Fourth Gate

The location of the Fourth Gate within the Orfalch Echor (not to scale)

The great black Iron Gate was the fourth that guarded the Orfalch Echor, the long narrow road that led through the Encircling Mountains to Gondolin. After the Third Gate, the Gate of Bronze, the Orfalch began a long climb upwards, reaching its highest point at the Fourth Gate before levelling and beginning its descent.

The Fourth Gate itself consisted of four iron towers, with an immense iron Eagle placed between the two inner towers to represent Thorondor alighting amid the peaks. Between the towers a layered tracery of iron was set, designed in such a way that, though wrought of black iron, it gave the impression of depths of forest under moonlight. Beyond the Iron Gate stood ranks of Iron Guards, armed and armoured in black, and each bearing a helm with a visor fashioned as an Eagle's beak.