Moria

Durin's halls

Appendix A tells how Durin, eldest of the Fathers of the Dwarves, slept alone until he came to the valley of Azanulbizar under the Misty Mountains, and in the caves above the lake of Kheled-zâram he made his dwelling. That was the beginning of Khazad-dûm. Durin lived so long that he was called the Deathless.¹

Gimli sang of it in the dark, as the Company walked its halls: the lamps of crystal, the hammers and the anvils, the great pillars, and Durin's crown still lying in the mere, waiting for him to wake.³

Through the Elder Days and the Second Age the realm grew under the mountains, west and east, until it ran beneath the three peaks of Caradhras, Celebdil and Fanuidhol. Durin's line came back, again and again, so that the Dwarves believed he was reborn among them; six kings of his house bore his name.^1,2

The West-gate and Eregion

In the Second Age the Elven-smiths of Eregion, west of the mountains, became close friends with the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm, and a road ran between them. The West-gate of Moria was made for that friendship. Its doors, which shone only by starlight and moonlight and opened only to a word spoken in Elvish, were made by the Dwarf Narvi, and their signs drawn by Celebrimbor, the Elven-smith who would make the Three Rings.^6,3

Gandalf said that those were happier times, when there was still close friendship at times between folk of different race, even between Dwarves and Elves.³

When Sauron destroyed Eregion in 1697 of the Second Age, the Dwarves of Moria shut their doors against him, and the road from Hollin was never used again in friendship.^6,7

Mithril

The wealth of Moria was mithril, Moria-silver, or true-silver: a metal that could be beaten like copper and polished like glass, light and harder than steel, that would not tarnish or grow dim. It was found in Moria alone, and it was the foundation of the Dwarves' riches there.³

Its worth was ten times that of gold, and now it is beyond price; for little is left above ground.

Bilbo's coat of mithril rings, which Thorin gave him from the hoard of the Lonely Mountain, was worth, Gandalf said, more than the whole Shire and everything in it. Frodo wore it through Moria and into Mordor.^3,9

Durin's Bane

The Dwarves followed the mithril northward and down towards the roots of the mountains. In 1980 of the Third Age they delved too deep, and woke something that had been hiding under Caradhras since the end of the First Age: a Balrog of Morgoth. It slew King Durin VI, and was called Durin's Bane. The next year it slew his son Náin I, and the Dwarves fled. The Elves of Lórien, across the valley, were afraid, and many of them left their woods.^1,4,10

For centuries afterwards Orcs and worse things dwelt in Moria. In 2790 Thrór, the old king under the Mountain, went into it with one companion and was killed by the Orc-chieftain Azog, who cut off his head and branded the name Azog on it. That began the War of the Dwarves and Orcs.¹

It ended in 2799 with the Battle of Azanulbizar, before the East-gate. The Dwarves won, at a terrible cost, and the young Dáin Ironfoot killed Azog. Then Thráin wished to retake Moria, but Dáin had looked through the gate and seen what waited in the dark beyond it, and refused: Durin's Bane was still there, and the Dwarves had no power to overcome it.¹

Balin's colony

In 2989, though Dáin, now King under the Mountain, did not give leave willingly, Balin son of Fundin led a company from Erebor to retake Moria. For a few years they prospered; Balin was Lord of Moria, and they found mithril. Then Balin was shot by an Orc as he looked into the Mirrormere, and the colony was cut off and destroyed.^1,4,11,9

The Fellowship found his tomb in the Chamber of Mazarbul, and beside it the torn and blood-stained book in which the colonists had kept their record. Its last pages told of the Watcher in the lake, the gates lost, and drums in the deep, and the writing ended in a trailing scrawl.^3,9

We cannot get out.

The Fellowship in Moria

Defeated by the snows of Caradhras, and hunted by Wargs, the Company came on the night of 13 January 3019 to the West-gate. Gandalf could not remember the opening word, until a question of Merry's set him on the right track: the inscription meant exactly what it said, and the password was the Elvish word for friend. As the doors opened, the Watcher in the Water seized Frodo, and when the Company had fled inside, it slammed the doors shut behind them.^3,5

For two days they walked east through the dark, guided by Gandalf's memory and his staff, and in the Chamber of Mazarbul they were attacked by Orcs and a cave-troll. Then, at the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, a narrow arch over a chasm with no rail, the Balrog came after them.^3,9

You cannot pass.

