The Complete Tolkien Companion

by J. E. A. Tyler

  With the forging of the Ruling Ring in the middle years of the Age, Sauron finally gained enough power to send his hosts forth from Mordor to ravage the Westlands of Middle-earth; and for much of the remainder of the Second Age his forces continued to threaten the southlands. Yet at the very end of the Age Sauron overreached himself, and the combined strength of the Elves and the Dúnedain cast him from his dark Throne and drove his spirit away in exile. Mordor then became desolate and uninhabited, except for a few garrisons from Gondor, stationed in fortresses built by the Dúnedain to watch over the passes and prevent any evil thing from entering or leaving. For many years the Black Land was quiet and Orodruin’s fires were stilled. (It was at this time that the castles of Durthang, Narchost, Carchost and Cirith Ungol were built.)

  But the fortunes of Mordor always mirrored Sauron’s own, and by the end of the first half of the Third Age he was once more awake and plotting to regain his ancient realm – although for many years he did not dare to reclaim it openly. Instead, while himself continuing to dwell in Dol Guldur, he sent his chief servants, the Ringwraiths, secretly to prepare Mordor for his re-occupation. This they did before the end of the second millennium, while Gondor was fully occupied in holding off attacks from Easterlings (doubtless stirred up for this very purpose by his other agents). For the next thousand years the power of Mordor grew again – and was allowed to grow because there was no strength capable of obstructing it; and in 2951 Sauron himself again returned to the Black Land, after an absence of nearly three thousand years.

  Yet even with all this careful preparation, and despite the boasted inviolability of Mordor’s frontiers, in the final test the fearsome reputation and impassable mountain-walls were insufficient to keep the foes of the Dark Lord at bay. During the War of the Ring, while Sauron’s attention was deliberately held elsewhere, his borders were passed by two enemies who bore with them the key to Sauron’s survival or defeat. The success of their mission brought about the fall of Sauron and the final ruin of Mordor; and although the southern lands around Lake Nurnen were afterwards settled by emancipated slaves, the northern plains of Gorgoroth, Udûn and Lithlad were deserted and were never again made habitable. Mordor became once more a desert, but an empty desert.

  Morgai ‘Black Fence’ (Sind.) – A ridge of jagged hills in Mordor. It ran parallel to the Mountains of Shadow for some thirty leagues south of the Durthang Spur. Thus it was an inner fence of Sauron’s realm (as opposed to the ‘outer-fence’ of the Ephel Dûath).

  Morgoth ‘Dark Foe [of the World]’ (Sind.) – The name given by Fëanor of the Noldor to the eldest and greatest of the Ainur, MELKOR the Mighty, whose fall from Grace during the Eldest Days initiated a series of lasting and profoundly tragic consequences for the World. From his very Beginnings, Melkor opposed himself to the wishes of the Creator and the Themes of the Great Music – for alone of the Ainur he envied Eru and desired to emulate (and surpass) him. And after the Making of Arda (the World) he desired to rule the ‘Little Kingdom’ for himself, brooking no equals. So began his rebellion, which waxed or waned according to his circumstances for many Ages of the World until, after bringing evil, war, ruin and death to the Middle-world, he was cast out for ever by the Valar.

  His first realm in Middle-earth, Utumno (‘The Pit’), was made in the Far North; its westerly outpost was Angband. But in the Battle of the Powers Utumno was ruined, and Melkor was carried, a prisoner, back to Valinor. For three ages of the world he was held captive in the Halls of Mandos, but feigned repentance, and so was released, though not permitted to return to mortal lands. But Melkor secretly hated the Valar and the Eldar, and in furtherance of this hatred he poisoned the Two Trees – the Light of Valinor and Eldamar – and stole the Silmarils which had been made by Fëanor; and slew Fëanor’s father Finwë; and then fled back to Middle-earth with his prize, to plan and build anew, dwelling everafter in Angband. And the Noldor followed him, to regain that which he had stolen. So began the war of the Great Jewels, in which Morgoth, as he was then named (and ever after known in Middle-earth) was ultimately victorious over the Eldar and the Edain.

  It is known that Morgoth was discomfited at least once during the War of the Great Jewels – by Beren and Lúthien – yet apart from the loss of a single Silmaril, his victory seems to have been complete. His specially bred armies of Orcs and Trolls, augmented by Dragons and Balrogs, invaded Beleriand and captured the High-elven cities of Nargothrond and Gondolin. The Elves fled or hid themselves or were destroyed in the Great Darkness that followed Morgoth’s victory.

