Misty Mountains

The Misty Mountains is a vast mountain range dividing Eriador in the west from Rhovanion in the east.

Climate and ecology

The Misty Mountains is the single largest mountain range in Middle Earth, running from Forodwaith in the north all the way to Isengard in the south.

The Misty Mountains encompasses the following biome types:

• A4 - Scandinavian open vegetation of crustose and foliose lichens in combination with pioneer grasslands, scree communities and snow bed vegetation with mosses
• A5 - Scattered vegetation of cushion plants and lichens in the Alps and Pyrenees
• B41 - Scandinavian middle alpine complex of windswept heaths, grass heaths and scree vegetation
• B42 - North European alpine dwarf shrub vegetation on calcareous soils, partly in combination with shrub vegetation, alpine grass heaths and minerotrophic mires
• B44 - Alpine grasslands in the Alps with herbs and lichens on carbonate rocks
• C16 - Anglo-Irish birch forests
• C19 - Larch-pine forests in the Alps, partly alternating with Rhododendron scrub
• C20 - Rhododendron-mountain pine scrub, dwarf shrub communities, grasslands and tall-herb communities in the Alps, partly with rock and scree vegetation on carbonate rocks
• D29 - Spruce-fir forests in the Inner Alps, partly with fir forests, locally with spruce forests
• D35 -Spruce forests in the Alps, partly alternating with Pinus mugo- and Alnus alnobetula-scrub
• F132 - (Spruce-)fir-beech forests, locally with spruce forests, fir forests and sycamore-beech forests in the west Alps.
• K1 - Pine forests in valleys of the Inner Alps in combination with dry grasslands
• K3 - Pine forests in the margin and pre-Alps on dry riversides

History

The Misty Mountains were raised by Morgoth in ages past to halt the western migration of the Eldar. They have formed an imposing boundry between east and west ever since.