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Places in Middle-earth

Door of Night

Type: Other Constructions

Region: Other Arda

Other Names Ando Lómen, Moritarnon, Tarn Fui

Location: The only passageway through the Walls of the World, leading to the Timeless Void.

Description: "…The Walls of the World, Ilurambar, are the unbroken, uninterrupted shell of a vast globe; they are cold, invisible, and impassable save by Ando Lómen, the Door of Night. This Door was made by the Valar 'when Melko was overcome and put forth into the Outer Dark', and Earendel guards it."

The Shaping of Middle-earth, HoME Vol 4, Ch 5, The Ambarkanta: Commentary


"The Gods now made the Door of Night in the West ..."

The Shaping of Middle-earth, HoME Vol 4, Ch 2, The Earliest 'Silmarillion': Commentary


"…and there they made the Door of Night (Moritarnon or Tarn Fui as the Eldar name it in their tongues). There it still stands, utterly black and huge against the deep- blue walls. Its pillars are of the mightiest basalt and its lintel likewise, but great dragons of black stone are carved thereon, and shadowy smoke pours slowly from their jaws. Gates it has unbreakable, and none know how they were made or set, for the Eldar were not suffered to be in that dread building, and it is the last secret of the Gods; and not the onset of the world will force that door, which opens to a mystic word alone. That word Urwendi only knows and Manwe who spake it to her; for beyond the Door of Night is the outer dark, and he who passes therethrough may escape the world and death and hear things not yet for the ears of Earth-dwellers, and this may not be."

The Book of Lost Tales 1, HoME Vol 1, Ch 10, The Hiding of Valinor


"…and the Valar … took Vingilot, and hallowed it, and bore it away through Valinor to the uttermost rim of the world; and there it passed through the Door of Night and was lifted up even into the oceans of heaven."

The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 24, Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath


"But Morgoth himself the Valar thrust through the Door of Night beyond the Walls of the World, into the Timeless Void; and a guard is set for ever on those walls, and Eärendil keeps watch upon the ramparts of the sky. …"

The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 24, Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath


"Thus spake Mandos in prophecy, when the Gods sat in judgement in Valinor, and the rumour of his words was whispered among all the Elves of the West. When the world is old and the Powers grow weary, then Morgoth, seeing that the guard sleepeth, shall come back through the Door of Night out of the Timeless Void; and he shall destroy the Sun and Moon. But Earendel shall descend upon him as a white and searing flame and drive him from the airs. Then shall the Last Battle be gathered on the fields of Valinor…."

The Lost Road and Other Writings, HoME Vol 5, Part 2, Ch 6, Quenta Silmarillion The Conclusion of the Quenta Silmarillion §31


Etymology
Lómë: Night. Ando Lómen the Door of Night,
The Shaping of Middle-earth, HoME Vol 4, Ch 5, The Ambarkanta

Fuin : Fui (Quenya) - gloom, darkness
The Silmarillion, Appendix: Elements in Quenya and Sindarin Names

Contributors: Lyllyn 3Jan05

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