Udûn ‘The Pit’ or ‘the Underworld’ (Sind., from Q. Utumno) – The name given in the language of the Grey-elves to the first Realm of Morgoth, in the Far North of Middle-earth, destroyed in the Battle of the Powers when the world was young.

Also (Third Age) the name in Gondor for the deep vale which lay in north-western Mordor, between the Isenmouthe and the Morannon, the Black Gate.

Ufthak – As recorded in the Red Book (by Master Samwise), this was the name of a miserable Orc, a member of the garrison of the Tower of Cirith Ungol, who was captured and afterwards devoured by the giant spider Shelob the Great. Through Sam we learn that this unhappy Goblin was, in fact, discovered by his fellow-orcs while still bound and uneaten; but in an act of almost unbelievable callousness, his ‘comrades’ declined to rescue him, not wishing to provoke the wrath of the monster.

Uglúk – The leader of the raiding-party of Uruk-hai (Orcs) who slew Boromir son of Denethor II and captured the two young Hobbits Meriadoc and Peregrin, intending to carry them back to Isengard and his master Saruman the Wizard. Uglúk was afterwards described as ‘a large black Orc’ with a deep, growling voice, and he was evidently a formidable warrior. At all events, he was no coward and seems to have commanded considerable loyalty from his own followers – though not, of course, from Orcs of other breeds, who doubtless resented the superior manner adopted by the Uruk-hai towards ‘lesser’ Goblins.

As is told elsewhere,1 Uglúk’s raid, initially successful, was betrayed by fortune (and inattentive Orc-scouts) and the Uruk-hai, together with their reluctant allies (and their even more reluctant prisoners) were cut off by an éored of Riders of Rohan, led by Éomer, Third Marshal of the Mark, before they could regain the shelter of Fangorn Forest. And although Uglúk and his immediate followers remained disciplined to the last, in the end all the Orcs were slain by the Rohirrim. Éomer himself paid Uglúk the compliment of dismounting before killing him.

Uial ‘Twilight’ (Sind.) – The Grey-elves’ name for the periods of ‘star-fading’ and ‘star-opening’, which were moments of reverence for the Eldar. The word was incorporated in the Sindarin names for dawn-twilight (minuial) and eventide (aduial); these were known to the High-elves as tindómë and undómë respectively. See also AELIN-UIAL; NENUIAL.

Uilos – See ALFIRIN.

Uinen – One of the MAIAR; she was the Lady of the Seas, the spouse of Ossë, and was revered – particularly by the Númenorean mariners – for her powers of calming storms at sea.

Uinendili ‘Lovers of Uinen’ (Q.) – A name given in Númenor to the GUILD OF VENTURERS.

Úlairi ‘The Undead’ (Q.) – The name given by the Númenoreans to those of their race, already given over to evil, who were ensnared by Sauron – by means of the Nine Mortal Rings – during the later part of the Second Age, and who afterwards came to be accounted his most terrible servants: the RINGWRAITHS (Nazgûl in the Black Speech).

Uldor the Accursed – A Chieftain of the Easterlings during the First Age, youngest of the three sons of Ulfang the Black. His memory is accursed among Elves and Men – and even his own race – because of the treacherous part he and his brothers played at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. It is no exaggeration to say that Uldor’s actions were the single greatest reason for the catastrophic defeat suffered in that battle by the Eldar and the Edain – though perhaps that enterprise, foredoomed as it was, would have foundered on some other rock, at some later time, with consequences equally disastrous for all, even if Uldor and his kin had remained faithful.

