Ash Mountains Battle of Five Armies & The Third Age of Middle-Earth The current year for our Middle-Earth campaign is set during the year of 2946 of the Third Age. Inspired By J.R.R. Tolkien

The Ered Lithui, or the Ash Mountains, were a mountain range on the northern border of Mordor which separated it from Rhovanion. They ran about 500 miles from east to west. One south-western ridge divided the Plateau of Gorgoroth from Lithlad. A shorter southern spur within Gorgoroth ended at Barad-dûr. The west end of the Ash Mountains met the Mountains of Shadow. Between the Mountains of Shadow and the Ash Mountains was Udûn.

Lithui were rugged and forbidding, described as being composed of "broken peaks and barren ridges". Its rocks were coloured grey as ash.

In T.A. 1944, King Ondoher of Gondor was leading an army to Dagorlad to challenge the Wainriders. It was expected that the enemy would assault them from the north or northeast, but the Wainriders came directly from the east, using the cover of the Ered Lithui to conceal their approach. The Wainriders were greatly speeded by a long-neglected road that ran from the Morannon fifty miles to the east.

On 5 March 3019, Frodo, Sam, and Gollum looked upon the Ered Lithui before turning aside to journey to Ithilien. From 19 March through 22 March, Frodo and Sam crawled slowly east on the road from Cirith Gorgor to Barad-dûr that hugged the slopes of the Ered Lithui.

Ered Lithui is Sindarin for "Mountains of Ash", consisting of the words ered and lithui. The name "Mountains of Ash", or "Ashy Mountains", were likely taken from their ash-grey hue.