Hill of Awe

A hill that stood on a spur of the northern White Mountains, around whose feet grew the Firien Wood. In ancient times, before even the foundation of Gondor, the hill had gone by the name Eilenaer. After the War of the Last Alliance, the hill stood near the centre of the great nation of Gondor, and was known by the Gondorians as Amon Anwar, the Hill of Awe. Long afterwards, when the Rohirrim settled in the northern lands of Gondor, the reordering of that land's boundaries meant that the hill now lay on the border between the two countries. The Rohirrim called it the holy mountain, which in their tongue was Halifirien, the name by which it is probably best known.

The reason for the names 'Hill of Awe' or 'holy mountain' was not generally known to the people of the time. Both names derived from the fact that the hill was the place where Isildur had secretly buried his father Elendil, who lay in a hidden mound near the hill's summit throughout most of the Third Age. Only at the time of the foundation of Rohan was the Tomb of Elendil revealed, when Steward Cirion chose that place to swear his Oath to Eorl.