  Nonetheless, a single ship, bearing an ambassador from Middle-earth, eventually arrived on the shores of the Undying Lands, guided by the Light of the recovered Silmaril; and the representations which were then made brought about the mustering of the Valar and their intervention against the Enemy. The blow struck by this host against Thangorodrim obliterated that region and brought about severe disturbances of the land and seas, inundating a sizeable part of north-western Middle-earth. Morgoth was thrust through the ‘Doors of Night’ into the Void.

  Yet his terrible example was to have lasting consequences, for not even the mightiest blow could destroy the evil now awake in Middle-earth. Although Morgoth’s followers were for the most part overwhelmed with Angband, many of the creatures he had ‘created’ lived on, and his chief servant survived – later to be revealed as Sauron the Great, Lord of Mordor.

  Note: also called Bauglir (‘The Constrainer’), Belegurth (‘The Great Death’) and The Enemy.

  Morgul ‘Black-wraith’ (Sind.) – In the absence of clear information from surviving records of the Third Age, all hypotheses must assume the lesser stature of guesses; nonetheless, it seems possible that Morgul was the name or title of the Lord of the Ringwraiths, the Witch-king of Angmar, who later became Lord of Minas Ithil, which his armies captured on Sauron’s behalf in 2002 Third Age. The Tower of the Moon was then renamed Minas Morgul, and the vale in which it lay became known as Imlad Morgul.

  Morgulduin – The river which flowed through Morgul Vale (formerly Ithil Vale). It was given this name in Gondor after the Nazgûl captured Minas Ithil in 2002 Third Age; previously, it had been known as Ithilduin.

  See also IMLAD MORGUL.

  Morgul-knife – A deadly, sorcerous weapon, doubtless devised by the Lord of the Ringwraiths and used by him in an attempt on the life of the Ring-bearer.8 The blade pierced the heart of the victim, simultaneously taking his life and turning him into a wraith like the wielder of the Morgul-knife, only of far lesser stature and power. If by chance the blade missed the heart, a fragment of the knife would remain in the wound and slowly work its way inwards. Like all such weapons of darkness, the blade (the bewitched part) wilted and turned to smoke when exposed to the rays of the sun; thus the dagger could only be used during the hours of night.

  Morgul Vale – A translation of IMLAD MORGUL.

  Moria – Of all the mighty works of stone created by the Dwarves of Middle-earth, none was greater, nor more famed, nor more dreaded (in later days) than the vast underground city of the Dwar-rowdelf, called by the Dwarves themselves Khazâd-dûm (‘The-Mansion-of the-Khazâd’), and by the Elves Hadhothrond (a rendering of Khazâd-dûm), but among themselves, in later Ages, Moria, the ‘Black-pit’.

  The story of Moria is a tale with an irresistible sense of destiny, of massive achievement, great power and royalty, of uncountable wealth and unsurpassed skill in stone-working, tunnelling, mining, delving and craftsmanship. It is also a tale of greed, self-satisfaction, obsession and final loss, brought about by the very factors which made the Dwarrowdelf the mighty achievement it was, from the Elder Days until the latter half of the Third Age.

  Of all the names of this ancient realm, Khazâd-dûm, the Dwarves’ own term for it, was naturally by far the most venerable. Khazâd was the name this people had for their own race, the name they believed had been given to them by Aulë the Smith, the Craftsman of the Valar and their own demiurgic ‘sponsor’, who also gave them the
ir ancient skills and singular nature. It was fitting, therefore, that their greatest accomplishment should be given the simple title ‘Mansion-of-the-Dwarves’ – for no other Dwarf-delving in Middle-earth, not even the First Age cities of Nogrod and Belegost, nor the dolven halls of Erebor, ever approached the sheer size and scale of Moria.

