The seat and centre of power of the Dark Lord Morgoth, in the deepest of the pits of Angband. It stood in a hall lit by fire, with walls adorned by weaponry and machines of torture. Though the throne is never described in detail, it was clearly large in scale, and possibly vast: Beren was able to hide beneath it when he entered Angband with Lúthien, and when Lúthien's soothing song caused Morgoth to fall from his throne in slumber, the sound of his fall was compared with a crash of thunder.
A second Dark Throne was occupied by Sauron in the Second Age, a throne that finds a mention in the rhyme of the Rings of Power: 'One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne'.3 That throne must have been destroyed at the end of the Second Age when Barad-dûr was razed, but we're told of yet another throne of Sauron that he occupied during the War of the Ring at the end of the Third Age.
Notes
1 |
We have nothing to indicate when Morgoth established his Dark Throne; all we know for sure is that he occupied it in Angband after the first rising of the Sun. That particular throne was presumably made after Morgoth's return to Middle-earth, but he may very well have occupied an earlier Dark Throne during his time in Utumno long beforehand.
|
2 |
As with Morgoth, we know little of Sauron's Dark Throne beyond the mere fact of its existence (the dating shown here assumes that it existed concurrently with Sauron's Dark Tower). At the very least we can say that it existed during the Second Age (since it's mentioned in the rhyme of the Rings) and that he occupied a Dark Throne - which must surely have been a different one - during the War of the Ring.
|
3 |
The Fellowship of the Ring I 2, The Shadow of the Ring
|
Indexes:
About this entry:
- Updated 25 October 2012
- This entry is complete
For acknowledgements and references, see the Disclaimer & Bibliography page.
Original content © copyright Mark Fisher 1998, 2001, 2012. All rights reserved. For conditions of reuse, see the Site FAQ.
SHARE
