Eithel Morgoth

This natural volcanic basin upon the Fire Tundra was fortified and reshaped in the Elder Days to serve as an outlying forge and armory of Angband. Here, fell weapons of power and destruction were devised for the doom of Elf and Man. The upper fortifications of the Well were destroyed and swept away in the War of Wrath; yet the great, seething caldera of Morgoth's fiery forge remained, malevolently bubbling, open to the sky above. Imprisoned here is the Balrog Durlach, an evil spirit of fire, cursed to remain bound to a lake of molten rock. Here also are many pits, tunnels and deeply-delved chambers whose secret, winding ways connect the fiery lake to the Underdeeps.

After Morgoth's expulsion from the world, the Well was forgotten, becoming no more than an arcane notation on ancient maps and a convenient landmark for travelers on the Fire Tundra. On calm and clear days, the column of smoke rising from the crater can be seen for nearly a hundred miles in any direction. On rainless or snowless nights, the red-orange glow of the Well visibly reflects off the low-hanging clouds for half that distance, its light wavering and flickering in garish display. The Jäämiehet call this effect Verinen Taivas, the Bloody Sky, and both the rising daytime smoke and the nightly glow make convenient beacons and markers for those wandering between the Bleak Mountains and the Ered Rhívamar.

The tear-drop shaped rim of the Well is nearly forty miles in diameter from east to west, and fifty miles in length from its rounded, northern terminus to the narrow defile marking its southern boundary. From its upper rim to the lake of lava at its floor, the basin is a mile in depth. The descent is not, however, a sheer drop. The caldera descends in a terraced fashion, each of its eleven broad tiers leading down to the next. The view from the ran is awe-inspiring, as the descent follows a line through the barren, rubble-strewn steps of the outer rim and grey, lichencovered stone fields to the precarious vegetation of the "green circles," poised between the killing extremes of heat and cold. Then, abruptly, the eye, wandering beyond this green halo of life, beholds blasted black scoria and garish red vapors; finally, at the last, it alights upon the fiery heart of Durlach's prison, alive with the hellish glare of his burning lake.

Vile and poisonous fumes issue constantly from the lake, drifting slowly upward until they are caught by the winds off the Fire Tundra and driven southward. Any descent into the caldera must therefore be from the northern, rounded side of the crater; otherwise, those attempting the climb are soon overwhelmed by the noxious vapors of the Well. See Section 12.4 for the detailed layout of Morgoth's Well.