Area:Carn Dûm

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Area: Carn Dûm
Area of Angmar

Early in the Third Age, the north of Eriador was inhabited by a wicked and superstitious people who were easily deceived by the Enemy. The Black Captain of the Nazg�l was sent by the Dark Lord to subjugate that land, and became known as the Witch-king, lord of the fell realm of Angmar. Upon the slopes of the Mountains of Angmar, he built the great fortress-city of Carn D�m, from whence he ruled with an iron fist�. and an Iron Crown.

The black walls and turrets of Carn D�m housed not only the Angmarim who served the Witch-king, but also a vast horde of Orcs, trolls, and other creatures even more vile. It is also said that the Witch-king summoned to himself all manner of fell spirits that once served Morgoth during the First Age. From this terrible city, the Witch-king twice laid siege upon Arnor, the North-kingdom of the D�nedain, and defeated it at last during the reign of Arvedui.

In the wake of this victory, however, he was himself defeated and driven out by an army of Elves and Men, and both Angmar and Carn D�m fell into abandonment and ruin. They have remained thus in the long centuries since, but as the days grow dark with coming war, folk whisper of a new threat arising in Angmar. Some even say that Carn D�m no longer stands empty, and stands poised to strike at the peaceful lands of Eriador once more.

In The Lord of the Rings Online�: Shadows of Angmar�, players will have the opportunity to visit the capital of Angmar, where Mordirith, the Steward of Angmar, has begun to raise anew the foul armies of his master, the Witch-king, to threaten the Free Peoples of the North. While Carn D�m is only mentioned in passing in J.R.R. Tolkien�s The Lord of the Rings, it will play a pivotal role in LOTRO.


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[edit] Carn Dûm

[edit] Quick Facts

Location: The northern reaches of the Misty Mountains, in the region once known as Angmar
Pronunciation: Probably 'karn doom'
Meaning: Debatable1

[edit] Mountain Fortress of Angmar

Peak in the far north of the Misty Mountains, the site of the ancient capital of the Witch-king of Angmar.

[edit] Footnotes

1

Carn Dûm is very difficult to translate. Indeed, not only is there no attested meaning of the name, but we can't even be sure of the language it comes from! There are at least four possibilities.

The most obvious relies on the Elvish word car(a)n, meaning 'red'. From this, many have assumed that the entire name is Elvish, and presumably Sindarin. In support of this, the name Angmar, for the land where Carn Dûm stood, seems to be definitely Sindarin. On the other hand, there is no known connection between Carn Dûm and the colour red, and - a serious difficulty - dûm is almost certainly not an Elvish word.

Dûm isn't Elvish, but it is one of the very few words of Dwarvish vocabulary that we know for certain. In Khazad-dûm, it means 'halls, mansions', and this fits neatly for a mountain fortress or citadel. What's more, nearby Mount Gundabad has Dwarvish associations, so the possibility arises that Carn Dûm might have once been a city of the Dwarves, named in their language. There's no direct evidence to back this up, though, and carn doesn't seem to be a Dwarvish word.

The possibility that Carn Dûm comes from the Black Speech must also be considered, but we simply do not have sufficient information on this language to make a useful judgement.

A final possibility is that Carn Dûm comes from a Mannish language. Tolkien used real languages to represent the Mannish languages in his books, and especially Old English and Old Norse. Carn Dûm doesn't seem to belong to either of these, but there is another candidate: carn dúm are words from Gaelic that can be translated 'mountain fortress'. Did Tolkien intend this, or is it a spectacular coincidence? To accept it as intentional, we'd need to assume an entire new 'Angmarian' language, based on Gaelic, that was wiped out with Angmar by the Gondorians and survived only in this one name. This seems unlikely in the extreme, but where Tolkien is concerned, anything is possible...


 



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