  The name Moria itself is an Elvish (Sindarin) word and it was ‘given without love; for the Eldar, though they might at need, in their bitter wars with the Dark Powers and his servants, contrive fortresses underground, were not dwellers in such places of choice … and Moria in their tongue means the Black Chasm.’9 A vast and boundless chasm it was, from its very beginning, but it did not become black until after the Heirs of Durin fled, many thousands of years later; while the Dwarves dwelt in Khazâd-dûm, ‘it was not darksome, but full of light and splendour…’10

  The beginning of the city lay far back in the Elder Days when, alone among the Dwarves’ seven Fathers, Durin the Deathless awoke and came to the great vale of Azanulbizar (as it was afterwards named), on the eastern side of the Misty Mountains. There he received a sign of his great royalty (see DURIN THE DEATHLESS), and there he made his dwelling, in the caves about Lake Kheled-zâram (the Mirrormere). Many Dwarves then came and laboured there, transforming the rough-hewn caves into carven halls and passages, roads and tunnels, mines and pits. Great gates they built overlooking Azanulbizar and its lake; and all of Moria which lay on or above the height of these Gates was then systemised into levels – while the halls which were delved below (and these were many, and endlessly branching) were known as deeps.

  Between the First and Second Halls (on the same level as the Gates) was a chasm so deep that even the miners of Moria were never able to sound it. Across this, in a single curving span, the Dwarves built a narrow bridge of stone which could only be crossed in single file; this was Durin’s Bridge, an ancient defence against any enemies who might capture the Gates and the First Hall. High in the peak of Zirak-zigil the Dwarves carved a chamber with a ledge from which Durin (or his many successors of the same name) could view the wide lands of Eriador. This was Durin’s Tower, and it was reached by an even more ambitious feat of stone masonry, the ‘Endless Stair’, which climbed in unbroken spiral from the lowest Deep to the very pinnacle of the mountain, in many thousands of steps.

  Such was the Dwarf-city of Moria. Many of the Khazâd dwelt there, especially after the end of the First Age, when the cataclysm which overwhelmed Thangorodrim and most of Elvish Beleriand also destroyed the ancient Dwarf-cities of the Blue Mountains: Nogrod and Belegost. Thus many Dwarves from these cities came to Moria, bringing their skills with them, so that the Dwarrowdelf became a colossal underground city occupying much of the area beneath the three peaks of the Misty Mountains: Caradhras (called Barazinbar by the Dwarves), Celebdil (Zirak-zigil) and Fanuidhol (Bundushathûr).

  Early in the Second Age the Dwarves of Moria made their greatest discovery, one which increased their power and wealth beyond all dream or design: below the lowest Deeps of Baraz, where miners had delved for many years in search of gold and silver (‘the toys of the Dwarves’11) and iron (‘their servant’12), they discovered a new ore, light and yet strong, beautiful and versatile. This metal became known to the world at large as mithril (‘Grey-flame’, a Sin-darin word), for the Dwarves never revealed their own name for it. However, they traded their surplus willingly enough. For the Elves especially loved mithril, and it was the news of the discovery of the great lode under Moria which caused many High-elves of Lindon, descendants of the Master Craftsman Fëanor himself, to settle nearby, on the western side of the Misty Mountains. This Elven-land became known as Eregion, and a close friendship soon grew up there between the Elves and Dwarves. To further this friendship the Moria-dwellers extended their kingdom westwards to the far side of the Mountains, and the Doors of Durin, built there by Dwarf-wrights, were etched and designed by the hand of no less an Elven craftsman than Celebrimbor, as a sign of the alliance between the two peoples.

  Yet war came upon the Westlands before half of the Second Age had passed. The Elven-craftsmen of Eregion were overcome by the renascent forces of Sauron the Great – and doubtless Moria would also have been pillaged had the Dwarves not shut their impregnable doors in the face of the advancing hordes; they kept them closed throughout the remainder of Sauron’s first dominion in Middle-earth. Thus Moria survived the Accursed Years; and though other races did not fare so well, the Dwarves grew ever richer and cared little for the turmoils which were taking place outside their Gates.

  At the beginning of the Third Age Moria was therefore at the height of its power. The wars and alliances which had devastated other lands were of small concern to the Miners there, still busily extending their realm. But their nemesis awaited, slumbering deep under Caradhras. Towards the end of the second millennium the Miners were again busy following the mithril-lode down into the bowels of the earth; and in this search for yet more wealth, their picks and axes broke down the last wall of rock which imprisoned a Terror of the Ancient World. The Balrog of Morgoth, buried deep under the Mountains since the ruin of Thangorodrim nearly two Ages before, was thus unfettered; in two years it slew many Dwarves, including Durin VI and his son Náin I. The inhabitants of Moria then abandoned their ancient works and fled far away, leaving their vast halls dark and empty – except for that which continued to stalk the endless passages and lightless Deeps.

