June 10, 2013

The Dwarves Awaken a Balrog

Durin was the King of the Dwarves of Moria, being the 6th to bear that name. Even as the Shadow of Sauron grew in Mirkwood, near Moria, and evil things began to stir the Dwarves delved deeper and deeper in the mountain in search of mithril, the metal beyond price. "They roused from sleep a thing of terror that, flying from Thangorodrim, had laid hidden at the foundations of the earth since the coming of the Host of the West: a Balrog of Morgoth. Durin was slain by it, and the year after Nain I, his son, and then the glory of Moria passed, and its people were destroyed or fled far away" (p. 353. The Return of the King). This would be the Balrog that felled Gandalf generations later when the Fellowship attempted to pass through the Mines of Moria.

Middle-earth timeline: Third Age, 1980
Today's reading comes from: The Return of the King, page 353

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