And since no Dwarves are said to have ever settled in Mordor it seems doubtful to me that Tolkien would have imagined anyone having the skill to extract mithril from the remains of Barad-dûr. Tolkien never seems to have given the matter any thought. While that might seem plausible to some J.R.R. Some readers have asked if that mithril might not have survived, such that a new vein could be sought once the volcano had quieted and the lava flows cooled. So by the time Barad-dûr was destroyed Sauron might have collected a huge store of mithril in the fortress, a store which would have been lost forever when the mountain collapsed and was swallowed up by the huge lava flow coming out of Mount Doom. As Gondor lost territories and suffered defeats in battle through the years, it could also have lost a substantial part of the mithril it had collected. However, by then the metal had become so precious it was only used by a small number of elite people. Gondor was able to continue using mithril all the way up to the War of the Ring. Hence, if there was much mithril in Arnor it could have gradually found its way into Sauron’s hoards over the centuries. Arnor had already fallen to the Witch-king of Angmar by then presumably he would have stripped Fornost Erain and other Númenorean fortresses of their treasures each time he overcame one. Since Númenor took most of its treasures with it in the Great Cataclysm it is probably safe to assume that a large part, perhaps most, of the mithril that the Númenoreans had collected throughout the Second Age was lost at that time.īut Gondor and Arnor would have had access to mithril for two thousand years in the Third Age, until the Balrog of Moria drove the Dwarves out of their realm. Therefore the Númenoreans would have only had access to a portion of the available mithril in their day whereas Sauron, after conquering most of Middle-earth, would have had access to the majority of the remaining mithril. The Longbeard Dwarves had access to a vast trading network through the other six Dwarven kingdoms hence, they could have distributed mithril throughout Middle-earth. But Sauron also collected mithril, and in one passage Tolkien suggests that Sauron had gathered most of the remaining mithril to himself by the end of the Third Age. During the Second Age the Númenoreans collected a great deal of mithril, especially when they began levying tribute on the men of Middle-earth. It is, according to a couple of texts, only found in Khazad-dûm. In "The Fellowship of the Ring," Gandalf explains the fate of the mithril left behind when the Dwarves vacate Moria, saying that "Of what they brought to light the Orcs have gathered nearly all, and given it in tribute to Sauron, who covets it.ANSWER: Mithril appears to be the rarest mineral in Middle-earth. The last place where mithril can be found in "The Lord of the Rings" is in the Land of Shadow itself. After the War of the Ring, Gimli even returns to Minas Tirith, where he rebuilds the gates using a combination of mithril and steel. Arwen makes a banner for her future husband with mithril woven into the image, as well. In the printed version of the story, it also says that one of Aragorn's ancient family heirlooms called the Star of Elendil is set in a mithril fillet. The guards of Minas Tirith have mithril incorporated into their helmets, which are referred to as "heirlooms from the glory of old days" in "The Return of the King" book. It's also used in Ithildin, the glowing letters used to write on the secret doors of Moria. Galadriel's Ring of Power, Nenya, is made of Moria-silver. ![]() This they did because they learned that mithril had been discovered in Moria." Timing issues aside, the discovery of mithril by the Dwarves is such a big deal that an entire Elvish kingdom pops up next to their home like a Wild West boom town, all because its inhabitants, who are largely craftsmen, want to be close to the only source of true-silver in the world. The appendices of "The Return of the King" say that "Later some of the Noldor went to Eregion, upon the west of the Misty Mountains, and near to the West-gate of Moria. The specific reason this is an issue here, though, is because the Elvish kingdom of Eregion is built specifically because of mithril. The problem isn't where Eregion is during the show but rather when it is (a necessary side effect of compressing 3,500 years of a story into a short period of time). ![]() However, one little discrepancy is the existence of Celebrimbor's (Charles Edwards) realm of Eregion. ![]() This is the time when "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" story is set, so the timing of the discovery in the show works.
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