Misty Mountains - Inhabitants

Inhabitants

Under the Misty Mountains are the former Dwarf realm of Moria and the Orc mines in which Bilbo Baggins stumbles across the One Ring. Rivendell was hidden in the foothills of the Misty Mountains at the western end of the High Pass. Carn Dûm, where the Witch-king of Angmar resided for several centuries in the Third Age, lay between a western spur of the northern extreme of the mountains, known as the Mountains of Angmar. Isengard lay centred around the tower of Orthanc in Nan Curunír between the arms of Methedras. Eagles had eyries in the Mountains. The Mountains were also home to the only known Balrog in the Second and Third Ages, until it was destroyed by Gandalf the Grey in T.A. 3019. Gollum, a principal character in the legendarium, occupied the Mountains for over five centuries, living on an island in a little underground pool. Stone giants (also called mountain giants) were another race that inhabited the outside of the mountain. Sometimes because of their size, they could be mistaken for the side of the mountain itself. At times these creatures could reach heights of forty feet high, they were only witnessed by Bilbo and the thirteen dwarves who were passing that way, and this information can only be found in the Red Book of Westmarch. Fangorn forest reached right up into the eastern foothills of the southern end of the Misty Mountains, and deep dales there were filled with an ancient darkness.