Poems and Tales of Middle-Earth: (illustrations by Alan Lee) Elvish riddle on Moria's doors: "Pedo mellon a minno, Speak friend and enter." Dwarf song for Durin: "The world was young, the mountains green, No stain yet on the Moon was seen, No words were laidon stream or stone When Durin woke and walked alone. He named the nameless hills and dells; He drank from yet untasted wells; He stooped and looked in Mirrormere, And saw a crown of stars appear, As gems upon a silver thread, Above the shadow of his head. The world was fair, the mountains tall, In Elder Days before the fall Of mighty kings in Nargothrond And Gondolin, who now beyond The Western Seas have passed away: The world was fair in Durin's Day. A king he was on carven throne In many-pillared halls of stone With golden roof and silver floor, And runes of power upon the door. The light of sun and star and moon In shining lamps of crystal hewn Undimmed by cloud or shade of night There shone for ever fair and bright. There hammer on the anvil smote, There chisel clove, and graver wrote; There forged was blade, and bound was hilt; The delver mined, the mason built. There beryl, pearl, and opal pale, And metal wrought like fishes' mail, Buckler and corslet, axe and sword, And shining spears were laid in hoard. Unwearied then were Durin's folk; Beneath the mountains music woke: The harpers harped, the minstrels sang, And at the gates the trumpets rang. The world is grey, the mountains old, The forge's fire is ashen-cold;       No harp is wrung, no hammer falls:       The darkness dwells in Durin's halls;       The shadow lies upon his tomb       In Moria, in Khazad-dûm.       But still the sunken stars appear       In dark and windless Mirrormere;       There lies his crown in water deep,       Till Durin wakes again from sleep. (illustrations by John Howe)

The Lord of the Rings Part I. The Fellowship of the Ring Quotes from Tolkien's Novel     The Mines of Moria.   'The Ringwraiths are deadly enemies, but they are only the shadows yet of the power and terror they would possess if the Ruling Ring was on their master's hand again.' (Gandalf)     'The wolf that one hears is worse than the Orc that one fears.' (Boromir) [...]'But where the warg howls, there also the orc prowls.' (Aragorn)     'What are you going to do then?' asked Pippin, undaunted by the wizard's bristling brows. 'Knock on the doors with your head, Peregrin Took,' said Gandalf. 'But if that does not shatter them, and I am allowed a little peace from foolish questions, I will seek for the opening words.'     "A deep uneasiness, growing to dread, crept over him [Frodo] again. Though he had been healed in Rivendell of the knife-stroke, that grim wound had not been without effect. His senses were sharper and more aware of things that could not be seen. One sign of change that he soon had noticed was that he could see more in the dark than any of his companions, save perhaps Gandalf. [...] He felt the certainty of evil ahead and of evil following; but he said nothing."     "When they halted for a moment, they heard nothing at all, unless it were occasionally a faint trickle and drip of unseen water. Yet Frodo began to hear, or to imagine that he heard something else: like the faint fall of soft bare feet. It was never loud enough, or near enough, for him to feel certain that he heard it; but once it had started it never stopped, while the Company was moving. But it was not an echo, for when they halted it pattered on for a little all by itself, and then grew still."     "All about them as they lay hung the darkness, hollow and immense, and they were oppressed by the loneliness and vastness of the dolven halls and endlessly branching stairs and passages. The wildest imaginings that dark rumour had ever suggested to the hobbits fell short of the actual dread and wonder of Moria."     '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.' (Gandalf)     "A deep silence fell. One by one the others fell asleep. Frodo was on guard. As if it were a breath that came in through unseen doors out of deep places, dread came over him. His hands were cold and his brow damp. He listened. All his mind was given to listening and nothing else for two slow hours; but he heard no sound, not even the imagined echo of a footfall."     "Frodo thought of Bilbo and his long friendship with the dwarf, and of Balin's visit to the Shire long ago. In that dusty chamber in the mountains it seemed a thousand years ago and on the other side of the world. "     'We have barred the gates ... can hold them long if ... horrible ... suffer ... We cannot get out. We cannot get out. They have taken the Bridge and second hall. Frá and Lóni and Náli fell there. ... went 5 days ago ... the pool is up to the wall at Westgate. The Watcher in the Water took Óin. We cannot get out. The end comes ... drums, drums in the deep ... They are coming.' (diary found in Moria)     " 'You take after Bilbo,' said Gandalf. 'There is more about you than meets the eye, as I said of him long ago.' Frodo wondered if the remark meant more than it said."     "Down the centre stalked a double line of towering pillars. They were carved like boles of mighty trees whose boughs upheld the roof with a branching tracery of stone. Their stems were smooth and black, but a red glow was darkly mirrored in their sides. Right across the floor, close to the feet of two huge pillars a great fissure had opened. Out of it a fierce red light came, and now and again, flames licked at the brink and curled about the bases of the columns. Wisps of dark smoke wavered in the hot air."     "Something was coming up behind them. What it was could not be seen: it was like a great shadow, in the middle of which a dark form, of man-shape maybe, yet greater; and a power and terror seemed to be in it and to go before it.       It came to the edge of the fire and the light faded as if a cloud had bent over it. Then with a rush it leaped across the fissure. The flames roared up to greet it, and wreathed about it; and a black smoke swirled in the air. Its streaming mane kindled, and blazed behind it. In its right hand was a blade like a stabbing tongue of fire; in its left it held a whip of many thongs."     "The Balrog reached the bridge. Gandalf stood in the middle of the span, leaning on the staff in his left hand, but in his other hand Glamdring gleamed, cold and white. His enemy halted again, facing him, and the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings. It raised the whip, and the thongs whined and cracked. Fire came from its nostrils. But Gandalf stood firm.       'You cannot pass,' he said. The Orcs stood still, and a dead silence fell. 'I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail yoiu, flame of Udûdun. Go back to the Shadow! You cannot pass.'       The Balrog made no answer. The fire in it seemed to die, but the darkness grew. It stepped forward slowly on the bridge, and suddenly it drew himself up to a great height, and its wings were spread from wall to wall; but still Gandalf could be seen, glimmering in the gloom; he seemed small, and altogether alone: grey and bent, like a wizened tree before the onset of a storm.       From out of the shadow a red sword leaped flaming.       Glamdring glittered white in answer.       There was a ringing clash and a stab of white fire..."

Quotes   Shire Hobbiton Buckland Old Forest Lone-lands Bree Weathertop Wounded Rivendell Meetings Council Farewells Misty Mountains Caradhras Moria Lothlorien Edge Amroth Galadhon Galadriel Farewell Southwards Great River Tol Brandir   Site map Plan site