![]() ![]() ![]() …Then at last his gaze was held: wall upon wall, battlement upon battlement, black, immeasurably strong, mountain of iron, gate of steel, tower of adamant, he saw it: Barad-dûr, Fortress of Sauron. First is a quote from the scene where Frodo sits atop Amon Hen (while wearing the Ring) and looks out across Middle-earth: Of what they brought to light the Orcs have gathered nearly all, and given it in tribute to Sauron, who covets it.Īs for whether Sauron’s fortress was on a mountain, well, I leave it to the reader to decide what these passages mean. The Dwarves tell no tale but even as mithril was the foundation of their wealth, so also it was their destruction: they delved too greedily and too deep, and disturbed that from which they fled, Durin’s Bane. The lodes lead away north towards Caradhras, and down to darkness. Its worth was ten times that of gold, and now it is beyond price for little is left above ground, and even the Orcs dare not delve here for it. The Dwarves have a name which they do not tell. For here alone in the world was found Moria-silver, or true-silver as some have called it: mithril is the Elvish name. Such things they found here, it is true, especially iron but they did not need to delve for them: all things that they desired they could obtain in traffic. `The wealth of Moria was not in gold and jewels, the toys of the Dwarves nor in iron, their servant. `Then what do the dwarves want to come back for? ‘ asked Sam. And since the dwarves fled, no one dares to seek the shafts and treasuries down in the deep places: they are drowned in water–or in a shadow of fear.’ The Orcs have often plundered Moria there is nothing left in the upper halls. Have you read our other Tolkien and Middle-earth Questions and Answers articles?Īs for Sauron hoarding mithril, there is this passage in “A Journey in the Dark” in The Fellowship of the Ring: Hence, most of the mithril that had been mined by the Longbeard Dwarves in the Second and Third Ages was probably lost forever in the great cataclysms that destroyed Númenor and Barad-dûr. 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. ANSWER: Mithril appears to be the rarest mineral in Middle-earth. ![]()
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