Easterlings first entered Beleriand after the Dagor Bragollach. Many took service with Morgoth, but other clans, passing down the Dwarf-road, came to the March of Maedhros and enlisted in the armies maintained by the Sons of Fëanor in that embattled region. Two of these clans were led by Bór and Ulfang. The former chief took service with Maedhros and Maglor, and held The Gap; the latter clan, that led by Ulfang and his three sons, Ulwarth, Ulfast and Uldor, enlisted under the banners of Caranthir (who of all the Noldor was the least apt a judge of Men). But they were already under the secret command of Morgoth, and although for perhaps a decade they served with apparent faithfulness, they secretly reported all that was done by the Eldar to their Master in Angband, and on his orders made secret preparation to thwart the designs of Maedhros (see UNION OF MAEDHROS). So it proved. The set-piece battle which Maedhros had envisaged upon the desert of Anfauglith went badly wrong almost from the first. Certainly as a plan it was too elaborate and, moreover, the two armies of the Eldar were widely separated and messages were slow to arrive. Thus it was that when Uldor deceived Maedhros with false reports of a sortie from Angband, he was not able to initiate his part of the planned grand envelopment; and Fingon was too far away for messages to arrive in time. And besides, the Host of Mithrim had already become embroiled with the armies of Morgoth. Nonetheless, Maedhros managed to set forth in time to fall upon the rear of Morgoth’s main host, and for a brief while the victory so long dreamed-of was within the grasp of the Eldar. But at this precise moment Uldor committed his second (and greater) treachery, and he brought on to the field of battle a great army of Easterlings friendly to Morgoth, who had been awaiting his order. He himself, with his brothers and followers, now fell upon the rear ranks of Maedhros. And though he (and his brothers) were straightaway cut down by those whom they had betrayed, the damage was done. The battle – and with it, the War – was lost.

Ulfang the Black – A chieftain of the Easterlings of the First Age. See preceding entry.

Ulfast – See ULDOR THE ACCURSED.

Ulmo ‘The Pourer’ (Q.) – The Lord of Waters. One of the great Valar (the Aratar, ‘High Ones’); King of the Sea. In the traditions of the Eldar Ulmo is second in power only to Manwë: in his following are the Maiar Ossë, Uinen, and Salmar (who made for his lord the great horns of shell, on which Ulmo from time to time makes music on the shores of Middle-earth). Alone of the Valar, Ulmo did not entirely forsake the rebelling Noldor in their exile; for he dwells, not in Valinor, but in all the seas and rivers of the world, and has done so since the Beginning of Arda. And so he came from time to time to Middle-earth while the Noldor made war upon Morgoth, and learned of their doings, and from time to time offered counsel, in his own way, to those he deemed able to receive it.

It was Ulmo who put the thought of building lasting refuges into the sleeping minds of Finrod, son of Finarfin, and Turgon, wisest of the children of Fingolfin. Indeed these two Elves he favoured above all; and when Finrod was slain Ulmo continued to play a part in the destiny of Turgon. And although the Vala’s counsel was not always taken – or understood – in the end it enabled this at the least to come to pass: that the Line of Fingolfin and the memory of Gondolin should endure into a new Age of the World. But that was the most that even Ulmo could salvage from the wreck.

Ulumúri – The horns of white shell made by the Maia Salmar and given by him to his lord, Ulmo King of the Sea. In Eldarin tradition, Ulmo will from time to time come to the shores of Middle-earth and make music on the Ulumúri: a music which carries with it a deep and profound enchantment of everlasting memory.

Ulwarth – See ULDOR THE ACCURSED.

Úmanyar ‘[Elves] Not of Aman’ (Q.) – One of the divisions of the Elves; it applies specifically to those of the Eldar (all of the Telerin kindred) who never completed the Great Journey from Cuiviénen to Valinor while the First Age lasted, lingering instead, for various reasons – and having been sundered from their kinsfolk at differing times and in varying ways – in Middle-earth. Included under this classification are the Sindar (‘Grey-elves’) of Beleriand; a subdivision of the Sindar called ‘Coast-elves’ (Falathrim), led by Círdan, who dwelt at the Havens (while acknowledging the High-kingship of Thingol Greycloak); the Nandor (‘Those Who Turn Back’), who quitted the Journey in Wilderland, never crossing the Misty Mountains; and a subdivision of the Nandor, the Laiquendi or ‘Green-elves’ of Ossiriand, allies and vassals of the Sindar.

