Carn Dûm

In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Carn Dûm was the capital of the Third Age Kingdom of Angmar, in the far north-west of Middle-earth. The date of the building of the city is not given in the texts, but it may be safe to assume that it was built in or around T.A 1300, the date of the founding of the realm of Angmar.

Established near the Dwarven holy site Mount Gundabad, its founder and King was the chief of the Ringwraiths, the Witch-king, making Angmar merely a puppet state of Mordor. Its denizens included fallen Men, Orcs, and other creatures. From here, the Witch-king sent his forces out against the three successor states of Arnor, quickly managing to destroy Rhudaur and later also Cardolan.

Arthedain fell in the Battle of Fornost in T.A. 1974, but the Witch-king was routed by Glorfindel and in T.A. 1975, Angmar itself fell under an assault by the Dúnedain of Gondor, the survivors of Arnor, and Elves of Lindon. Carn Dûm was utterly destroyed, although some Orcs survived there until at least the War of the Dwarves and Orcs and possibly after as well, until they were wiped out by Aragorn, King Elessar of the Reunited Kingdom.

In The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II, the goblins of the Misty Mountains, led by the Goblin King, Gorkil, have moved into the Ettenmoors and taken the ruins of Carn Dûm as their main stronghold. The elves of Rivendell, under the leadership of Glorfindel and Glóin, drive the goblins out and destroy Carn Dûm once and for all. The game The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II - The Rise of the Witch-king features the Witch-king's rise of power and his domination of Arnor. Carn-Dûm is shown as a three levelled city which is attacked by elves in a level of the game.