Anduiľi
My excitement mixed with rousing terror as I gazed upon the World's End, and I found myself incapable of doubting the claims its name implied. Mountains as tall as the world separated in a vast chasm in front of my eyes. We were still day's travel away from those gates to beyond, yet violent wind blasted against my being with such icy hostility, it was enough to freeze over any skin and hair I failed to hide beneath several layers of fur and wool.
The hunters who guided me this far led me no further. Their many warnings over the last weeks promised a certain death should I insist on entering the valley, but curiosity bid me forward as if some invisible force willed it. Despite the howling wind and the looming darkness ahead I found it impossible stop, only able to gaze upon the famed and feared gate that was Anduiľi.
Far beyond the Nightlands and the last of sun's warmth lie mountains with peaks as sharp as fangs, ever covered in snow and ice. They are the guardians who stand between the realms of men, and whatever lies beyond...or so the story goes. The mountains open up between their tallest peaks to form a narrow valley; the only entrance into the unknown realms of night. It is said among the many peoples of the north that giants built this wall of mountains, and the chasm of a gate itself, before man had even learnt to crawl.
Sun finds no purchase behind the looming peaks, leaving the realm beyond in cold and unending darkness. Vicious gale blasts ceaselessly through the valley making entering the place near impossible. But not completely so. The canyon between mountains is littered with the corpses of those who attempted passage, their still standing bodies left buried beneath mounds of ever-growing ice and snow.
Many entered through Anduiľi in search for answers to questions both known and unimagined throughout ages, yet nothing more is known for certain of the valley or the sunless world beyond. Those who passed through the valley disappeared, never to return, and eventually attempts to pass through Andu'elë ceased altogether.
Alternate names: Andu'elë /ˈanduˌelə/