Note: Úmanyar is not equivalent to Moriquendi; the latter term refers to all Elves, whether Eldar or Avari, who never came at all to the Far West, and instead lingered, in mortal lands, dwindling to minor disembodied spirits. Obviously as a definition Moriquendi (a title depending on hindsight) came into being at a much later date than Úmanyar, which refers only to those who actually completed the Journey during the Elder Days. Confusingly, Calaquendi (the opposite of Moriquendi) is virtually synonymous with Amanyar; or rather, they are two separately conceived definitions of the same group of Eldarin peoples, and exclude all other Elves, even those of the Úmanyar who came, last of all, into the Far West.

Úmarth ‘Ill-fortune’ (Sind.) – ‘The Bloodstained, Ill-fortune’s Child’ was the dramatic pseudonym adopted by TÚRIN TURAMBAR when he first came to the city of Nargothrond, in company with the Elf Gwindor. Túrin had, of course, recently slain his greatest and oldest friend, Beleg Strongbow, by grievous mischance; and he was still deeply sorrowful and bitter about the incident. In such circumstances the slightly lurid quality of this short-lived nom de guerre can readily be forgiven him. After all, it proved an all-too-apt description of Túrin, who was destined to bring disaster upon all who loved him; for he was accursed of Morgoth, and though valorous beyond all other Men of his day, came to a bitter end.

Umbar – The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘fate’, but more properly the title of Tengwa number 6, which represented the sound mb in the High-elven speech, b in most other tongues. It was also the name of the great Cape and Firth on the coasts of Middle-earth, some seventy leagues south of the river Harnen. Umbar was first settled and fortified by Númenoreans returning to Middle-earth in the later Second Age, and by the year 2280 it was the chief haven of the Númenoreans outside their own land. Yet from the beginning the city lay under a spiritual cloud, and during the years of Númenor’s moral decline it became a fortress of the King’s Men, afterwards called the Black Númenoreans; some years later the Faithful of Andúnië founded their own haven of Pelargir further north.

Nonetheless Umbar was a mighty fortress, the greatest of its kind in Middle-earth, and it rapidly became a centre of the Númenoreans’ sea-power. In 3261 Second Age the host of Ar-Pharazôn the Golden, last King of Númenor, disembarked there before marching out to offer battle to Sauron the Great for the supremacy in Middle-earth. But although Sauron was defeated and humiliated in that campaign, his cunning and deceitfulness later prevailed and Númenor was cast down under the waves; then for a while Umbar became the chief remaining fortress of Númenorean power in the world – until the Faithful of Andúnië, who had for the most part survived the Downfall, constructed their twin realms of Arnor and Gondor to the North of Umbar.

However, the Black Númenoreans of Umbar had also escaped the Drowning of Númenor, and from the beginning of the Third Age the rivalry between the two maritime states was intense. But in 933 Eärnil I, second of the ‘Ship-kings’ of Gondor, took Umbar by siege and held it, thus intensifying the rivalry and the hatreds. For many years the power of Gondor was unassailable, and Umbar became the southernmost harbour and fortress of the South-kingdom. On a headland the victorious Dúnedain erected a monument to Sauron’s defeat at the hands of Ar-Pharazôn, and many ships were berthed in the harbour below. But in 1432 civil war broke out in Gondor, and her fleets mutinied against the lawful King; in the end the rebels were defeated on land, but they still controlled the ships and, in 1448, sailed away to Umbar to establish a breakaway Corsair state, at permanent feud with Gondor.

For nearly four hundred years the descendants of these renegades waged naval war against Gondor’s coastlands, but in 1810 Telumehtar, twenty-eighth King, determined to stamp out the pirates and he took Umbar by storm. However, by the end of the second millennium of the Third Age the power of the Haradrim, allies of the Corsairs, had arisen once more, and shortly after Telumehtar Umbardacil’s victory the Southrons captured the haven from the Dúnedain and so made its naval might their own. Haradrim seapower dates to this time. For the remainder of the Age the new maritime state (still called ‘Corsairs’ by the Dúnedain) continued to harass Gondor’s coasts, often doing great damage (and furthering the cause of Gondor’s foes everywhere). Counter-raiding by the fleets of Gondor failed to put an end to the menace, and by the time of the War of the Ring the seaborne threat from the South prevented Gondor’s southern fiefs from sending more than a small proportion of their manpower to the defence of Minas Tirith. In that war the Corsairs indeed attempted landings in strength – at Linhir and Pelargir – but were severely defeated and lost most of their war-vessels to the Dúnedain, who used the ships as fast transports up the Anduin to the aid of Minas Tirith. The aid thus brought turned the tide of the war and the Haradrim were defeated. Accordingly, although Umbar remained in the hands of the Southrons, the sea-power of the Corsairs was greatly diminished; and in the peace which followed the victory over Sauron Umbar once again became a peaceful harbour and a centre of trade and commerce.

