Núrn

Mordor is not all ash. In the south of it, around the inland water called the Sea of Núrnen, lies Núrn, a semi-arid country of short grass whose soil has been fed by what falls out of the sky from Orodruin and whose pastures are watered off the lake. Set beside the bare plateau of Gorgoroth to the north-west it is close to generous. That is what it is for. Núrn is where the food comes from, in grain fields wide enough to carry armies far larger than the country would otherwise support, and the work in them is done by Men who speak the Westron and who are held there as slaves of the Dark Lord.