Mellersta jorden värdar olika fängelser, med de flesta fästningar och städer som har en.
Det finns stor betydelse för förekomsten av fängelser / lockholes / dungeons i Middle-earth. De har nämnts i hela arbetet med att människor fängslats av olika skäl av människor med många olika relationer. Nedan finns en lista över fängelser som har nämnts.
skogsmark
En av de tidigaste uppgifterna om fängelser i Tolkiens publicerade verk kommer från The Hobbit, när Thorin och hans företag reser genom Mirkwood, de fångas av Woodland Elves och fängslade.
The king’s cave was his palace, and the strong place of his treasure, and the fortress of his people against their enemies. It was also the dungeon of his prisoners. So to the cave they dragged Thorin — not too gently, for they did not love dwarves, and thought he was an enemy.
The Hobbit - Chapter VIII: Flies and Spiders
“It is a crime to wander in my realm without leave. Do you forget that you were in my kingdom, using the road that my people made? Did you not three timespursue and trouble my people in the forest and rouse the spiders with your riot and clamour? After all the disturbance you have made I have a right to know what brings you here, and if you will not tell me now, I will keep you all in prison until you havelearned sense and manners!”
ibid. - Chapter 9: Barrels out of Bond
Dungeons dungeons nämns igen i Ringens Herre, när Gandalf nämner Gollums fängelse i fängelsehålorna.
The Wood-elves have him in prison, but they treat him with such kindness as they can find in their wise hearts.’
Fellowship of the Ring - Book 1, Chapter II: Shadow of the Past
The Goblin King
Goblin King (och andra Goblins) var kända för att hålla fångar och slavar att arbeta för dem.
Hammers, axes, swords, daggers, pickaxes, tongs, and also instruments of torture, they make very well, or get other people to make to their design, prisoners and slaves that have to work till they die for want of air and light.
The Hobbit - Chapter IV: Over Hill and Under Hill
Dol Guldur
Necromancer (Sauron) var känd för att hålla fångar. En berömd fånge var fadern till Thorin, Thrain. Vem fångades efter att han fått kartan till Erebor av sin far, Thror.
“Your grandfather,” said the wizard slowly and grimly, “gave the map to his son for safety before he went to the mines of Moria. Your father went away to try his luck with the map after your grandfather was killed; and lots of adventures of a most unpleasant sort he had, but he never got near the Mountain. How he got there I don’t know, but I found him a prisoner in the dungeons of the Necromancer."
The Hobbit - Chapter I: An Unexpected Party
Riven
Pippin, antingen från kunskap om det senaste hemliga huset öster om havet eller från shireen, hotade elrond med stalking företaget om inte fängslade i rivendell eller skickas hem i en säck.
‘Then, Master Elrond, you will have to lock me in prison, or send me home tied in a sack,’ said Pippin.‘For otherwise I shall follow the Company.’
The Fellowship of the Ring - Book 2, Chapter III: The Ring goes South
Meduseld
Theodens gyllene hall var känd för att få fängelser, eftersom Éomer skickades där efter att ha olyckat order och hotat Grímas liv:
‘Much,’ said Gandalf. ‘But first send for Éomer. Do I not guess rightly that you hold him prisoner, by the counsel of Gríma, of him that all save you name the Wormtongue?’ ‘It is true,’ said Théoden. ‘He had rebelled against my commands, and threatened death to Gríma in my hall.’
Isengard
Det sägs i The Tow Towers, där det en gång hade stått ett stort torn, hade Saruman omformat det i efterliknande av det mörka tornet och bland annat tillagt ett fängelse.
But Saruman had slowly shaped it to his shifting purposes, and made it better, as he thought, being deceived –for all those arts and subtle devices, for which he forsook his former wisdom, and which fondly he imagined were his own, came but from Mordor; so that what he made was naught, only a little copy, a child’s model or a slave’s flattery, of that vast fortress, armoury, prison, furnace of great power, Barad-dûr, the Dark Tower, which suffered no rival, and laughed at flattery, biding its time, secure in its pride and its immeasurable strength.
Barad-dûr
Strax efter att ha kommit från Shelob görs en anteckning av berättaren att Sauron skulle skicka sina fångar till henne, när han inte längre använde dem.
If now and again Shelob caught them to stay her appetite, she was welcome: he could spare them. And sometimes as a man may cast a dainty to his cat (his cat he calls her, but she owns him not) Sauron would send her prisoners that he had no better uses for: he would have them driven to her hole, and report brought back to him of the play she made.
The Two Towers - Book 4, Chapter IX: Shelob's Lair
A brief vision he had of swirling cloud, and in the midst of it towers and battlements, tall as hills, founded upon a mighty mountain-throne above immeasurable pits; great courts and dungeons, eyeless prisons sheer as cliffs, and gaping gates of steel and adamant: and then all passed.
The Return of the King - Book 6, Chapter III: Mount Doom
Michael Delving (Tack till Saruman)
Efter att ha återvänt till Shire finner de fyra Hobbits att det inte är riktigt hur de lämnade den. När Saruman har satt upp ett fängelse i Michael Delving för de olydiga hobbitsna. Vi vet också att Hobbitsna hade Shirrifs, som fungerade som polis och skulle arrestera människor.
And then there’s the Lockholes, as they call ’em: the old storage-tunnels at Michel Delving that they’ve made into prisons for those as stand up to them.
ibid. - Book 6, Chapter VIII: Scouring of the Shire.
Jag har arbetat med det här ganska länge, så jag kommer att lämna den med bara info från TH och LotR för nu och lägga till mer senare.