Note: the word umbar is said to mean ‘fate’ in the Quenya tongue as mentioned above, yet in the Red Book we are told that the name is of pre-Númenorean (i.e. Mannish) origin.2 It is, of course, not impossible that both statements are correct, i.e. that they are two distinct names.

Umbardacil ‘Victor-of-Umbar’ (Q.) – The royal title taken by King Telumehtar, twenty-eighth King of Gondor, after his great victory over the Corsairs of Umbar in the year 1810 Third Age.

Undeeps – Two places in the course of the Anduin where the river flowed over stony but shallow ground, and could be forded or at least crossed. They were at the two great westwards bends of Anduin, between the Wold of Rohan and the Brown Lands.

Underharrow – A village in Rohan, nestling under the mountains beside the river Snowbourn in Harrowdale.

Underhill – A family of Hobbits of the Shire, with a distant branch in Staddle (in the Bree-land). This was the name chosen by Frodo Baggins as a travelling-name before he set out from the Shire in 1418 Shire Reckoning (he was incognito at the time).

Undertowers – The ‘manor-hole’ of the Fairbairn family, descendants of Master Samwise, who settled the Westmarch early in the Fourth Age and built their home into the east-facing slopes of the Tower Hills (the Emyn Beraid).

Underworld – An approximate translation of Utumno, ‘the Pit’ (Q.; Sind. Udûn).

Undómë ‘Star-opening’ (Q.) – The High-elven name for eventide; the Grey-elves’ equivalent was aduial (called Evendim by the Hobbits).

Undómiel ‘Evenstar’ (Q.) – The royal title borne by the Elf-maiden Arwen, daughter of Elrond Half-elven.

Undying Lands – One of the many names given in the long traditions of Elves and Men to Aman, the Blessed Realm in the Ancient (True) West of Arda, set aside after the passing of the Spring of Arda as a home for the Valar and Maiar; and afterwards shared with those of the Quendi (Elves) who completed the Great Journey and so came to the last shores far back in the Elder Days.

It has been said that the Undying Lands are an abode of immortals; time as we know it does not pass there, and the waning of days in the world outside is not felt by those fortunate enough to dwell with the Valar in everlasting earthly bliss. At the Creation, and for long after, Aman was indeed part of the ‘circles of the world’, and could be reached by a long and arduous voyage across the Great Sea of the West. However, only the Valar were at first permitted to come there. This rule was later altered to include the Quendi, and later still to embrace a very few mortals, who had earned such a grace in some way during their mortal lives in Middle-earth. For the Quendi the Valar allotted a portion of Aman, the eastern shorelands surrounding the Great Bay; this was called, by the Elves, Eldamar, ‘Elvenhome’. Beyond the tall Mountains in the West of the Elves’ land lay the greater portion of Aman: the Land of the Valar and Maiar, called Valinórë. The Mountains which divided Aman from north to south were named Pelóri, the Mountains of Defence; they were raised as a barrier to Melkor (Morgoth), for the Valar had not forgotten that Aman had not been the first dwelling of their race in Arda. North of Eldamar stretched the wilderness of Araman, beyond which lay the misty waste of Oiomúrë – and beyond that the Grinding Ice, the Helcaraxë, in ancient times a physical link between Aman and Middle-earth, though a perilous one. To the south of Eldamar lay another cold wilderness, the region known as Avathar, a narrow shut-in land where the Valar and the Eldar did not go.

