The Glittering Caves

The Glittering Caves, called Aglarond in the Elvish tongue, are a system of vast and beautiful caverns behind Helm's Deep in the White Mountains of Rohan, opening from the gorge behind the fortress of the Hornburg. Renowned for their wondrous beauty, the caves are filled with shimmering stone, gleaming veins of ore and crystal, and great halls and pillars wrought by water and time, so fair that they move even the Dwarves to awe. They are most famous for the rapturous description given of them by Gimli the Dwarf.

The Glittering Caves served the people of the Westfold of Rohan as a refuge in time of war, a place to which the folk could flee behind the strong walls of Helm's Deep, but their true fame lies in their splendor.

Geography

The caves run back into the mountains from the rear of the Deep behind the Hornburg, a labyrinth of halls and passages adorned with stone of many colors. By torchlight the walls glitter with gems and crystal and veins of precious metal; great pillars and folds of pale and rose-tinted stone rise like frozen waterfalls; and still pools mirror the lights in the darkness. Gimli describes endless wonderful halls and chambers stretching far into the mountain, fairer than any work of the Dwarves, shaped by water over uncounted years.

In the story

During the Battle of the Hornburg at Helm's Deep, the people of the Westfold and some of the defenders shelter in the Glittering Caves, and the caves prove a refuge that the enemy cannot easily storm. After the battle, Gimli, who has seen the caves, speaks of their beauty with such passion that he wins from Legolas the Elf a promise: if they survive the war, Legolas will come with him to see the Glittering Caves, and in return Gimli will walk with Legolas in the forest of Fangorn. After the War of the Ring, Gimli is true to his love of the place: he returns to Aglarond with a company of Dwarves and establishes a Dwarf-colony there, becoming the Lord of the Glittering Caves, and his folk tend and adorn the caverns and dwell beside their beauty.