Tolkien once commented he “rather liked” Robert E. Howard’s fantasy stories; but I’m not sure when he read them or which ones he read. So I don’t know whether or not it’s a coincidence that “Gorgoroth,” the dark plain that Frodo and Sam must cross in Mordor, sounds so much like “Gol-goroth,” the dark Lovecraftian deity featured in such tales as Howard’s 1931 story “Gods of Bal-Sagoth.” Just another possibility to ponder.
There are black metal bands named after both Bal-Sagoth and Gorgoroth, but none, so far as I know, after Gol-goroth.
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