Orod Certhas

Orod Certhas(S. "Rune Mountain") is the northernmost spire of the Bleak Mountains. The mountain gets its name from a series of smooth, sloping cliffs of bare granite upon its northern face, graven with cirtb, the runic characters of the Elves. The Noldorin mystics of Evermist carved these inscriptions which, they say, record every spell that has ever been woven within Arda by the Firstborn. The Noldor do not reveal to others their reasons for having chosen so remote a site to enshrine the wisdom of the ages, but it is whispered among the wise that the bones of Orod Certhas are veined with the very power of the Earth. Whatever the truth of this, the Noldor undertake regular pilgrimages to the mountain, there to add new spells to its innumerable engravings. Doubtless many such enchantments are in reality banes for the protection of the mountain's inviolability. Neither the Orcs of Ered Muil nor the dragon Canadras have dared to defile the slopes of Orod Certhas.

The lower slopes of Orod Certhas are covered with snow from early autumn to mid-spring, while the rune-cliffs of the high places are snowbound year-round. The endless, slow workings of snow and ice occasionally crack and damage the rune-lines, which are typically between one and three inches in height. To reach the rune-cliffs of Orod Certhas, a pilgrim must ascend the mountain's high and perilous escarpments. Ice and snow must be cleared from the cliffside before the runes become legible, and not all the cliffs contain spells. The Noldor also possess hidden refugecaves upon the mountain's slopes, without whose protection a climber, whether mortal or deathless, would be destroyed by the spirits of wind and cold that assail Orod Certhas by night.