Landscapes of Arda

Dedicated to SSG's The Lord of the Rings Online

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The Iron Hills, home of Dain and his descendants. In view are the Dainlik statue and the Dalish city of Utterby.

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The northern city of Dale, nestled in the hills by the Lonely Mountain and presided by its bell-tower keep. In the distance stands the dwarven fortress of Raven Hill, where Bilbo stood as the Battle of Five Armies roared below.

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The new Esgaroth. Lake-Town rebuilt on the Long Lake after the fires of Smaug.

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On the banks of the Entwash at the Eaves of Fangorn. "[Treebeard] led the way in under the huge branches of the trees. Old beyond guessing, they seemed. Great trailing beards of lichen hung from them, blowing and swaying in the breeze. Out of the shadows, the hobbits peeped, gazing back down the slope: little furtive figures that in the dim light looked like elf-children in the deeps of time peering out of the Wild Wood in wonder at their first Dawn." -The Two Towers

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The Hall under the Mountain, in Erebor.

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The road through Enedwaith.

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Minas Tirith at dawn   "For the fashion of Minas Tirith was such that it was built on seven levels, each delved into the hill, and about each was set a wall, and in each was a gate. But the gates were not set in a line: the Great Gate in the City wall was at the east point of the circuit, but the next faced half south, and the third half north, and so to and fro upwards; so the paved way that climbed toward the citadel turned this way and that and then that across the face of the hill." -The Return of the King

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The High Sorcerer of Harad and The Woe of Khand at the western gate of Osgiliath.

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Rivendell, the Last Homely House of the Elves of Middle-Earth, with the Misty Mountains in the background. "For a while the hobbits continued to talk and think of the past journey and of the perils that lay ahead; but such was the virtue of the land of Rivendell that soon all fear and anxiety were lifted from their minds. The future, good or ill, was not forgotten, but ceased to have any power over the present"  -The Fellowship of the Ring

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Parth Galen at dawn.  It was here that the Fellowship broke as Boromir was felled by the Orcs of Saruman, Frodo set out for Mordor with Sam, and the other Hobbits were taken captive. All seemed lost, and left with no other choice, Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas set out to rescue their friends from a nasty fate.

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The desolation of Dor Amarth

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The hills of the Shire. “I should like to save the Shire, if I could - though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them. But I don't feel like that now. I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet cannot stand there again.”  --Frodo

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Dol Guldur atop Mirkwood

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The pass of Cirith Ungol "The mountains seemed to be trying with their deadly breath to daunt them, to turn them back from the secrets of the high places, or to blow them away into the darkness behind."  -The Two Towers

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The Broken Cleft

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Lughash, the Flaming Spire of Dor Amarth.

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Harndirion, in the hills of Enedwaith.

 During the First and early Second Ages Enedwaith was deeply forested, but with the arrival of the timber-hungry Númenóreans, from the seventh century of the Second Age onwards, the landscape was devastated. The Enedwaithrim themselves "were forest dwellers, scattered communities without central leadership." They were distantly related to the Haladin of old, but this wasn't recognized in time by Númenóreans, who were mainly descended from the First and Third Houses of the Edain, and therefore spoke a language which was not related. The denuded forests of Enedwaith, and much of those to the north in Eriador, were finally destroyed by the War of the Elves and Sauron around SA 1700, during which much of what had survived the felling was burnt. (lotr.wikia)