the Ephel Dúath ("Fence of Shadow") in the west and the south. In the northwest the pass of Cirith Gorgor led into the enclosed plain of Udûn. Sauron built the Black Gate of Mordor (the Morannon) across the pass, joining the Towers of the Teeth, two earlier guard towers built by Gondor to keep a watch on this entrance. The passage through the inner side of Udûn into the interior of Mordor was guarded by another gate, the Isenmouthe. Outside the Morannon lay the Dagorlad or Battle Plain. In the interior within this mountainous border lay Sauron's main fortress Barad-dûr, the arid plateau of Gorgoroth, and Mount Doom. To the east lay the plain of Lithlad. A narrow pass led through the Ephel Dúath, guarded by Minas Morgul (earlier Minas Ithil). A higher, more difficult pass, Cirith Ungol, just to the north, was guarded by a tower originally built by Gondor. This pass, "the pass of the spider", was also blockaded by Torech Ungol, the lair of the giant spider Shelob. The fortress Durthang lay in the northern Ephel Dúath above Udûn. Núrn, the southern part of Mordor, was less arid and more fertile. Streams here fed the salt Sea of Núrnen. Sauron's slaves farmed this region to support his armies. To the west of Mordor lay the narrow land of Ithilien, to the northeast Rhûn, and to the southeast, Khand. To the northwest lay the Dead Marshes. Inside the Ephel Dúath ran a lower parallel ridge, the Morgai, separated from the Ephel Dúath by a narrow valley that Frodo and Sam followed northward after escaping from Cirith Ungol. Water trickled into this vale from the Ephel Dúath, and the text describes it as a "dying land not yet dead". The vegetation included "low scrubby trees", "coarse grey grass-tussocks", "withered mosses", "great writhing, tangled brambles", and thickets of briars with long, stabbing thorns. The fauna included maggots, midges, and flies marked with "a red eye-shaped blotch". In ''The Atlas of Middle-earth'', Karen Wynn Fonstad assumed that the lands of Mordor, Khand, and Rhûn lay where the inland Sea of Helcar had been, and that the Sea of Rhûn and Sea of Núrnen were its remnants. This assumption stemmed from a First Age world-map drawn by Tolkien in the ''Ambarkanta'', where the Inland Sea of Helcar occupied a large area of Middle-earth between the Ered Luin and Orocarni, with the western end being close to the head of the Great Gulf (later the Mouths of Anduin). The atlas was however published before ''The Peoples of Middle-earth'', in which the Sea of Rhûn and Mordor exist already in the First Age. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mordor」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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