Throughout Tolkien’s books, Mithril appears a few more times of note. There’s also a legend it was used to make the ship of Eärendil that sailed into the sky. After the Dwarves’ secret was revealed – Mithril is the mysterious element that Khazad-dûm has been mining – The Rings of Power revealed even more about the mysterious metal, including its epic origin story. The “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” stories take place roughly a millennium after the Balrog emerges. By that time, mithril has achieved a nearly mythic status, and there are still quite a few famous objects in existence that are made of the miracle metal.
Mithril in The Lord of the Rings Movies and Books
The magical light, which gives the Elves their immortality and was birthed in Valinor itself, is diminishing, and mithril might be the only thing capable of restoring the light and keeping the race alive. The metal that is lighter yet tougher than steel, is worth more than gold for the dwarves. It is not only the dwarves, though, who are eying the metal of the legends and squinting at its lustre with a smile on their faces. Mithril has been one of the most prominent parts of Prime Video’s The Rings of Power lore so far. The latest episode delves into the legendary metal’s origins with an original spin unique to the show. Mithril plays an important role in Tolkien’s books and in both of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogies.
The Rings of Power: What Is Mithril, and Why Is It Important?
“It was close-woven of many rings, as supple almost as linen, cold as ice, and harder than steel…” and studded with white gems of unknown variety. In Tolkien’s work, only one of the rings — Nenya, the ring worn by Galadriel – is explicitly described as being made of mithril. However, given the lack of detail about some of the other rings and The Rings of Power’s tendency to diverge from what’s on the page, I wouldn’t be surprised if more of the Rings of Power got the mithril treatment moving forward. Celebrimbor further explains that if they use vast quantities of Mithril to saturate every last elf in the light of the Valar, their race could survive the impending rot and perish that looms larger than ever over their heads. Gil-galad dumps the expository background of Mithril to set up the next phase of his persuasion.
The origins of Mithril, as told by Gil-galad
In Appendix B of The Lord of the Rings, he mentions that elves moved to Eregion when they learned of the dwarves’ discovery of mithril in Moria, but that’s about it. Durin tells Elrond that Princess Disa (Sophia Nomvete) was the first to detect mithril. Upon learning https://turbo-tax.org/ of its lightness and durability, Durin reckons that it could be the start of a new era for the dwarves. Unfortunately, mithril proves dangerous to mine, and his father would rather exercise caution than launch full-speed ahead into a mining endeavor.
- The “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” stories take place roughly a millennium after the Balrog emerges.
- The Ñoldor of Eregion discovered how to make an alloy out of it called ithildin (“star moon”), which was often used to decorate gateways and portals, and was visible only by starlight or moonlight.
- Before we go any further, a warning that the following delves into book spoilers, so might spoil upcoming plot points in The Rings of Power.
- The name, or close alternate spellings, has become ubiquitous with a beautiful and rare metal often used in armor.
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Once it destroyed the kingdom of the Dwarves at Khazad-dûm, Middle-earth’s only source of new Mithril ore was cut off. In the short-term, though, introducing mithril as a potential superweapon and lifesaving elixir for the elves adds a new layer of urgency to their story in Middle-earth. They’re no longer the eternal overseers of the continent, the distant observers who only reach out to others when absolutely necessary and otherwise dwell in their havens of light and nature. This is a fight for survival on a level that even Sauron can’t reach, an existential threat at the heart of everything they are. That’s a big deal for the elves, a big deal for the dwarves, and a big deal for the entire lifespan of The Rings Of Power. He eventually passes the mithril shirt along to his nephew Frodo for his journey to destroy the One Ring.
Other possibilities are aluminium, or magnesium; these metals are even lighter than titanium, but not as strong or as silvery and shiny. (Famously, Napoleon III of France once bought dinnerware made out of aluminium because it was more expensive than gold at the time.) Certainly Tolkien, being highly educated, would have had knowledge of these three metals and the difficulty in preparing them. The specific reason this is an issue here, though, is because the Elvish kingdom of Eregion is built specifically because of mithril. Mithril is the prized ore of Durin’s Folk in Khazad-dûm, “lighter than silk, harder than iron, it would best our proudest blades. It’s in seeking this ore that the Dwarves of Durin’s Folk would plunge deeper below their city, and inadvertently unleash the Balrog of Morgoth encased below, which would leave their once proud city in the tattered remains shown in The Fellowship of the Ring.
Durin’s Folk have only just discovered the “grey glitter,” the dwarven name for Mithril on The Rings of Power. The timing of Elrond’s visit to seek help from the dwarves leads Durin to question his motives. And though Elrond didn’t know the true purpose at first, the elves are in fact seeking mithril.
If the description sounds too good to be true, that’s because, well, that’s pretty much what this miracle ore is. It’s extremely hard to find, and only really shows up in three different places in Tolkien’s writings. Since much of The Rings of Power takes liberties with Tolkien’s work, it’s safe to say that this origin story for mithril is a new invention for the show. However, Tolkien didn’t write much about the finding of mithril at all.
