Angband

Like nethack, moria, and rogue, one of the large freely distributed Dungeons-and-Dragons-like simulation games, available for a wide range of machines and operating systems. The name is from Tolkien's Pits of Angband (compare elder days, elvish). Has been described as “Moria on steroids”; but, unlike Moria, many aspects of the game are customizable. This leads many hackers and would-be hackers into fooling with these instead of doing productive work. There are many Angband variants, of which the most notorious is probably the rather whimsical Zangband. In this game, when a key that does not correspond to a command is pressed, the game will display “Type ? for help” 50% of the time. The other 50% of the time, random error messages including “An error has occurred because an error of type 42 has occurred” and “Windows 95 uninstalled successfully” will be displayed. Zangband also allows the player to kill Santa Claus (who has some really good stuff, but also has a lot of friends), “Bull Gates”, and Barney the Dinosaur (but be watchful; Barney has a nasty case of halitosis). There is an official angband home page at http://thangorodrim.angband.org/ and a zangband one at http://www.zangband.org/. See also Random Number God.

This article is about the fictional location. For the video game, see Angband (video game).

Angband (Iron Prison)
Place from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium No Picture
Description	The lesser fortress of Morgoth
Location	Dor Daedeloth
Lifespan	Originally founded sometime before Y.T. 1090 and expanded Y.T. 1496 - end of the First Age
Founder	Morgoth
Lord	Sauron, then Morgoth, later Sauron again

In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, Angband (Sindarin for 'iron prison') is the name of the fortress of Melkor, constructed before the First Age, located in the Iron Mountains in the enemy's land Dor Daedeloth north of Beleriand.^[1][2]

The fortress is described in Tolkien's The Silmarillion. It was built by Melkor (later called Morgoth) to guard against a possible attack from Aman by the Valar. Nonetheless, the Valar's attack succeeded in capturing Morgoth and destroying his main stronghold Utumno.

However, while the Valar had focused on destroying Utumno utterly, Angband, though devastated, was only partially destroyed. Over time, the dark creatures in Morgoth's service would gather in its ruined pits. After three ages of imprisonment, Morgoth returned to Middle-earth and set himself up in Angband, raising the volcanic Thangorodrim over the fortress as protection. He never came out of it again but once, when challenged to single combat by the Elven king Fingolfin. He reigned there until the end of the First Age, when it was destroyed in the War of Wrath.

Trivia

• In earlier versions of Tolkien's mythology (see The History of Middle-earth) it was called Angamando, the Quenya form of the name.
• The name for the Tolkien-themed roguelike Angband is taken from his name for this place.

Works cited

1. ^ Tolkien, J.R.R. (1977). "Of the Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor". The Silmarillion (1st ed ed.). ISBN 0-345-32581-8. 
2. ^ Oberhelman, David D. (2006). "Angband". in Drout, Michael D. C.. J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. Routledge. pp. 17–18. ISBN 0-415-96942-5. 

References

• Fonstad, Karen Wynn (1991), The Atlas of Middle-earth, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, Angband, ISBN 0-618-12699-6 

v • d • e Realms from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium during the First Age Noldorin realms: Amon Ereb · Dor-lómin · Dorthonion · East Beleriand · Gondolin · Himlad · Hithlum · Maglor's Gap · March of Maedhros · Nargothrond · Nevrast · Thargelion · Tol Sirion Sindarin realms: Falas · Doriath Avarin and Nandorin realms: Dorwinion · Lórinand · Ossiriand · Nan Elmoth Realms of the Edain (Men): Brethil · Dor-lómin · Estolad · Ladros Realms of the Ents: Fangorn · Forests of Eriador · Forests of South Beleriand Realms of the Dwarves: Belegost · Khazad-dûm · Nogrod Realms of the enemy: Angband · Dor Daedeloth · Utumno

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