Tol Eressëa, the ‘Lonely-isle’, was not originally part of the Undying Lands. It stood from earliest times in the middle of the Sea, a great island shaped like a monstrous ship, with a high prow looking westward. By the agency of the Valar this island was detached from the sea-bed and moved across the waves into the East; and then West. By this means the great hosts of the Vanyar and the Noldor were transported from Middle-earth to Aman (in those days the craft of shipbuilding was unknown to the Elves). Later the island returned to the Bay of Balar and again passed back across the Sea to the West, bearing this time the last of the Eldar destined to arrive in the Undying Lands while the Trees still shone, the Teleri led by Olwë. At the request of these last-comers, the island was brought to a halt at the mouth of the Bay of Eldamar, and put down new roots, and never moved again. (A fragment – its easternmost region – had broken asunder, and still stood off the coasts of Middle-earth; this was the Isle of Balar.)

The Vanyar dwelled at first in Tirion, the fair city built by themselves and the Noldor in the mouth of the Pass of Calacirya, through the Mountains, from which flooded the Blessed Light of the Trees. But afterwards they removed and went further west, through the Calacirya, and dwelled evermore in Valinor itself. The Noldor continued to dwell in Tirion, and only abandoned it to return to Middle-earth – to their undying regret. The Teleri at first dwelled on Tol Eressëa, in the haven of Avallónë, but later came ashore to Aman and made a new haven and city for themselves at Alqualondë, north of Tirion. But the chief city of Aman was Valimar, or Valmar, the city of the Valar and Maiar, where stood also the Ring of Doom, or council-place of the Aratar – and, in ancient days, the fabled Two Trees upon their green mound. But the Lord of Arda, Manwë, and his spouse Varda, the Lady of the Stars, dwelled in a lofty palace on top of the highest of the Pelóri, from where they were – and still are – able to gaze out over Arda and mark all that passes therein, even though the Undying Lands themselves no longer constitute part of the physical world. As all know, in a later time the folly of the Númenoreans led to an actual assault upon Aman; and with the realisation that their last sanctuary had proved, after all, violable, the Valar invoked Ilúvatar (The Creator), who altered the material nature of Arda and removed Aman and Eressëa to another plane of existence, a plane which overlooks ours yet is not part of it. Thereafter the Undying Lands could only be reached by those specifically appointed to make the Journey.

Note: in this connection, it has become almost de rigueur to draw attention to the exceedingly ancient, Mannish tradition concerning a vanished (but not unreachable) Paradise in the Mystic or Ancient West of the World. Indeed, an early meaning of the word Paradise itself refers to a kind of ‘Half-way-house’ between Middle-earth and Over-heaven, peopled by great Beatitudes who are Agents of The Creator; a home for those who deserve a blissful after-life but whose actual spiritual nature does not permit their entry to the Halls of Ilúvatar while Arda lasts. (The ‘Garden of the Hesperides’ and the ‘Garden of Eden’ are, in many traditions, similar places of bliss.) This myth is particularly strong among the Celts, the most westerly of all the ancient peoples of the Old World. Hy Braseal and Tir na nOg are but two of their names for the Undying Lands. Celtic mariners have actually sought for these lands in historical times.

See also AVALLÓNË.

