Mordor

 Mordor. The name itself seems quite ominous. Doesn't really sound like a place where you would put up a nice two story home with a white picket fence does it. In Professor Tolkiens novels it is the place that Sauron takes up residence where he keeps his servants and slaves and lays plans for his total domination of Middle Earth. All bad guys need a lair to dwell in and if a bad guy lives there it's probably not going to be a light cheerful place. I am sure there are no Rose bushes and fine trimmed lawns in Mordor. The very name even sounds evil, ever notice how Mordor sounds a lot like murder but maybe that was unintentional on Professor Tolkiens part and then again maybe it was but you gotta admit it surely ups the creepy factor. For Sauron it was his base of operations and it was pretty much a grand fortress, a fortress of solitude if you will if you could find much solitude with all those Orcs around.Middle-earth, Mordor is the dwelling place of Sauron, in the southeast of Middle-earth to the East of Anduin, the great river. Frodo and Sam went there to destroy the One Ring. Mordor was unique because of the three enormous mountain ridges surrounding it, from the North, from the West and from the South, that protected this land from an unexpected invasion and of course it had the extra added protection of Shelob the giant spider who protected the pass of Cirith Ungol. The name Mordor has several meanings The Quenya ( Elfish ) word for shadow is mordo. In Sindarin ( Elfish also ) it means "The Black Land". It is a name also mentioned in Norse Mythology referring to a land where people practice evil. Mordor is without a doubta a real estate agents nightmare, how would yu like to try and sale a piece of land with an active volcano on it and called Mount Doom at that. Let us contrast and compare Mordor with say the Shire. Mount doom seems to be perpetualy dark while the Shire is always represented in the daylight.Mordor orcs, the Shire furry feeted little Hobbitses. The Shire the party tree, Mordor Mount Doom. The Shire has the old Gaffer, Mordor has Shelob. Mordor sends the Ring Wraiths to the Shire, the Shire sends the Ring Bearer to Mordor. I could go on and on but by now you can understand the need  for Mordor to represent a place of fear and terror. It is the Wicked Witches castle in this particular land of Oz. For better or worse it was necessary to have such a place in this tale of good versus evil. In the great morality tales and this is certainly one there must always be an easily identifiable place of great evil. If the Shire is meant to be Heaven then correspondingly Mordor was meant to be Hell full of demons and fire with a dark lord sitting on the Throne.