Mount Gundabad was a Northern Orc stronghold and the North End of the Misty Mountains, located to the east of the ancient realm of Angmar.
History
Dwarves of Durin's Folk, including Durin the Deathless, oldest of the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves, awoke at Mount Gundabad shortly after the Awakening of the Elves in the Years of the Trees. Mount Gundabad then became a sacred place to the Dwarves.
In the middle of the Second Age, however, Orcs (ruled over by the servants of Sauron) invaded the mountains and took Gundabad. The site would not be cleansed until very late in the Second Age, possibly around or after the fall of Sauron and the loss of the One Ring.
In the Third Age, the Northern Orcs again claimed it, which was one of the reasons for the Dwarves special hatred of them. After the fall of Angmar, Gundabad remained an Orc-hold, until it was cleansed of Orcs during the War of the Dwarves and Orcs. However, hordes of Orcs seem to have trickled back to this hotly contested strong point and fortified it anew before the events of The Hobbit, menacing Wilderland for yet another time. It was from here the great Northern Orcs present at the Battle of Five Armies attacked and marched. Their leader, Bolg son of Azog, was the supreme commander of the Orcs from Gundabad, and presumably the northern Misty Mountains.
In adaptations
The Hobbitfilm trilogy
In The Hobbit film trilogy, Gundabad plays a key role in the series storyline. It is portrayed as a tall fortress tower in the middle of a remote mountain range. Hidden cauldrons of fire light up the tower with a dim red glow. The tower is surrounded by sharp angled cliffs.
The fortress is home to Bolg and his father Azog the Defiler, as well as an army of Gundabad Orcs. As eventually revealed in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Gundabad is a stronghold with connections to the Angmar kingdom that was destroyed long ago. In the aftermath, Gundabad Orcs like Azog began to take residence in Moria before forging an alliance with Sauron, in his Necromancer guise at Dol Guldur, in an attempt to revive Angmar through Smaug taking the Lonely Mountain. But when Thorin II reclaims the Lonely Mountain, Sauron is forced to send the Orc army he amassed to the Lonely Mountain. On route at the start of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Azog instructs his son Bolg to bring out an additional Orc army from Gundabad itself.
Legolas and Tauriel follow Bolg north to Gundabad. Once they arrive at the remote fortress they stop and wait on a ridgeline above the "Red Tower". During their wait Legolas reveals that his mother died at Gundabad during the war.
For a while the area seems deserted, but without warning, huge bats start to swarm the tower. Legolas realizes that these bats are bred for war. Suddenly, Bolg appears on a precipice and bellows out a signal. A huge army of Orcs swarm out and start to march south, towards the Lonely Mountain.
Tauriel and Legolas witness the army of Gundabad Orcs emerging from the mountain, and they rush to warn the armies at Dale.
In games
- The video game The Lord of the Rings: War in the North was the first to depict Mount Gundabad in any form.
- In The Lord of the Rings Online, Gundabad features as a significant location.
- Games Workshop's miniature of Bolg gives his full title as "Castellan of Mount Gundabad."
Translations
References
Description
Mount Gundabad was a Northern Orc stronghold and the North End of the Misty Mountains , located to the east of the ancient realm of Angmar .