Ungoliant – The first and greatest of the Spider-race; a foul and dangerous monster, hideous to look upon, a worker of much evil and the begetter of many evil offspring. She was in origin an entity of the Outer Darkness, called into being at the Beginning of Arda, and thus the first of the Great Demons to invade the World, which she afterwards polluted. After the fall of Utumno she dwelt in Avathar, in the far, freezing south of Aman, where the Valar did not go; and she hungered after Light, devouring it as lesser spiders devour insect-prey. Here Melkor came to her, for he had fled but lately from Valinor, unmasked for the last time as irredeemably evil; and already he had a design for the discomfiture and grief of those he had made his enemies – the destruction of the Trees. Ungoliant, lured by his promise of a great and glorious assuaging of her hunger, joined him in this wicked action; and the Trees were poisoned by her venom, and died. Together with Melkor, she then fled to Middle-earth, now swollen to huge size by her feasting yet still (for such was her nature) with hunger undiminished. And when Melkor, who by now was in fear of her, withheld the last – and to him, most precious – item of booty from the sack of Formenos, she attacked him (see LAMMOTH), and he barely escaped her fury. But he was delivered from her by others of his servants, and Ungoliant was herself put in great fear. She fled south, and made her dreadful nests thereafter in the dark glens and ravines of the mountains which were the southern wall of Dorthonion, in the North of Beleriand – afterwards called Ered Gorgoroth, the ‘Mountains of Terror’. Here she mated with lesser beasts of Middle-earth. Her offspring were evil like herself, though of less stature (one of these was SHELOB THE GREAT). Her fate has not been recorded; and unless in the end she starved to death in some desert place or was finally destroyed by a greater agency, she lives still in some hideous and forgotten cavern under the world.

Ungwe – The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘spider’s web’, but more properly the title of Tengwa number 8, which stood for the sound of (hard) g (or gw) in languages which required such a consonant.

Union of Maedhros – The name given by Maedhros the eldest son of Fëanor of the Noldor to the grand alliance devised by him in the years following the Dagor Bragollach; an alliance, as he purposed, by which the Eldar and the Edain – and any others who would join them – were to be welded into one huge and irresistible force which, cleverly handled, would be large enough to annihilate the last armies of Angband to the least Orc. But although grandly named, this alliance, to which not all proved willing to adhere (and not all of those who did proved faithful), was shakily founded, and despite early successes of a minor (though fatally encouraging) nature, came to nothing – and worse than nothing – in the end. The result of the Union of Maedhros was the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, and the final defeat of the Elves in the Wars of Beleriand. No further alliances were ever contemplated, until the Host of the West came from over the Sea to put an end to the evil reign of Morgoth, and to deliver Middle-earth.

Unque – The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘a hollow’; also the title of Tengwa number 16, which represented the sound gh (or ghw) in those languages which required it.

Upbourn – The name of a small village or hamlet in Rohan, which stood beside the river Snowbourn at the mouth of the Harrowdale valley.

Úre – The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘heat’; also the title of Tengwa number 36, which represented the sound of consonantal w in most languages. It was one of the ‘additional’ letters in the Fëanorian Alphabet.

Úrimë – The name given to the eighth month of the year in the Kings’ Reckoning calendar-system. This month-name was retained in both Stewards’ Reckoning and the New Reckoning of the Fourth Age. However, the Dúnedain of Middle-earth preferred the Sindarin equivalent Urui.

Urthel – One of the Edain of the First House; a comrade of Barahir, slain on Dorthonion together with the remainder of the twelve-strong band shortly after the Dagor Bragollach.

Urui – See ÚRIMË.

Uruk-hai ‘Orc-race’ (Black Speech) – The name given by Sauron to a new strain of Orcs bred in secrecy by him in Mordor towards the end of the Third Age, and said (by his enemies) to have been created by the blending of the races of Orcs and Men. It is certain, however, that (so far as Orcs went) the Uruk-hai were a far superior breed, being taller and stronger, with great endurance, and an altogether higher level of intelligence. For these reasons alone they were greatly to be feared. They first appeared in 2475 Third Age, when a strong force attacked the outposts of Ithilien and captured Osgiliath; this army was later driven out by Boromir, son of Ruling Steward Denethor I.

However, the Uruk-hai did not remain exclusively in Sauron’s service. By the time of the War of the Ring a great number formed the backbone of the Army of Isengard, and were trained and paid by the renegade Wizard Saruman the White. Most of this force was destroyed at the Battle of the Hornburg. Saruman himself attempted further genetic experiments with this race of ‘Great Orcs’, with singularly unhappy results – creatures known as ‘Half-orcs’ which were said (by Saruman’s enemies) to be the result of cross-breeding between the Uruk-hai and certain degenerate Men in his service.3

Urulókë ‘Fire-serpent’ (Q.; pl. urulóki) – The name given by the High-elven exiles of the First Age to the terrible race of fire-breathing DRAGONS, bred during the Wars of Beleriand, by Morgoth, from unknown stock. The first of these to become known to the Eldar and the Edain was GLAURUNG. The term urulóki includes flying dragons, when these are of the fire-breathing sort (as was SMAUG THE GOLDEN), but excludes so-called ‘Cold-drakes’; these lesser beasts (one of whom slew King Dáin of the Dwarves in the later Third Age) relied on strength and speed alone.

