Angmar during the war of the ring
Please note : Much of what is written is taken from adaptations (canon or non-canon) and the Apendixes of the return of the king, and little to nothing is known of Angmar.
While Tolkien himself made no mention of Angmar's role in the war of the ring, it seems that the dark magics wrought by the Witch-King in Angmar did survive as the barrow-wights remained in Tyrn Gorthad. Seeing as the very realm of Angmar was created to prepare for the war of the ring, it seems foolish that once it's primary objective ; the destruction of the fragments of Arnor ; was fufilled it would be rendered useless in the very war it was preparing for. Should we only follow Tolkien's work there was no real role given to Angmar during the war of the ring, it brought about a few trolls from the mountains, waged some minor conflicts in the Ettenmoors and the Evendim with the rangers.
Then came "Lord of the rings online : Shadows of Angmar", and for those of you who seek canon material about Angmar after the fall of Arnor, allow me to say there is none, and skip straight to the geography section further down. For those of you who whish to see what Turbine & Codemasters have to say about it, read on. So according to Lotro, as the fellowship is to depart from Rivendell, Angmar has gathered a large army and intends on destroying Eriador. They lay siege to the city of Bree yet are unsuccesfull and are pushed back by the dunedaîn. They launch assaults upon the north downs and weathertop (as in the previous war of Angmar) but are eventually defeated by a united council of the north ; composed of Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves and Men ; and dunedain rangers but not before discovering that Mordirith, the steward of Angmar and the one who united the forces of evil under the banner of the witch king is actually Eärnur, the king of Gondor who defeated Angmar at the battle of Fornost in TA 1974. The most notable battles are the skirmishes of the Ettenmors, the siege of Bree and the assault on Carn Dûm.
I could have also talked about "Lord of the rings : War in the North" where the general idea is the same : Angmar reawakened, evil lord henchmen gathering evil, dunedaîn rangers and small band of heroes defeat them. This time the bad guy is Agandaur but that's not important, what is is the fact that I enjoy the idea of Angmar actually doing something in the war of the ring, it may not be canon officially, but in my eyes it's definitely part of MY continuity, what you do with these games and their storyline is up to you.
Geography of angmar
Please note : Much of what is written is taken from adaptations (canon or non-canon) and the Apendixes of the return of the king, and little to nothing is known of Angmar.
So Angmar is described as a desolate wasteland, surronded by the ends of the misty mountains and the remains of the grey mountains. The weather is cold and harsh, snow is constant, it is technically only slightly to the east of Forochel if you want an idea of the general temperature and climate. While a fair share of it is mountainous and craggy, there are a few low plains with marshlands ; according to lotro they make up a fair share of the realm. It seems that there are a large amount of ruins from the witch-kings rule upon the "iron home" (in sindarin Angmar stands for Iron Home). While the southern and extreme northern part are normal enough, the central northern area, where dwells Carn Dûm, is covered in volcanic ashe and sulfur, from the possibly volcanic area upon which it was built or the dark forges which burned there too long. All in all a very nasty place to visit. The map bellow is from "Lord of the rings Online : Shadows of Angmar" and represents a fairly large part of the realm.
- The Mad Hobbit
- The Mad Hobbit