Mithril – All about the rare element of Middle-earth

Middle-earth lore is filled with magical gems and stones that play a central role in its history. One of the many magical stones and gems featured in Tokien’s works is Mithril. Mithril has previously been mentioned in The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) and Hobbit film trilogies, and he recently appeared in Amazon Prime’s Rings of Power (ROP). So what are these Mithrils and what is their significance? Let’s see.

What is Mithril?

A Mithril is a fictional metal described as resembling steel, but being stronger and lighter than steel. It was discovered in the mines by the Dwarves of Khazad-dum. The name mithril comes from two words in Tolkien’s Sindarin language—mythmeaning “gray”, and ril, meaning “glitter”. It could be used to form various alloys which, in turn, can help make armor that is extremely light, hard, and durable.

A new ore, lighter than silk, harder than iron as a weapon, it would do better than our proudest blades. As a species, it could be more expensive than gold. This could be the start of a new era for our people of strength and prosperity. –Durin

The books say that Mithril was mainly found in the Misty Mountains, in the underground dwarf city of Moria. It was also thought to be on the island of Númenor and probably in Aman as well.

Mithril in LOTR movies and books

Mithril plays an important role in Tolkien’s books and in Peter Jackson’s two Lord of the Rings trilogies. Mithril was also called “true silver” by men or “moria silver”, while dwarves had their own secret name. In The Hobbit, Thorin presents Bilbo with a vest of mithril rings that no blade can pierce (which was taken by Thorin Oakenshield from the Smaug hoard). Later, Bilbo passes the vest to Frodo to destroy the One Ring. The shirt saves his life countless times during his journey.

In The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf explained Mithril by saying –

Mithril! All people wanted it. It could be beaten like copper and polished like glass; and the Dwarves knew how to make it a light metal and yet harder than tempered steel. Its beauty resembled that of ordinary silver, but the beauty of mithril did not fade or darken.

Also, it is mentioned in the books that, one of Galadriel’s rings in LOTR (called Nenya) is composed of Mithril. It is one of the three rings forged by the Elves of Eregion which were the most powerful of the 20 created, after the One Ring. It becomes apparent that the elves had learned to make metal Ithildine using Mithril. Also, the Mithril is shown to mark the western gate of Khazad-Dum. The helmets of the Citadel’s Gondor guards are also made of mithril. Gimli and her dwarf relatives later rebuilt the gates of Minas Tirith using the precious metal.

Origin of Mithril

Episode 5 of Rings of Power (titled “Partings”) gave us some insight into Mithril’s origin story. During a conversation between the High Elven King Gil-Galad and Elrond, when Elrond refuses to reveal the information about a secret ore that Durin mined (because he took an oath), Gil-galad asks him to tell The Song of the Roots of Hithaeglir.

The poem mentioned by Gil-galad actually tells of a fight between a pure-hearted elven warrior and a Balrog of Moria around a beautiful tree, atop the Misty Mountains. The tree, according to legends, was supposed to contain the light of one of the missing Silmarils (learn more about them here). In an attempt to keep the tree pure, the elf poured the light of his life into it. At the same time, Balrog corrupted the tree with his own evil and darkness. Shortly after, the tree was struck by lightning. All of these essences combined seeped deep into the misty mountains below and formed the element called – Mithril.

Fate of Mithril

One thing to note is that Tolkien never provided a concrete origin story for mithril. He even mentions in his works that it was also discovered in mines other than Moriasuch as those of Numenor. Once the dwarves mined Mithrils and discovered immense abilities, they continued to dig deeper to exploit it even more. They finally freed a Balrog, which seemed to guard the Mithril in the darkness below. The Balrog then destroyed the entire dwarf kingdom of Khazad-dum and brought the mining of Mithril to a screeching halt.

The surviving dwarves then fled their kingdom. The Orcs who inhabited Moria after the Balrog was liberated dared not seek mithril and gave away all the mithril the dwarves had already mined as a tribute to Sauron, who wanted it. However, once Khazad-Dum fell, Mithril became a very valuable and rare item in Middle-earth. At the end of the Third Age, the only way to obtain a mithril The object was either to use the weapons and armor produced before the fall of Moria, or to melt down existing items to forge new ones.

 

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