Its habitable parts remained in the eastward side, but passages were delved through miles of rock that terminated at a gigantic stone portal-the West Gate. This friendship also resulted in a massive westwards extension of the subterranean realm of Khazad-dûm. With the foundation of the Ñoldorin realm of Eregion to the west of Khazad-dûm around SA 700, friendly relations between the Longbeards and the Elves were firmly established. Whether they remained separate clans or groups within their new home, or became merged with the Longbeards, is not known. The Dwarves of Belegost and Nogrod were not Longbeards, but Broadbeams and Firebeards. He was buried in a tomb in Khazad-dûm.Įarly in the Second Age, Khazad-dûm's realm of Longbeards was enriched in culture, skills, and population by large numbers of refugees from Belegost and Nogrod, cities ruined at the end of the First Age along with most of Beleriand in the cataclysmic final battle against Morgoth. The eventual death of Durin 'the Deathless' occurred before the end of the First Age. Gates of Moria, and translation of the writing Khazad-dûm played no part in the wars of Beleriand, and in fact gained a respite from Orc attacks throughout the First Age, "when Morgoth needed all his strength" elsewhere. By that time, Khazad-dûm was already "a name and a rumour from the words of the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains" to all the Eldar of Beleriand.ĭuring the reign of Durin the Deathless some of the wonders of Dwarvish architecture were built in Khazad-dûm: Durin's Bridge, the Second Hall, the Endless Stair and Durin's Tower.Īfter his death, the reputation of Durin's realm continued to grow, not merely due to his spiritual ascendancy over the other Fathers of the Dwarves as their eldest, or to Dwarrowdelf's growing size, but to its great wealth founded upon the uniquely precious metal mithril, which was universally prized yet found nowhere else in Middle-earth. During that period Khazad-dûm grew continuously in size and population, until it became the "greatest of all the mansions of the Dwarves", even before the return of the Ñoldor to Middle-earth. The long reign of Khazad-dûm's first king was a golden age, remembered as Durin's Day (this name was also applied to the Dwarvish New Year). His descendants erected a rune-carved stone monolith, Durin's Stone, on the site where he had first looked into the Mirrormere, and although it had become indecipherably weatherworn by the end of the Third Age-broken, cracked and faded-the influence of Durin I, the founding king of Khazad-dûm, was never forgotten. Ī great hall of Khazad-dûm, imagined by Ralph DamianiĪll of these places became revered amongst Durin's people in later days. Durin chose the eastward-facing caves above Kheled-zâram as the earliest beginnings of his new stronghold. The icy cold springs below the lake he called Kibil-nâla (the source of the Silverlode), and the valley itself he gave the name Azanulbizar, the Dimrill Dale. The three peaks overshadowing the lake he named Barazinbar 'the Redhorn', Zirakzigil 'the Silvertine' and Bundushathûr, ' Cloudyhead'. Perceiving these stars as a crown glittering above his head, Durin took this as an auspicious sign, and named the lake Kheled-zâram, the Mirrormere. Within this heavily wooded valley, a long series of short waterfalls led down to a long, oval lake, which appeared to have a magical quality: "There, like jewels sunk in the deep shone glinting stars, though sunlight was in the sky above". Durin had awakened at Mount Gundabad not long after the Elves first awoke, and as eldest among the Fathers of the Dwarves was acknowledged as preeminent among them, a status subsequently inherited by his descendants, the Kings of the Longbeards.įrom Mount Gundabad, Durin made his way south until according to legend, Durin ultimately found "a glen of shadows between two great arms of the mountains, above which three white peaks were shining". The Dwarrowdelf was founded by Durin 'the Deathless' in the far distant past, long before the creation of the Sun and Moon in the Years of the Trees. 3.2 The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
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