Editing Battle of Helm's Deep (section)

== Fictional geography ==

{{anchor|Glittering Caves of Aglarond}}

[[File:Miniature reflections in Gough's Cave - geograph.org.uk - 1232463.jpg|thumb|The caves in Cheddar Gorge inspired Tolkien's Glittering Caves of Aglarond, at the head of the gorge of Helm's Deep.<ref name="Cheddar"/>]]

Helm's Deep is based on the [[Cheddar Gorge]], a [[limestone]] gorge {{convert|400|ft|abbr=on}} deep in the [[Mendip Hills]], with a large cave complex that Tolkien visited on his honeymoon in 1916 and revisited in 1940, and which he acknowledged as the origin of the Glittering Caves of Aglarond at the head of Helm's Deep, behind the fortress.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#321 to P. Rourke, February 1971 }}</ref><ref name="Cheddar">{{cite book |last1=Hammond |first1=Wayne G. |author-link1=Wayne G. Hammond |last2=Scull |first2=Christina |author-link2=Christina Scull |title=[[The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion]] |year=2005 |publisher=HarperCollins |location=London |isbn=0-00-720907-X |page=420}}</ref>

Helm's Deep is properly the narrow gorge or ravine<ref name="Helm's Deep" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954|loc=book 3, ch. 7 "Helm's Deep"}}</ref><ref name="House of Eorl" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955|loc=Appendix A, II The House of Eorl}}</ref> at the head of a larger valley (the Deeping-coomb), but the name is also used for the fortifications at the mouth of the gorge and the larger valley below.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#210 to Forrest J. Ackerman, June 1958 }}</ref><ref name="Flotsam and Jetsam" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955|loc=book 3, ch. 2 "Flotsam and Jetsam"}}</ref><ref name="Passing of the Grey Company" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955|loc=book 5, ch. 2 "The Passing of the Grey Company"}}</ref> The gorge, which wound deep into the [[Ered Nimrais|White Mountains]] at the feet of the Thrihyrne mountain, led into the Glittering Caves of Aglarond, an extensive series of spectacular [[speleothems]]. In ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', the [[Dwarf (Middle-earth)|Dwarf]] [[Gimli (Middle-earth)|Gimli]], who like all dwarves is well versed in geology, horrified that the caves are used only as a refuge, describes them lyrically as:

{{quote|immeasurable halls, filled with everlasting music of water that tinkles into pools, as fair as [[Kheled-zâram]] in the starlight. […] when torches are kindled and men walk on the sandy floors under the echoing domes, ah! then […] gems and crystals and veins of precious ore glint in the polished walls; and the light glows through folded marbles, shell-like, translucent as the living hands of Queen [[Galadriel]]. There are columns of white and saffron and dawn-rose […] fluted and twisted into dreamlike forms; they spring up from many-coloured floors to meet the glistening pendants of the roof: wings, ropes, curtains fine as frozen clouds; spears, banners, pinnacles of suspended palaces! Still lakes mirror them: a glimmering world looks up from dark pools covered with clear glass; cities such as the mind of [[Durin the Deathless|Durin]] could scarce have imagined in his sleep, stretch on through avenues and pillared courts, or into the dark recesses where no light can come.<ref name="Road to Isengard" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954|loc=book 3, ch. 8 "Road to Isengard}}</ref>}}

The mouth of the gorge, Helm's Gate, was closed by the battlemented Deeping Wall, {{convert|20|ft|abbr=on}} tall, and wide enough for four men to stand abreast, with a [[culvert]] for the Deeping-stream which flowed down the valley. At one end of the wall the Hornburg castle stood on a spur of the mountain; a long stair led to its rear gate, and a long causeway led down forwards from its main gate. About two furlongs (400 metres) down from the gate was an outer trench and rampart, Helm's Dike, built right across the Deeping-coomb. Tolkien drew detailed sketches of the fortifications.{{sfn|Hammond|Scull|1995|loc=pictures 160 & 161 (p. 165) }}

The valley was named after King Helm Hammerhand of Rohan, when he and his people sought refuge from the invading [[Dunland|Dunlendings]] under [[Wulf (Middle-earth)|Wulf]] during the winter of {{ME-date|TA|2758–2759}}.<ref name="House of Eorl" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955|loc=Appendix A, II The House of Eorl}}</ref>

{{anchor|Battle of the Hornburg}}