Moria Pt. 3: The Chamber of Mazarbûl (Patreon)

In the First Age, Khazad-dûm is a haven for Durin’s Folk, surviving “the Dark Years and the dominion of Sauron” because “the halls of Khazad-dûm were too deep and strong and filled with a people too numerous and valiant for Sauron to conquer from without.” Moria is safely sequestered from outside harm, making it one of the few secure places in First Age-Middle-earth.

The Rings of Power’s first season tracks this era of Moria quite closely. In The Lord of the Rings, Moria is the abandoned, ruined home of a diaspora. In The Rings of Power, the dwarvish kingdom gets to be a vibrant home. The relationship between Durin and Elrond illustrates the dynamic between the Dwarves and the outside world. The Elves’ reliance on mithril, a rare bit of canny plotting in Amazon’s wretched contribution to the world of Tolkien, shows Moria as both vital to Middle-earth and quintessentially separate from it.

There’s a way in which this is compelling, but it also exacerbates the Dwarves’ antisemitism. The notion of an underground society on whom everything rests plays into long-lasting tropes about Jewish people. Durin’s role as the one dwarf who reaches out reinforces the self-marginalizing narrative — and it certainly doesn’t help that the season completely fails to resolve its Moria plot (mistaking a Moria tease for a plot beat).

So Moria’s memory in most readers’ minds is as a corpse. “This is no mine: it’s a tomb” establishes the fallen dwarvish kingdom as even more screwed than previously thought. The Chamber of Mazarbûl starts as an archive, but ultimately becomes a tomb where Balin’s death is recorded in a thick book. Permanent prosperity doesn’t exist in Middle-earth. Long-term, solipsistic greed is generally damning to its denizens. So Moria, as a tomb, pays a bigger favor to Middle-earth than a thriving mine ever can.