Gate of Angband

A wide and unbreakable doorway set into the foot of a thousand-foot cliff in the southern Iron Mountains, guarding the entrance into Morgoth's domain: Angband, the Hells of Iron. Also called the Doors of Angband, the Gate stood at the end of a long dark vale edged by chasms, and until the coming of Beren and Lúthien it was guarded by the vast Wolf Carcharoth. What lay behind the doors is a matter of conjecture. Some accounts speak of a maze of stairways leading downwards, while others describe a long tunnel running beneath the Iron Mountains to reach the fortress of Angband.

The Gate was breached several times; first by Beren and Lúthien, who stole a Silmaril from Morgoth's Iron Crown (on their escape, Carcharoth consumed the Jewel and fled in madness from the Gate). In the Nirnaeth Arnoediad some years later, the Elves of Nargothrond passed through the Gate¹ and fought the servants of Angband on the stairs within, though ultimately they were trapped and defeated. The Gate was finally destroyed in the utter ruin of Angband in the War of Wrath that brought the First Age to an end.