The Urulóki could only be withstood, in battle, by those specially armoured to face the fierce blasts of withering fire which were the Dragons’ chief weapon. Best equipped in this fashion were the Dwarves, whose armour was the most durable in Middle-earth and who in addition wore masks, also of metal, to terrify their enemies. Thus protected, an armoured Dwarf – or Man, provided he was wearing Dwarf-armour – might approach near enough to the Dragon to bring a spear or an axe into play. But even then there was a formidable difficulty, in that the hide of all Dragons was almost impossible to pierce. On the whole, the Urulóki were best left alone.

Urwen – The birth-name of Lalaith, the sister of Túrin; she died in infancy of a black plague out of Angband.

Uttermost West – One of the many names among Elves and Men for the UNDYING LANDS of the Far (Ancient) West of Middle-earth. Properly speaking, this term should apply only to the land of the Valar on the western side of the Pelóri range of mountains; but in some cases, it may refer to the still more westerly domain of MANDOS, for this was on the western shore of Aman itself, overlooking the Outer Sea.

Utumno ‘The Pit’ (Q.) – The Underworld (Sind. Udûn). The name given in Eldarin tradition to the first abode of Melkor (Morgoth) in Middle-earth, made by him far back in the Elder Days, when the Valar, lately come to Arda, dwelt in Almaren. Utumno is indeed the origin of the ancient – and vivid – vision of Hell or the Underworld; and the characteristics commonly attributed to that awful place in many venerable creeds and religions are those which obtained in Utumno of old. For it was deep under the earth that Melkor chose to make his first stronghold. In those days he did not wish the Valar, upon whom he had already made war, to guess that he had returned from the Outer Darkness, whither he had fled after his defeat. Nevertheless, he now put all his power into this great delving, and although it was at first concealed, afterwards it could no longer be hidden. Yet before its whereabouts were known to the Valar Melkor struck, and he destroyed their island of Almaren and cast down the Lamps Illuin and Ormal; and in the darkness thus brought upon the world, he escaped to Utumno in the North, and was not at that time brought to justice.

There he dwelled for many Ages, while far off in the West, beyond his grasp, the Valar were making themselves a second home in Arda. This new dwelling-place they illuminated, but not Middle-earth; and the Darkness continued to mantle mortal lands: to Melkor’s profit. Utumno was now at a pinnacle of power, and the later legends which shudderingly tell of endless branching tunnels, deep pits filled with fire, and countless evil creatures swarming to and fro – scenes of terrible, malefic energy and great heat – barely do justice to the vast and dreadful reality of Morgoth’s first realm. It was at this time that he, fearing the Valar, decided to guard his western flank with another fortress, though of lesser size, for it was to be but an outpost of the Underworld, a lesser Hell. This was Angband; and its first captain was Sauron.

But at this time another event occurred in Middle-earth: the Awakening of the Firstborn, according to ancient prophecy, in the east of Middle-earth. Using the Darkness as a cloak for his designs, Melkor moved covertly against the Quendi, for at first he did not understand what manner of creatures they were, nor did he know what powers they might have. But before he was able to take advantage of what he had learned, the assault from Valinor – long awaited but somehow still unexpected – broke upon the North; and Angband was levelled while Utumno, the greater and older fortress, was utterly destroyed, down to the last and uttermost pit. So complete was its destruction that Melkor was never again able to renew his work. Instead, when he returned again to Middle-earth after more than three Ages of imprisonment, he chose to centre his power upon Angband, which he made in the end into a great and dreadful place, the chief focus of all the sentient evil in Middle-earth. Yet even at the height of its power Angband was never as great, nor was it delved so deep, as Utumno.