Transcription
We all know that mithril is a strong, silvery light metal that brought great wealth to Kazad-Dûm. But what actually is it? What properties does it possess? And is it only found in Kazad-Dûm?
Hi everyone, this is Robert. Welcome to In Deep Geek. On this channel, we do deep dives, explanations, and discussions about the world of The Lord of the Rings, as well as the best of other great fantasy books and TV shows like A Song of Ice and Fire and The Witcher.
Welcome! Mithril is a naturally occurring metallic substance found in Middle-earth. It is lightweight, durable, and malleable, able to be shaped into many different things and long-lasting without tarnishing.
This is how Gandalf describes it in The Lord of the Rings: "All folk desired it. It could be beaten like copper and polished like glass, and the dwarves could make of it a metal light and yet harder than tempered steel. Its beauty was like that of common silver, but the beauty of mithril did not tarnish or grow dim."
In other words, it could be—and was—used to create some of the most beautiful treasures in the world because it could be molded so easily and did not tarnish or grow dim. But it could also be used for the most practical purposes in weaponry, armor, and construction, making them strong yet lightweight.
The most famous use of mithril in the legendarium is probably Bilbo's mithril mail shirt. Frodo wears it under his shirt for most of the story, and it saves his life when he gets struck by an orc spear. This is a good example of mithril in action.
The fact that Frodo wears it all that time without anyone noticing shows how lightweight and thin it is—obviously shiny but not luminous if nobody noticed it. The fact that he survives the attack with just a bruise, when Aragorn thinks it should have killed him, shows how robust it is.
It's also beautiful. When Aragorn holds it up in the torchlight, it is described as shimmering like the light upon a rippling sea, with gems that glittered like stars.
One of the three Elven Rings of Power, Narya, the Ring of Water, borne by Galadriel, was wrought of mithril, as were other works of beauty. One of the heirlooms of the line of kings from Elendil was the Star of Elendil, a jewel set on a fillet of mithril.
Mithril was so malleable that it could even be woven into the decoration of the banner that Arwen made for Aragorn during the War of the Ring. The Elves of Eregion, led by Celebrimbor, who had a very friendly relationship with the dwarves of Kazad-Dûm, made an alloy out of it called ithildin, which was only visible by moonlight or starlight.
Celebrimbor used it to create the design on the West Gate of Kazad-Dûm, which we saw in The Fellowship of the Ring. If you want an idea of how durable the substance was, by the time the Fellowship reached the Doors of Durin, that intricate design, exposed to all the elements, had survived for perhaps 5,000 years.
It was also used for larger construction works. After the Gates of Minas Tirith were destroyed during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, they were rebuilt by Gimli and the dwarves using mithril. Perhaps they used the mithril that Sauron had hoarded in Mordor. We know that he greatly coveted mithril and demanded that the Orcs of Moria give him all they found.
When in Rivendell, Bilbo sings a song about Vingilot, the ship that Eärendil sails to Valinor and then into the night sky. He sings that it was made from Elven glass and mithril, which may just be hyperbole and legend. But given that he was singing it to Elrond, Eärendil's son, who would have seen him at a young age sail off in it, perhaps not.
Finally, we should note that the guards of the Gate of Minas Tirith wore helmets made of mithril, heirlooms from the glory of old days. We're told all of this suggests that mithril was quite easy to come by.
It wasn't, at least once the dwarves had been thrown from Kazad-Dûm by Durin's Bane. Supply dried up. The scarcity of mithril, its adaptability, utility, and beauty made mithril valuable—very valuable. It became a rare commodity, and its price skyrocketed.
Gandalf estimated it to be worth a hundred times that of gold, and that the mithril shirt Bilbo was given by Thorin, which he later gave to Frodo, was worth more than the entire GDP of the Shire. Sauron hoarded it in Mordor, and King Tar-Telperiën of Númenor is said to have commanded his servants to ever search for it.
While the dwarves had some kind of monopoly over its production, they grew ridiculously rich. So you may ask, if it was so valuable and rare, how come it was used to build boats and for guard helmets and things like that? Did the dwarves of Kazad-Dûm really let all of that mithril out there?
Well, there are two points here. First, the scarcity and value of mithril only really hit towards the end of the Third Age when the dwarves could no longer mine it. Second, we should probably note that although we often think of mithril as only occurring in the vein of Amon under the Misty Mountains, that doesn't seem to be what Tolkien thought.
In "The Disaster of the Gladden Fields," written after The Lord of the Rings and found in The Book of Unfinished Tales, Tolkien randomly mentions mithril. There is a curious footnote affirming that that metal was also found in Númenor. Hence, I assume the Gondorian guard helmets are remnants of the glory of Númenor.
Most scholars assume that as Vingilot was partly made of mithril, it must also be in Aman for the Valar to use. There are also draft notes Tolkien made for The Lord of the Rings that suggest it was also found rarely and scantily in the Blue Mountains and far eastern mountain ranges.
So actually, quite a few places, which at first glance may seem at odds with Gandalf's assertion in The Fellowship of the Ring, while in Moria, that "here alone in the world was found Moria-silva," or true silver, as some have called it. Mithril is the Elvish name.
So was it only found in Moria, or was it in other places too? Thankfully, there is a straightforward answer to this. Gandalf was replying to a question about why the dwarves kept trying to reclaim Moria after they had been forced out by Durin's Bane, the Balrog, in the mid to late Third Age.
Perhaps there had once been mithril elsewhere in the world—in Valinor and Númenor. That's what Tolkien clearly suggested. It may even have been in traces elsewhere, but both Valinor and Númenor were no longer in the world when Gandalf was talking, and the rare and scanty traces elsewhere would soon run out.
So he was right that it was to be found nowhere else. Kazad-Dûm was always the main place where you could find mithril, and the dwarves were the undoubted masters at mining and manipulating it.
In the Second Age, it was probably also found elsewhere in smaller quantities. In the Third Age, only Kazad-Dûm had open seams. I like this: mithril is the source of Kazad-Dûm's glory and power—not because the dwarves accidentally stumbled across the only place it was, or because of some divine blessing imbibing it with special powers from a star or lightning or whatever.
No, mithril was naturally occurring. It had always been there. It was elsewhere, but because Durin's folk found the best seam and were simply the best at mining and using it, it became their pride. This was one of the things that set them apart—something they achieved on their own without any outside influence.
The Noldor Elves only settled in Eregion in the first place because the dwarves found mithril, and Celebrimbor and the Elves came up with an alloy to use it in even more wondrous ways. But it was the mithril itself and what the dwarves could do with it that was the wonder.
Their prudent control of supply and usage made its value skyrocket. As an addendum to this, at some point after the year 171 of the Fourth Age, long after the story of The Lord of the Rings, Durin's folk, led by Durin VII, reclaimed Kazad-Dûm.
With the Balrog gone and the Orcs hamstrung by Sauron's defeat, they could once more take control of their city and restart mining. I like to think that they returned to that seam of mithril, and in time, the halls and chambers of that land gleamed with glory once more, as when Aragorn held up Frodo's shirt, shimmering like the light upon a rippling sea.
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