The Misty Mountains: The Mountains of Moria (Patreon)

Note: Thanks to Laurasia for catching my Silvertine/Zirakzigil error. I have fixed it.

• Names: Caradhras / Celebdil / Fanuidhol

• Synopsis: The peaks of south-central Misty Mountains. Three peaks stand above Moria, the ancient subterranean dwarf-kingdom. 

• Location in Peter Jackson’s films: The Remarkables, Otago, South Island

Angels and demons clash in the frosty mountaintops. Travelers through the peaks of the Misty Mountain brave the wrath of wizards and gods. Migrants trudge agonizingly through the vicious winds, lucky if the bellicose mountains permit their caravan to pass through them alive. Like the stone giants back north, the Mountains of Moria carry on their geologic business of outlasting time itself with little regard for the unfortunate creatures who wander through their passes.

The Mountains of Moria are broadly uninhabited but geographically essential. The peaks of Redhorn, Silvertine, and Cloudyhead, the range’s tallest mountains, are where “the Misty Mountains divide[1].” They overlie the dwarf-kingdom of Moria, slightly northwest of Lothlórien and just north of Fangorn and Isengard. With Eregion and the Vales of Anduin on either side, the three peaks are in the center of the Second and Third Age’s political axis. 

The Redhorn Pass, a natural alley “under the far side of [the northernmost mountain] Caradhras[2],” forms a sort of natural junction in west-central Middle-earth. In theory, it lets travelers walk from western Eriador to eastern Wilderland. However, in practice it’s called “Caradhras the Cruel,” so walking is really just wishful thinking.

Redhorn trails “an ever wider land of bleak hills, and deep valleys filled with turbulent waters.”  As ever with Middle-earth’s lands, those hills and valleys live and breathe. The additive “the cruel” indicates that the mountain is an organism hostile to visitors. The Fellowship of the Ring’s journey through the Redhorn pass is doomed; they can’t take the Gap of Rohan to Mordor, which would bring them close to Isengard, so Redhorn has to oppose them itself. “Caradhras has not forgiven us,” Gimli notes. “He has more snow yet to fling at us, if we go on.” 

Indeed, Caradhras — and the Misty Mountains as a whole are the ones that kill Gandalf. Throughout The Hobbit, Gandalf is a sage who guides his allies from the brink of disaster, utilizing his close relationship with the world to his advantage. In The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf becomes weaker, embarking on his last task in Middle-earth but getting captured by his ally and kinsman Saruman. When the Fellowship arrives at the Misty Mountains, Gandalf’s power truly fails. He can’t defeat Caradhras, whose wrath benefits the Enemy. He goes down to Moria because the mountains won’t let him through.

While Cloudyhead falls outside our path, the Redhorn’s brother Silvertine, or Zirakzigil to the Dwarves, complete’s Gandalf’s fall. The Balrog and Gandalf’s fight on the mountainside is a classic moment in The Two Towers, both book and film versions, accounting a battle between two angelic forces that throws down the mountain. They ascend a dwarvish stronghold, and they fall with it.

The peaks of the Misty Mountains impale any traveler who treads on them. Even wizards can’t fully survive them. What of the mountains’ bowels though? Let’s find out, taking some dwarvish stairs to the Mines of Moria.

[1] The Fellowship of the Ring, “The Ring Goes South”

[2] “The Ring Goes South”