Middle Earth/Moria

In the literary works by J. R. R. Tolkien collectively called Middle Earth, Moria is the name given to the underground city, mines, and connected tunnels that run through the central Misty Mountains. There, for three ages of Middle Earth, a thriving dwarf? community created the greatest dwarven city ever known. However, by the end of the Third Age, at the time of the events of The Lord of the Rings, Moria had become a dark and cursed place, and dwarves no longer lived there, but only orc?s, trolls, and shadows of evil more ancient still.

Before the First Age, the father of the dwarves, named Durin, woke by a lake in the Misty Mountains. This lake, called Mirrormere or Kheled-zaram, was later a revered place among dwarves. Nearby, Durin first delved his city, which was called Khazad-dum by the dwarves and also Dwarrowdelf by men and Hadhodrond by elves. Afterwards, other rulers of Khazad-dum were sometimes named Durin, who the dwarves believed came to live again among his people.

In the Second Age, the Dwarves of Khazad-dum forged a friendship with the Noldorian elf realm of Eregion -- but this friendship ended in disaster with the forging of the Rings of Power, the rise of Sauron wielding the One Ring, and the destruction of the elven realm. Then Khazad-dum was closed, and Sauron could not enter it.

In the Third Age, the dwarves, seeking a precious metal called mithril, delved too deep and awakened some spirit of evil from the elder days. This spirit, called Durin's Bane, fought the dwarves, and they were forced to flee their ancient home. After that, the realm was known as Moria, the Black Pit. Several dwarven generations later, Balin, who had accompanied Bilbo Baggins on the Quest of Erebor described in The Hobbit, led a new group of dwarves to reopen the city. At first all went well, but after a few years, no further word came from Moria and their fate was unknown.

In The Lord of the Rings, when Frodo Baggins set out from Rivendell? with the Fellowship?, they at first planned to travel over the Misty Mountains. When they were stopped by snow on Mt. Caradhras, they found themselves pursued by wolves and orcs, and fled into Moria, so as to go under the mountains. There they found Balin's journal and learned that he too had fallen prey to Durin's Bane. They were then set upon by a host of trolls, orcs, and something else. As they fled, the nameless evil was revealed to be a Balrog?. Gandalf fought the Balrog on a narrow bridge and succeeded in destroying a section of bridge to make the Balrog fall. As it fell, the Balrog snagged Gandalf's leg with its whip and pulled him after it, sending them both plunging into a deep abyss. The rest of the Fellowship wept at the loss of Gandalf, but managed to escape Moria and reach Lothlorien mostly unharmed.