Isengard

Isengard /ˈiːzɛnɡɑrd/ (from Old English īsenġeard /ˈiːzɛnjæɑrd/, "iron fortress") is a fictional fortress that appears in the novel The Lord of the Rings and other works written by J. R. R. Tolkien and set in Middle-earth. It is located south of the Misty Mountains, where they come to an end and the Isen River is born. It was built by Numenorean exiles, specifically in the area that would be known as "the Valley of the Wizard", for being the home of Saruman the White in the times described in The Lord of the Rings.

Isengard was built by the men of Gondor to protect the passes of Isen. It consists of a fortified circle with a tower called Orthanc in its center, built with a particularly strong rock, on which one of the Palantir was placed. The fortress was granted to Saruman by consent of Steward Beren of Gondor in the Third Age of the Sun.

During the War of the Ring, Isengard sent ten thousand uruk-hai into Helm's Deep, including crossbowmen, pikemen, swordsmen, battering rams, and even two bombs designed by Saruman himself. Isengard was destroyed by the Ents during one of the battles of this war. Orthanc's tower, however, remained standing. After destroying Isengard, the Ents repopulated the surroundings of Orthanc and the keys to the tower were given to King Elessar Telcontar.

Some places

The following are some of the important places associated with Isengard:

Nan Curunír

It is the great fortified valley, surrounded by the Misty Mountains, where Orthanc once stood. Nan Curunír is a Sindarin word that can be translated as "the valley of the Magician", although the literal translation is "the valley of the Skillful Man", since Curunír was the nickname given by the elves to the magician Saruman the White.

The Gates of Isengard

The great gates of the Isengard fortress stood on the western slope of the arm of the Misty Mountains that enclosed Nan Curunír. This was continued by a high stone wall that led away from the flank of the mountain and back in a curve.

In the southern part there was an arch excavated in the stone, through which a tunnel was born that was closed by two enormous iron doors, mounted on hinges nailed to the Mountain with large steel stakes. Two towers rose on each side of the gates and above the wall, which had the function of guarding the entrance to Isengard.

In the War of the Ring the gates and the buildings around them had been destroyed by the Ents during the attack on Isengard; leaving the doors thrown and twisted.

The guardhouse

Place nestled in the tunnel, which crosses the eastern arm of the Misty Mountains that constitutes the entrance to Isengard. It was a rather large room, in which there were other smaller doors at the end that led to storerooms for supplies and weapons. A hearth and fireplace stood to one side of the room. Very close to the hearth was a postern, which led to some stairs, which went up to the top of the tunnel. The chamber had been carved out of the rock and all the windows faced the tunnel.

The hobbits Merry and Pippin took refuge there when the Ents dumped the backwaters of Isen on Isengard. And later they had a second lunch with Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli; while Gandalf was visiting Treebeard in the northern part of the keep.

The road to the fords

An ancient road led down from Isengard to the Fords of Isen. It communicated the Fortress with the north-south Númenórean road that crossed the Isen, to go to Tharbad. The path ran along the river bank, curving with it to the east and then to the north; but at the last stretch it turned aside and went in a straight line to the gates of Isengard.

About five miles from the gates the road became a wide street, paved with large, flat, well-squared stones. On both sides of the road there were some deep ditches and through them the water ran, and they served both as drainage for the road and as containment channels for the overflow of the river.

In the War of the Ring The road was used by Saruman's troops to dispatch the armies that fought in the Battles of the Fords of Isen and the Battle of the Hornburg.