The Barad Dur Is A Prefab

[fatclown]

I was going over the Tale of Years this evening, looking for information for a different article, when I came across an unexpected puzzle.

In the Tale of Years for the Second Age (Return of the King p. 364 hardback), it states the following:

"c. 1000 Sauron ... chooses Mordor as a land to make into a stronghold. He begins the building of Barad-dur.
. . .
"c. 1600 Sauron forges the One Ring in Orodruin. He completes the Barad-dur. Celebrimbor perceives the designs of Sauron..."
What makes this curious is the clear statement given by Elrond about the Dark Tower's construction, as he described the cleaning-up after the Battle of the Last Alliance (Fellowship of the Ring p. 257 hardback, emphasis mine):
"The Dark Tower was broken, but its foundations were not removed; for they were made with the power of the Ring..."
Now since the Ring wasn't forged until SA 1600, this means that Sauron spent approximately six hundred years building the Barad-dur... before he had built the foundation! Moreover, once the foundation was finally laid, the Barad-dur was completed almost immediately!

...How do we explain this? How can we explain how Sauron - a Maia of Aule, no less - could spend six hundred years building a Tower, and yet build the foundation last?

Doubtless there are many possible explanations; I'm looking forward to hearing what others may suggest. For my part I've been thinking about it all evening, and I believe I have a possible answer - one clearly in character for Sauron, the master of cruelty and deceit:

Pre-fabricated modular housing.

Sauron developed the black and heinous art of building mobile homes.

...It's worth observing that, once Sauron had the foundations set up, he could also rebuild the Barad-dur with incredible speed. The Tower was "levelled to the ground" at the end of the Second Age (Silmarillion p. 294 hardback); yet, according to the Tale of Years, Sauron began rebuilding the Barad-dur in TA 2951 - and it was evidently finished by the time of the War of the Ring (TA 3018), only some 67 years later! More evidence in favor of the Barad-dur being a prefab, don't you think?

Perhaps the most convincing evidence, however, comes from none other than the Mouth of Sauron (Return of the King p. 166 hardback) when he implies that just having to live in the Barad-dur constitutes an unimaginable torture. It's also worth noting that, on the same page, he notes that he himself has plans to move to Isengard at the first available opportunity.

[Ñólendil]

I think the answer is actually quite simple. In SA 1000, Sauron began the building of the Barad-dur. He must have begun with the foundation. He finished in 1600, the Year of Dread when the One Ring was forged. In the War of the Last Alliance (which occurred at the end of the Second Age), Barad-dur was destroyed by the Free Peoples, but they could not destroy the foundations because it had been especially made by the One Ring. It could thus not be destroyed until the Ring was. Make sense?

I realize you were making a joke, but doubtless it arises from actual confusion?: almost it seems you thought the War of the Last Alliance took place before the completion of Barad-dur, or something, but that can't be right.

[fatclown]

Originally posted by Inoldonil
I think the answer is actually quite simple. In SA 1000, Sauron began the building of the Barad-dur. He must have begun with the foundation. He finished in 1600, the Year of Dread when the One Ring was forged. In the War of the Last Alliance (which occurred at the end of the Second Age), Barad-dur was destroyed by the Free Peoples, but they could not destroy the foundations because it had been especially made by the One Ring. It could thus not be destroyed until the Ring was. Make sense?

Re read the article. Okay he started building the tower But he built the foundation WITH THE RING. He did not start building with out the ring it specifically said he used the ring's power. So he had 600 years of building before adding the foundation.

[easterlinge]

How on Arda does one put in the foundation after building the Tower?

Is Sauron really an inept architect? Let's say he took 600 years to build Barad-dur, until he finally realises why the Tower kept collapsing.... "Oh, there's supposed to be a foundation? D'oh...."



Seriously though, I think Sauron simply used his Ring to strengthen the foundations with magic. There is a tradition of strengthening buildings with magic. When Sauron dwelt in Tol-in-Gaurhoth but was defeated by Huan, Luthien forced him to reveal the magic word that bound all the stones together. When Luthien used that word, the stronghold collapsed into the River Sirion ".... and Sirion spumed in sudden smoke".

[arynetrek]

was this from the Tolkien Sarcasm page?

aryne *

[Kirinki54]

A related question:

I have been pondering Mt Orodruin. Was that an ordinary volcano or some leftover from Morgoth days?
Apparently that was the only place/way to destroy the one Ring. Was that only because it was Sauron´s workshop, because he made the ring there?
That would be the simplest solution. Or did Mt Ordruin have special qualities?

[easterlinge]

I have been pondering Mt Orodruin. Was that an ordinary volcano or some leftover from Morgoth days?

I was wondering about the location of Utumno the other day. My theory is that Mordor is located where Utumno used to be before it was destroyed by the Valar shortly after the awakening of the Elves at Cuivenen.

Angband was said to be located northwest of Utumno. Since Angband was north of sunken Beleriand, Mordor would just about in the right place for Utumno.

[Ñólendil]

I don't think it says anywhere that Angband was Northwest of Utumno. It was in the northwest of Middle-earth, but not northwest of Utumno. It was simply (far) west of it. You wouldn't find Utumno or the area of it anywhere on a LOTR map. Utumno was far in the East and in the north of the world, north of Cuiviénen.

[Bregalad]

Personnally, I like the whole pre-fab idea! You know, you certainly can build a trailer before you build the foundation. Perhaps it was a big ancient middle earth trailer! Does that make Sauron trailer trash?
Or maybe if we could ask Tolkien himself, he would give us the wise and all-knowing answer of................oops!