Before the Dwarves abandoned Moria, mithril was worth ten times its own volume in gold. However, after the abandonment the excavation of mithril ore stopped entirely, it became priceless, as the presence of the Balrog prevented the Orcs in Moria from mining for it. The only way to obtain a mithril object at the end of the Third Age was to either use heirloom mithril weapons and armour that were produced before the fall of Moria, or to melt down these existing objects to forge new ones. However, most of the mithril produced by the Dwarves before the fall of Moria was gathered by Orcs and paid as tribute to Sauron, who was said to covet it. Mithril was extremely rare by the end of the Third Age, as it was found only in Khazad-dûm. The Dwarves mined for mithril “too greedily and too deep”, ultimately releasing a Balrog, Durin’s Bane.
Check out our Total Film cover feature about the making of the show, as well as our explainers on the mysterious Stranger, who might be playing Sauron, and where The Rings of Power sits on The Lord of the Rings timeline. The world is thus cut off from its sole mithril deposit, sending the market price through the roof. This is what leads Gandalf to later declare about Bilbo’s mithril corslet, “I never told him, but its worth was greater than the value of the whole Shire and everything in it.” However, that’s most likely a stretch at this point, albeit just as much of a stretch as Gil-galad’s story of Mithril’s origins seems to be. However, a plausible explanation for the incongruence could be that the entire origin of the lightning forging a power and that power being Mithril is simply a fabrication.
This battle was fought not for honor but over a tree, atop the Misty Mountains, and within this tree was hidden the last of the lost Silmarils. It has been made abundantly clear how the metal can be the best thing to ever happen to the Dwarven kingdom. However, it is also clear that Mithril will be surrounded by greed, corruption, and malice from all sides of middle-earth.
What he brings up is the story involving a legendary battle between an elf and a Balrog. It is Gil-galad who talks about the origins of Mithril in an effort to persuade Elrond to break his oath and reveal the big secret During and his kingdom has got brewing inside their mines. While it is never explicitly stated where the mithril shirt originally came from, in the extended edition, Gandalf is mithril real tells the Fellowship that Bilbo had a set of mithril rings given to him by Thorin. Gimli states that it was a kingly gift and Gandalf agrees but admits he never told Bilbo exactly how valuable the rings were. Of all items made of mithril, the most famous is the “small shirt of mail” retrieved from the hoard of the dragon Smaug, and given to Bilbo Baggins by Thorin Oakenshield.
And once Khazad-dûm is destroyed by the Balrog, no more Mithril ore can be mined. “The wealth of Moria was not in gold or jewels, the toys of the Dwarves; nor in iron, their servant… 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.”‘… Impenetrable armour occurs in Norse mythology in Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks, a story that Tolkien certainly knew and could have used for his mithril mail-coat. Mithril is the only invented mineral in his Middle-earth writings.
Chemists note mithril’s remarkable properties, strong and light like titanium, perhaps when made into alloys with elements such as titanium or nickel, and in its pure form malleable like gold. It is described as resembling silver, but being stronger and lighter than steel. It was used to make armour, such as the helmets of the citadel guard of Minas Tirith, and ithildin alloy, used to decorate gateways with writing visible only by starlight or moonlight. Always extremely valuable, by the end of the Third Age it was beyond price, and only a few artefacts made of it remained in use. Tolkien also revealed along the way, though, that mithril was a key point in the relationship between the dwarves of Moria and the elves of Eregion (home of Celebrimbor the great Elven smith), a major jumping off point for the show’s entire first season.
The scholar Charles A. Huttar states that Tolkien treats mineral treasures as having the potential for both good and evil, recalling the association of mining and metalwork in John Milton’s Paradise Lost with Satan. The scholar Paul Kocher interprets the Dwarves’ intense secrecy around mithril as an expression of sexual frustration, given that they have very few dwarf-women. For one thing, Tolkien was clear on the connection between mithril and Eregion (the magical mithril moon doors that Gandalf opens in The Fellowship Of The Ring were made by Celebrimbor), giving the show a launch pad for its entire Elrond/Durin storyline. Then, of course, there’s the eventual fall of Khazad-dûm, something teased by the Balrog reveal at the end of episode seven. Amidst their legendary battle, lightning struck the tree which forged with two duelling forces, a new power.
Bilbo describes it as “light as a feather and as hard as dragon scales.” In The Hobbit, Thorin gifts him a shirt of mithril rings that no blade can pierce. King Durin III is cautious and shuts down the whole Mithril operation in The Rings of Power. But we know Prince Durin IV’s objections will eventually prevail, and the wealth of Khazad-Dûm will flourish with this discovery. After all, by the Third Age, a shirt made of mithril is worth more than the Shire and everything in it.
He later explains to Elrond that if the survival of the Elven race is to be assured, they need to have access to Mithril. On one side of the tree fought the Elven warrior, who was of a heart as pure as Manwë. To protect the tree, the Elven warrior poured all his light into it. On the other side of the tree was the Balrog of Morgoth, siphoning all his hatred out into the tree, to destroy it.
In the dwarven tongue, the name for the metal means “grey glitter.” When translated to Sindarin, you get the Elven word “mithril.” This is an incredibly important development to The Rings of Power and to the course of the Second Age of Middle-earth. Tolkien didn’t expound all that much on mithril beyond its properties as a precious metal valued by just about everyone in Middle-earth, but certain key pieces of information in his world-building do establish a precedent for the show to build upon. Things got more complicated earlier this season when Elven King Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker) revealed to Elrond that mithril was not just valuable, but possibly essential to the survival of the Elves.