Hazy mountains are the largest in Tolkien's Middle-earth. In "The Hobbit," the company of heroes goes specifically to them. Since the universe, which was invented by John Tolkien, is large and incredibly designed, these mountains have their own history.
Creation and High Passage
In the Middle-earth universe, the Misty (or foggy) mountains created at the very beginning of the Age of the Trees Melkor (a powerful personification of darkness) that he wanted to prevent Orome (the lord of forests and hunting in Middle-earth and beyond), who often went there for hunting. In that era, the mountains were much higher and more massive, compared to the Third Age, in which the events of the War of the Ring take place. Then the Misty Mountains frightened much more seriously by their very appearance.
High Passage - the so-called passage through the mountain range (also called Imadrisi Pass or Kirit rn Forn en Andraf), it was created by the hunting lord Oromé himself before the First Age of Middle-earth started. It was necessary in order to contribute to the Eldarams (elves, the "people of the stars") on the way to Valinor to pass through the Misty Mountains.
The Dwarves also used this passage subsequently during the construction of their own trade routes, that is, the roads through Licholesie Men-i-Naugrim, as well as the Eastern Route.
To be precise, in that place there were two passages: the upper and the lower. The latter nevertheless managed to block the orcs, for this reason, travelers whose road runs through these places prefer to use the upper passage, where the probability of meeting the orc is somewhat less.
Famous peaks
Bunushatur (or Karadrasi Fanuidol, Celebdil) is the peak that is located in the center of the mountain range in Middle-earth. Specifically, under it are the main parts of the notorious dungeons of Moria (or Kazad-Duma), in which the Brotherhood of the Ring will expect a battle with the orcs, and Gandalf - a huge balrog.
Gundabad is a peak located in the northeast of the Misty Mountains. In the caves of Gundabad is the most important stronghold of the northern orcs who captured this place from the dwarves in the Third Age. Just at the foot of this peak a huge army gathered, which went to the Battle of the Five Armies and was defeated there. During this battle, more than half of the northern orcs were exterminated.
Mountain dwellers
The very first and original inhabitants of the Misty Mountains, or rather the underground cave systems that were located under them, were gnomes from the Durin tribe and clan that founded the kingdom of Kazad-Dum, about which legends were composed.
But everything changed after the excavation of the mithril deposits by the dwarves accidentally released a monstrous balrog hiding in the depths of the mountains, who was lucky to survive after Morgoth was defeated and expelled.
After this incident, the caves of Moria were empty, and after some time, orcs began to settle in them from the more northern parts of the mountains. So, during the War of the Ring, that is, in the Third Age, the mountains represented a huge dwelling of trolls and orcs.
In The Hobbit, there are also references to two groups that lived inside this mountain range in Middle-earth: stone giants, as well as huge eagles that are servants of Manwe (the lord of air, clouds and birds in Middle-earth and beyond). The latter settled in places on the tops of the mountains, which were inaccessible to other inhabitants.