Re: The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria
I have been rereading
The Silmarillion and it got me to thinking about this thread (and the others given in links on the same subject).
First, obviously the name
Moria cannot have been given to
Khazad-dum after the
balrog appeared, 1980 of
the Third Age, since the inscription on the doors states they were drawn by
Celebrimbor and he perished in 1697 of the
Second Age.
Now we can decide that
Tolkien merely made a mistake (certainly a possibility, no one is perfect), but it seems to me there may be a way to reconcile all the statements. The darkness referred to in The Sil could be the war between
Sauron and the
elves in the Second Age; the war in which Celebrimbor perishes. As to why the
dwarves would allow the name Moria to be used on the doors, we must remember that this was not what they considered the entrance to their
realm of Khazad-dum, the Dwarrowdelf. That entrance was on the other side of the
mountains at the site of Kheled-zaram, the Mirrormere. These doors were the elves entrance to the mountains, a backdoor days from where the dwarves actually lived. When the Fellowship enter they find themselves in narrow passages. Indeed there are even guardrooms for watching the passage. Hardly what you would expect to find within the main living quarters. Indeed, it is several days
travel before
Gandalf states "At last we are coming to the habitable parts". The dwarves evidently didn't care what the elves wrote on a backdoor to the mountains, far from their own habitation. The dwarves evidently helped in the construction of the doors, but may have considered them primarily belonging to the elves.
