Are you sure you are not conflating the doors of Moria with the gates of Mordor?
Question for the masses: just why do you think Cirith Ungol existed? I mean, there was a perfectly good pass right below it, with a road over it and everything. Why would someone bother to etch a set of stair-steps into the side of the pass, just so they could end up in Torech Ungol??? :eek:
Hey, Elrond (son of Aaron Dill, or something like that ) was the sole legitimate claimant to the kingship of the Noldor in exile, after the fall of Gil-Galad.
Also, king of the Sindar, come to think of it, on his mother’s side.
Leader of the House of Beor, too.
And houses of Hador and Haleth too, I suppose.
He fought not just at the Last Alliance, but also at the Break of Thangorodrim, during the War of Wrath. His old man took out Ancalagon the Black at that time!
I have a hard time believing that Gandalf could slip into Mordor unnoticed and get all the way to Mount Doom. Or that he’d willingly take Isildur’s Heir along for the ride. I don’t think he intended for the entire group to get beyond Lothlorien.
Going from dim memory here - the orginal purpose of those fortresses was to keep Sauron and/or his minions in, right? They may even predate that. And in those days the “nice” side of the mountains there was not that bad of a place to be. So the stair probably dates to some previous time when the area was not the blighted mess it is by LoTR. Keep in mind also that Gollum knows a secret way - the stairs in the books are clearly hidden/less obvious than they are in the movies; the whole area is full of ruins and one more random staircase wouldn’t seem like any more of a security risk than any other.
What was stopping Gandalf, Radagast and everyone else from charging in on the giant eagles.
Imagine - flying over the mountains - then diving down to the volcano’s opening and dropping in the ring (optionally with hobbit attached). The whole operation would be over quick enough.
The eagles are willing to help (as per the War of the 5 Armies, their rescue of Gandalf from the tower). They showed they were able to get to Mt. Doom when they rescued Frodo/Sam right after the deed was done. How could Sauron have stopped them. Granted, the flying Nazgul would be a potential problem - but the eagles outnumbered them and could have heroes like Gandalf and Legolas shooting long range projectiles.
I understand that Gandalf was one lucky SOB and everything worked out all right, and I know that this has been discussed umpteenth times before, but I still think it was stupid to bring Merry and Pippin along instead of someone like Glorfindel. The only reason they state is that “since it’s impossible to get into Mordor anyway, what’s the point of taking someone like Glorfindel instead of a couple more hobbits.” What? How does that make sense? Glorfindel sure would have been more useful in Moria than Pippin. For one thing he wouldn’t have been dumb enough to start throwing rocks into deep holes and waking up Balrogs. Come on! Glorfindel can make Nazgul wet their pants and run away! This is a guy you want to take with you.
Yeah but the whole point was that Valar and elves and humans and wizards had been fighting heroically forever and while overall maybe the forces of darkness had been whittled down 90%, the good guys had been whittled down 95%. By the time of LotR it was like the sixteenth round of a boxing match and the defender has nothing left while the challenger has just enough to win the fight. What the Ring trilogy and the Hobbit are about is Gandalf’s idea that these little unassuming people may in their own way have quiet strengths no one had reckoned on. They were an untapped resource.
) was the sole legitimate claimant to the kingship of the Noldor in exile, after the fall of Gil-Galad.
