Quote:
D is for Dol Guldur 'The Hill of Darkness' (Sind.) For nearly two thousand years this evil fortress was the most feared place in Middle-earth, save only Mordor itself.
Built in the early years of the Third Age upon a stony height in the southern fastness of Greenwood the Great, Dol Guldur soon acquired a fearsome reputation. Dark clouds hung over it and evil beasts began to terrorize the forest, which was then renamed Mirkwood. The Council of the Wise (the Wizards and the Chief Eldar) assumed that one of the Ringwraiths had occupied it; even then they did not dream that Sauron was taking shape once again.
For it was the Lord of the Rings himself that had settled in Dol Guldur. To prevent his enemies striking before his own power was fully reborn, he carefully concealed his identity, so the people of the Forest knew the Power of Dol Guldur only as 'the Necromancer.' In 2063 Third Age, increasingly perturbed at the growth of evil in southern Mirkwood, Gandalf the Grey secretly entered the Tower; but Sauron managed to retreat into the East without revealing himself. Nearly eight-hundred years later the Wizard again entered Dol Guldur: this time he found the dying Dwarf Thrain in the dungeons, and discovered that the Necromancer was indeed Sauron.
Gandalf subsequently summoned the White Council and strongly urged an attack on the fortress. But, swayed by the arguments of Saruman the White (who wished only to further his own purposes), they did nothing. By this time the Necromancer's plans were nearly complete. So, in 2941, when the White Council finally agreed to attack, Sauron simply withdrew and soon openly declared himself in Mordor. The Nazgul then occupied the Tower, and it remained a place of great fear until the Elves of Lorien finally overthrew the fortress at the very end of the Third Age.
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The Tolkien Companion pg. 105 - 106
I apologize for the lengthyness of my post. I couldn't bear to write a one-liner for a Tower so evil (and cool!) [img]smilies/cool.gif[/img]
[ October 31, 2002: Message edited by: TolkienGurl ]