Imlad Angren (Gondor)

Imlad Angren (S. "Iron Creek") was the name for a complex of mines in the White Mountains of the Blackroot vale. As its name suggested, iron was the ore most commonly found here. The name was I also used in its grimmer aspect to allude to the fact that Imlad Angren functioned as a camp for condemned criminals, who rendered payment for their past wrongs through arduous labor in the mines, often to the end of their days. The mining of Imlad Angren began in the ninth century of the Third Age, under the rule of the first Prince of Morthond (though it was not transformed into a prison until after the Kin-strife, when the need of iron for weapons grew all the more urgent with die advent of the Corsairs). Because the mines belonged to the Prince of Morthond, only criminals condemned in Morthond or neigh- Dor-en-Ernil were sent to Imlad Angren. Former Corsairs, captured during raids on the coast of Belfalas, were a common source of labor for the mines. The productive lodes of Imlad Angren ran out in T.A. 1640, at which stage it had become the most extensive network of mines in southern Gondor. The gorge continurd in being used as a prison until the demise of the princely line of Morthond in T.A. 1975, after which time it became the stronghold for the new Lords of the region. It retained this rule until well into the Fourth Age. Legend had it that the iron veins failed because the miners of Imlad Angren had unwittingly broken into the Paths of the Dead, disturbing their inhabitants; other accounts blamed the Plague.