  The loss of Moria proved the undoing of Durin’s house. Without a secure dwelling, this people dwindled, and many were slain by the enemies the Dwarves always managed to acquire. Other Dwarf-kingdoms were founded – and some prospered, for a while – but always the Heirs of Durin’s Line dreamed of returning to Moria. The first to do so was Thrór, disinherited King of Erebor, which had been sacked and occupied by the Dragon Smaug in 2770 Third Age. Some twenty years later Thrór, perhaps unbalanced by the misfortunes of his House, foolishly walked alone into the darkened realm. He never returned, though his decapitated corpse was later cast out on the steps. For a host of Orcs was now dwelling in Moria (although even they did not dare to seek the lower Deeps where the Balrog still prowled). This atrocity brought about the great WAR OF THE DWARVES AND ORCS, of which much is said elsewhere. Yet while, in the end, the Dwarves had the victory over the Orcs of Moria, they could not yet reclaim their ancient realm. For, as Dáin Ironfoot told Thráin, Thrór’s heir, ‘we will not enter Khazâd-dûm … Beyond the shadow it waits for you still: Durin’s Bane. The world must change and some other power than ours must come before Durin’s Folk walk again in Moria.’13

  The second attempt to reclaim this realm was better organised but equally foolhardy. In 2989 Balin son of Fundin (and one of the twelve companions of Thorin Oakenshield on the Quest of Erebor), led an expedition to Moria from the Lonely Mountain. With him he took many companions, including Óin and Ori, Flói, Frár, Lóni and Náli. They effected an entry against the few Orcs who remained there, and managed to survive for some five years before a host of Goblins came up the river Silverlode and forced the defenders to take refuge in their last strong-point, the Chamber of Mazarbul. There all fell.

  Such was the history of the great realm as briefly recounted in available Records of the Shire (which were no doubt derived from Gimli the Dwarf). It is not said whether the Heirs of Durin ever returned to Moria in the Fourth Age, but this is unlikely, despite their long-cherished dreams. For in the New Age all folk dwindled save Men; and those races which did not disappear altogether or depart (like most of the Elves) were gradually diminished and became rustic; and eventually they were either completely forgotten by Men or were made into figures of fun in legends and folk-tales. Such was the fate of the Dwarves. But even the most absurd of modern nonsense stories about them usually manages to credit the Dwarves with awe-inspiring skill in works of stone and metal; and if the Khazâd themselves have now completely disappeared from Middle-earth, at least records remain of their achievements. Of these the mighty city of Moria was unquestion
ably both the greatest and the longest to endure.

  Moria-silver – MITHRIL.

  Moriquendi – See DARK-ELVES.

  Mormegil ‘Black Sword’ (Sind.) – A nom de guerre of Túrin Turambar, awarded him by the Elves of Nargothrond during the years when he was that city’s foremost warrior. Túrin was, of course, the wielder of the black sword Gurthang (formerly ANGLACHEL).

  Morrowdim – The Shire name for the period of twilight known to the Grey-elves as aduial and to the High-elves as TINDÓMË.

  Morthond ‘Black-root’ (Sind.) – One of the largest of the seven rivers of Gondor. It rose under the White Mountains and flowed down to find the Sea north of Dol Amroth in Belfalas. At its mouth were ancient elf-havens built by Silvan Elves of Lórien early in the Third Age.

  Morthond Vale – A large, fertile, well-populated valley, situated high in the White Mountains between the source of the river Morthond and the Hill of Erech. Also known as the Blackroot Vale.

  Morwen Eledhwen – A princess of the Edain, the daughter of Bara-gund of the First House. She wedded Húrin the Heir of Dor-lómin, and bore him three children: Túrin, Lalaith (who died in infancy), and Nienor. But her life was unhappy, for she and hers fell under the curse of Morgoth.

  Morwen was born in Ladros, in Dorthonion; but while she was still a child that region of the North was attacked, and captured, by Morgoth (after the Dagor Bragollach); and she was taken to safety in Dor-lómin, where the House of Hador still maintained a realm on the very frontiers of war. There she later wedded Húrin, and there their children were born. But when her eldest child Túrin was seven, there came the renewal of open war, and the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, in which Húrin was captured, having fought to the last. In the days which followed this catastrophe Morwen remained perforce in Dor-lómin, which was now subject to Morgoth; but she contrived to smuggle Túrin, now the Heir of Húrin and Hador, out of that oppressed land to safety, in Doriath.