However, after the Dwarves were forced to abandon Khazad-dûm, its many lamps went out, and the whole subterranean complex became dark. The name Moria had (within the fiction) originally applied only to the Black Chasm itself. The element mor had the sense 'sinister, evil', especially by association with infamous names such as Morgoth and Mordor indeed Moria itself had an evil reputation by the times in which The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set. The name 'Moria' means 'the Black Chasm' or 'the Black Pit', from Sindarin mor, 'dark, black' and iâ, 'void, abyss'. Its multiple levels of tunnels and halls have served, too, as the basis for a variety of computer and board games. Moria provided dramatic scenes in Peter Jackson's film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, inspired by Alan Lee's illustrations. Finally, the Fellowship's entry into the darkness via the deadly lake by the West Gate, and its exit into the light via the beautiful Mirrormere, alongside Gandalf's death and reappearance, has been compared to a baptism, a ceremony that combines a symbolic death and the gift of new life. The West Gate that the Watcher in the Water crashes closed behind the Fellowship recalled to commentators the Wandering Rocks of Greek mythology, and Odysseus's passage between the devouring Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis. The name Moria, Tolkien wrote, echoed the name of a castle in a Norwegian folktale, while Gandalf's death and reappearance reminded critics of the resurrection and transfiguration of Jesus. Scholars have identified likely sources for Tolkien's Moria: he had studied a Latin inscription about a lost ring at the temple of Nodens in Gloucestershire, at a place called Dwarf's Hill full of old mine-workings. It was dark, in dangerous disrepair, and in its labyrinths lurked Orcs and the Balrog. By the end of the Third Age, Moria had long been abandoned by the Dwarves, and was a place of evil repute.

The Dwarves dug too deep, greedy for mithril, and disturbed a demon of great power: a Balrog, which destroyed their kingdom. The city's wealth was founded on its mines, which produced mithril, a fictional metal of great beauty and strength, suitable for armour. In much of Middle-earth's fictional history, Moria was the greatest city of the Dwarves. Moria is introduced in Tolkien's novel The Hobbit, and is a major scene of action in The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien, Moria, also named Khazad-dûm, is an ancient subterranean complex in Middle-earth, comprising a vast labyrinthine network of tunnels, chambers, mines and halls under the Misty Mountains, with doors on both the western and the eastern sides of the mountain range.

Years of the Trees – T.A. 1981 Fourth Age

Kings of Durin's Folk (to T.A. 1981) Durin's Bane, Azog Balin Durin VII

Map of moria lord of rings online