Gandalf broke the bridge under it, and as it fell its whip caught his knees and dragged him over the edge. The Company came out through the East-gate into Dimrill Dale on 15 January, without him.^9,5

Gandalf told later what happened below. He fell with the Balrog into deep water, pursued it through tunnels gnawed by nameless things, far below the Dwarves' deepest delving, and climbed after it up the Endless Stair to Durin's Tower on the peak of Celebdil, where he threw it down and died.¹²

The black pit

Interpretation Moria is where the story first darkens. The hobbits enter it with Gandalf and leave without him; the Dwarves' greatest work becomes their greatest loss, ruined not by an enemy's attack but by their own delving after wealth. Tolkien never says it as a moral, but the shape of the history makes it one.^3,1

Gimli, at least, kept the old pride. Looking down into the Mirrormere as they left, he saw the crown of stars and bade it farewell: there it lay, he said, till Durin woke.¹⁰

Timeline

1. Elder DaysDurin the Deathless founds Khazad-dûm above Kheled-zâram.¹
2. S.A. c. 750Eregion is founded; friendship with Khazad-dûm. The West-gate is made.^7,6
3. S.A. 1697Eregion destroyed; the Dwarves of Moria shut their doors.⁷
4. T.A. 1980The Dwarves wake a Balrog. Durin VI is slain.^4,1
5. T.A. 1981Náin I is slain. The Dwarves flee Moria.⁴
6. T.A. 2790Thrór is murdered in Moria by Azog.^1,4
7. T.A. 2799The Battle of Azanulbizar. Dáin kills Azog, but will not enter Moria.^1,4
8. T.A. 2989Balin goes to Moria.⁴
9. T.A. 2994Balin dies; the colony is destroyed.⁴
10. T.A. 3019, 13 Jan.The Fellowship enters by the West-gate.⁵
11. T.A. 3019, 15 Jan.Gandalf falls from the Bridge of Khazad-dûm.⁵

Names

Questions readers ask

Why was it called Moria?

Moria means the Black Pit, an Elvish name; to the Dwarves it was always Khazad-dûm. The doors themselves, made in a time of friendship, carry the Elvish name: Narvi and Celebrimbor wrote the inscription in Sindarin, and called Durin Lord of Moria.^2,3

Why did the Dwarves not take it back after Azanulbizar?

Because Durin's Bane was still there. Dáin had looked into the gate and seen it, and told Thráin that the Dwarves could not win back Moria until some other power than theirs had come and changed the world.¹

Interpretation That other power came in 3019, unasked: the Balrog died on Celebdil at Gandalf's hands.¹²

On screen

Where the best-known adaptation departs from the books. Nothing in this section is evidence for the books themselves.

Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring shows the storm on Caradhras raised by Saruman's voice. In the book no one can say whose malice it is: Boromir blames the Enemy, Gimli calls the mountain itself Caradhras the Cruel, and Gandalf does not decide between them.^14,2

Sources

Citations name the chapter rather than the page, so they work in any edition. The colour of each note shows what kind of source it is.

• Published story The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as Tolkien published them.
• Appendices Tolkien's own appendices to The Lord of the Rings.
• Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and Tolkien's late writings on the Elder Days, assembled by Christopher Tolkien from his father's papers.
• Adaptation Films and other adaptations. Never evidence for the books.

1. Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, III, “Durin's Folk”
2. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 3, “The Ring Goes South”
3. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 4, “A Journey in the Dark”
4. Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, “The Third Age”
5. Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, “The Great Years”
6. Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age”
7. Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, “The Second Age”
8. Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix E, II, “Writing”
9. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 5, “The Bridge of Khazad-dûm”
10. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 6, “Lothlórien”
11. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 2, “The Council of Elrond”
12. Published story The Two Towers, Book III, ch. 5, “The White Rider”
13. Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix F, II, “On Translation”
14. Adaptation Peter Jackson's film trilogy (2001–2003), The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)