January 14, TA 3019
15 January 2006 16:55:46Night in Hall Twenty-one.
As I read The Lord of the Rings for the first time I was so captivated by the happenings leading up to Rivendell, and then the Council, that I found it difficult to get back into the story...until Moria. Here Tolkien's magic caught me up again and I was fascinated and terrified by the great dark caverns and the terror that was hinted at within.
Quote:
"The Company spent that night in the great cavernous hall, huddled close together in a corner to escape the draught: there seemed ti be a steady inflow of chill air through the eastern archway. All about them lay as they lay hung the darkness, hollow and immense, and they were oppressed by the loneliness and vastness of the dolven halls and endlessly branching stairs and passage. The wildest imaginings that dark rumour had ever suggested to the hobbits fell altogether short of the actual dread and wonder of Moria."
But the most remarkable passage from this part of the book...from this dark night in Moria, is the chant of Gimli. In an effort not to steal the thunder of the Shire Poets, I give you here a mere smattering of the verse...and the magic of Moria.
The forge's fire is ashen cold;
No harp is wrung, no hammer falls:
The darkness dwells in Durin's halls;
The shadow lies upon his tomb
In Moria, in Khazad-dum.
But still the sunken stars appear
In dark and windless Mirrormere;
There lies his crown in water deep,
Till Durin wakes again from sleep."
Images © "In the Halls of Moria" & "Mirrormere" by Alan Lee.