The Ephel Duath (The Mountains of Shadow)

[drew7uk]

There are two references within the trilogy to the 'Ephel Duath', the gloomy mountain range:

* The Two Towers, chapter III – A, geographical reference to the mountains of the Ephel Duath,

‘Upon the west of Mordor marched the gloomy range of Ephel Duath, the Mountains of Shadow…but as these ranges approached one another, being indeed but parts of one great wall about the mournful plains of Lithlad and Gorgoroth, and the bitter inland sea of Nurnen amidmost, they swung out long arms northward; and between these arms there was a deep defile. This was Cirith Gorgor, the Haunted Pass, the entrance to the land of the Enemy.’

and

* The Return of the King, chapter x – A brief reference to the range when Osgiliath is overrun,

‘…the white peaks of the mountains blushed in the blue air; but a shadow and a gloom brooded upon the Ephel Duath.’

On researching the Ephel Duath further afield than the books themselves, I turns to volume I of the Book of the Lost Tales and in the index it notes, 'The Mountains of Shadow - Ered Wethrin'.

Do we know if these mountain ranges are one and the same or are they entirely different.

Thanks for everyone's time

Drew