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It’s a name shared between two famous items linked to the dark lords of Middle-earth.
One would be used to beat down and kill one of the High Kings of the Noldor. The other would
be used to breach the gate of Minas Tirith. But is it possible these items could be one in the same?
Or are they merely two separate weapons, forever known for the fear they inspire?
Today on Nerd of the Rings, we cover everything GROND.
Before we get to the battering ram of the third age, we’ll first tell the story of its namesake.
There is but one time it is mentioned in battle, which comes in the aftermath
of the Dagor Bragollach. The Battle of Sudden Flame was a resounding victory for Morgoth,
and seeing what he believed was, in all likelihood, the doom of the Noldor in Beleriand,
the High King Fingolfin rides across the plains of Anfauglith. He comes to the very gates of
Angband and challenges Morgoth to single combat. Morgoth, who was not immune to fear, accepts,
for he could not refuse such a challenge in the presence of his captains.
Therefore, the dark lord came forth, and fought with the high king.
Then Morgoth hurled aloft Grond, the Hammer of the Underworld, and swung it down like a bolt of
thunder. But Fingolfin sprang aside, and Grond rent a mighty pit in the earth,
whence smoke and fire darted. Many times Morgoth essayed to smite him,
and each time Fingolfin leaped away, as a lightning shoots from under a dark cloud and
he wounded Morgoth with seven wounds, and seven times Morgoth gave a cry of anguish, whereat
the hosts of Angband fell upon their faces in dismay, and the cries echoed in the Northlands."
But at the last the King grew weary.... Thrice he was crushed to his knees,
and thrice arose again and bore up his broken shield and stricken helm. But the earth was
all rent and pitted about him, and he stumbled and fell backward before the feet of Morgoth;
and Morgoth set his left foot upon his neck, and the weight of it was like a fallen hill.
Yet with his last and desperate stroke Fingolfin hewed the foot with Ringil,
and the blood gushed forth black and smoking and filled the pits of Grond.
It is this great mace, and the fear it no doubt inspired, which Sauron had in mind when he named
the most famous battering ram of the Third Age. Though he would be forced to act quicker
than he wished, Sauron would have no shortage of strength in his attack on the Gondorian city of
Minas Tirith. In the battle of Pelennor fields, as the lord of the Nazgul leads his forces in
their siege, he calls forth the battering ram of Sauron - named after the mace of Morgoth.
Great engines crawled across the field; and in the midst was a huge ram, great as a forest-tree a
hundred feet in length, swinging on mighty chains. \ and its hideous head, founded of black steel,
was shaped in the likeness of a ravening wolf; on it spells of ruin lay. Grond they named it,
in memory of the Hammer of the Underworld of old. Great beasts drew it, Orcs surrounded it,
and behind walked mountain-trolls to wield it. But about the Gate resistance still was stout,
and there the knights of Dol Amroth and the hardiest of the garrison stood at bay.
Shot and dart fell thick; siege-towers crashed or blazed suddenly like torches. All before the walls
on either side of the Gate the ground was choked with wreck and with bodies of the slain; yet still
driven as by a madness more and more came up. Grond crawled on. Upon its housing no fire
would catch; and though now and again some great beast that hauled it would go mad and
spread stamping ruin among the orcs innumerable that guarded it, their bodies were cast aside
from its path and others took their place. Grond crawled on. The drums rolled wildly.
Over the hills of slain a hideous shape appeared: a horseman, tall, hooded, cloaked in black.
Slowly, trampling the fallen, he rode forth, heeding no longer any dart. He halted
and held up a long pale sword. And as he did so a great fear fell on all, defender and foe alike;
and the hands of men drooped to their sides, and no bow sang. For a moment all was still.
The drums rolled and rattled. With a vast rush Grond was hurled forward by
huge hands. It reached the Gate. It swung. A deep boom rumbled through the City like
thunder running in the clouds. But the doors of iron and posts of steel withstood the stroke.
Then the Black Captain rose in his stirrups and cried aloud in a dreadful voice,
speaking in some forgotten tongue words of power and terror to rend both heart and stone.
Thrice he cried. Thrice the great ram boomed. And suddenly upon the last stroke
the Gate of Gondor broke. As if stricken by some blasting spell it burst asunder:
there was a flash of searing lightning, and the doors tumbled in riven fragments to the ground.
Now, a fairly common question I get is could these two items which share a name
be one in the same. While no doubt the idea of Morgoth being so gargantuan
that he could wield a battering ram as a mace is awe-inspiring, these are certainly separate items.
Drawing our attention to the latter quote from The Siege of Gondor, which says “Grond they named it,
in memory of the Hammer of the Underworld of old” and also the portion that tells us it was
forged in Mordor. In my mind, this makes it pretty clear that this is a separate thing altogether,
fierce in its own right, but definitely not the mace of Morgoth.
Ironically, we don’t know the final fate of either of these items. Morgoth is defeated and
captured at the end of the First Age, and there is no mention of his weaponry at that time. It’s
possible that it lies buried beneath the sea, along with Angband and the rest of Beleriand.
As for Grond of the Third Age, there’s no mention of it after it succeeds in
breaching the great gate of Minas Tirith. One would imagine it would be unlikely that the
battering ram would have somehow survived the destruction of Sauron’s armies on the Pelennor.
I believe that, in all likelihood, Grond would have been dismantled
and destroyed by the Gondorians in the days after the War of the Ring,
leaving Middle-earth with one less reminder of the dark days that had come long before.
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