The thread has now sunk way down the page, so I am collecting my thoughts into
a single post for easier readability (in one post anyway).
The ecology and geography of Gondor has always bothered me. For some reason,
from Tolkien's descriptions, I never saw the climate as Mediterranean (and,
having lived twenty-five years in California, I am familiar with Mediterranean
climates). Nonetheless, it is at that lattitude, and is on the
western side of a continent, so that would be the climate it would have,
assuming that there are continental ice sheets somewhere on Arda (which
seems likely).
Why, though, would we expect the Ephel Duath to look like the Pyranese? I agree
that this is how they probably once looked, long ago. In the First Age, Mt.
Doom was probably a lot like Vesuvius, a volcano indeed (and a dangerous one)
but nonetheless nourishing the plains of Gorgoroth with its rich volcanic soil.
But in the Third Age, the taint of Sauron's black magic has made Mordor
unlivable for all life that isn't outwardly evil (think of those thorn-bushes).
The Ephel Duath are described as ominous and frightening, gloomy (of course,
with Mt. Doom in an eruptive phase, they would be). Do they really look like
the Pyranese normally, or are they darker, more sinister, more corrupted by
Sauron's evil
magic?
