But The Rings Of Power is not entirely dependent on Tolkien’s writing. The show also gets a great deal of mileage out of what the legendary author didn’t say, dancing between the raindrops of his fiction and his notes to weave more story where Tolkien left blank pages. We’ve seen that a lot over the course of Rings Of Power’s first season, but it’s arguably nowhere more apparent than in the mysterious substance known as mithril. But for now, all the dwarves know is that it is lighter than silk yet harder than iron. The Rings of Power is a beautiful ode to Tolkien’s Middle-earth, sharing deep cuts but also expanding the lore.
- The dwarves delve too greedily and too deep in their search for mithril, awakening a terrible Balrog and forcing them to abandon Khazad-dûm for good.
- This song claims the origin of mithril to be when an Elf-warrior and a Balrog fought over a certain tree in the Misty Mountains that contained the light of the last Silmaril.
- There are some faint similarities that the Rings of Power story of the Elven warrior vs Balrog shares with the Tolkien canon.
- Here’s a (relatively quick) breakdown of the many different ways that mithril plays a role in Tolkien’s legendarium.
Mithril’s questionable origins in The Rings of Power explained
This sounds wise, but, as we know, they will eventually delve too deep on their hunt for the precious ore. We hope the quest for Mithril does not prove to perilous on The Rings of Power. Probably the most notable Mithril item in Tolkien’s works is the chainmail shirt given to Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, which was taken by Thorin Oakenshield from Smaug’s hoard. Bilbo wears it during the Battle of the Five https://turbo-tax.org/ Armies, before later gifting it to Frodo Baggins when he embarks on his quest to destroy the One Ring. The Mithril vest saves Frodo’s skin multiple times, including at the battle in the Chamber of Mazabul and when he escapes Moira. Mithril undoubtedly plays a big role in The Rings of Power, but those who know their J.R.R. Tolkien may know the metal is massively important to the future of Middle-earth.
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This is the definitive source of mithril for nearly every true-silver project, and it’s found (and exploited) by the Dwarves to build an incredible fortune during the Second Age of Middle-earth history. The Dwarves had a secret word for their name of the ore, claimed by Durin to be “Grey Glitter” but the term “Mithril” comes from the equivalent words in Sindarin Elvish. This is curious, given how it’s easily recognized by the Elvish name in the events of LOTR. Perhaps this is due to the lasting friendship Elrond maintained with Durin during these times, it being one of the namesakes of their bond and common secret, or perhaps it’s because Elrond, an Elf, is the surviving witness to this discovery.
Is Mithril’s origin intentionally fabricated or genuinely canon in The Rings of Power?
However, the part about one of the Silmarils being hidden inside a tree doesn’t match up with the Tolkien lore. This seems like a very sketchy situation, especially with the highly suspicious flair that Gil-galad has championed so far in the series. The story of how Mithril came to be, seems highly unlikely and highly erroneous if it does have a canonical seal of approval from the makers. The Rings of Power episode 5 gives an explanation for Mithril’s origins, which while befits the fantastical world of Tolkien’s works, does not actually derive from them. Looking at the works of Tolkien and the transient references in the LOTR movies, it is also known that Mithril would end up becoming the reason for the doom of Khazad-dûm. However, in the Prime Video series, it seems most likely that we’ll see how it plays into the forging of the Rings of Power.
Toward the end of the Second Age, Númenor suffers its Atlantian fate, an event that also leads to the Blessed Realm being more or less removed from the physical world. The takeaway here is that the other two potential sources of mithril are suddenly gone, making Khazad-dûm’s true-silver deposit even more precious. Some chisel their way up the mountain rock while others go deeper and deeper into the ground.
“A power as pure and light as good, as strong and unyielding as evil,” says Gil-galad. Afterwards, Elrond recounts an apocryphal tale called The Song of the Roots of Hithaeglir. This song claims the origin of mithril to be when an Elf-warrior and a Balrog fought over a certain tree in the Misty Mountains that contained the light of the last Silmaril. It was then that lightning struck the tree, sending out tendrils of ore into the roots of the mountains beneath.
Gil-galad interjects to claim that this power, which was as pure and light as good and as strong and unyielding as evil, seeped down the roots into the mountain depths. A new addition to the lore of Middle-earth created by The Rings of Power, resonating is the practice of singing to the stone. Disa first detects mithril and describes how to differentiate is mithril real earth, ore, air, and water within the mountain. “Sing to it properly, each of those parts will reflect your song back to you,” she says. Elrond watches in amazement as rock shifts while she sings to release the trapped miners. Resonating is how the dwarves know where to mine, where to tunnel, and where to leave the mountain untouched.
A precious metal invented by J.R.R. Tolkien for his novels, mithril is both incredibly light and impossibly strong. If it sounds familiar, that’s because mithril plays a key role in the Third Age of Middle-earth. Thorin gifts Bilbo a shirt of mithril mail in The Hobbit, which Bilbo then gifts in turn to Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring. That shirt saves Frodo’s life during combat; without mithril, he would have been a total goner.
The Rings of Power takes place during the Second Age of Middle-earth, so we get to see how the world reacts to the first discovery of such a precious ore. It’s also used in Ithildin, the glowing letters used to write on the secret doors of Moria. The guards of Minas Tirith have mithril incorporated into their helmets, which are referred to as “heirlooms from the glory of old days” in “The Return of the King” book. In the printed version of the story, it also says that one of Aragorn’s ancient family heirlooms called the Star of Elendil is set in a mithril fillet. Arwen makes a banner for her future husband with mithril woven into the image, as well. After the War of the Ring, Gimli even returns to Minas Tirith, where he rebuilds the gates using a combination of mithril and steel.
In the Second Age, the dwarves of Khazad-Dûm, also known as Moria, discover mithril as we see on The Rings of Power. The rare ore will bring fame and fortune to their kingdom… and also trouble. Here’s everything you need to know about The Lord of the Rings‘ mithril. In episode 5, High King Gil-galad shows Elrond that the tree in Lindon is slowly being poisoned. The only way to save themselves is with Mithril, according to Celebrimbor, but since Elrond made a promise to Durin, he refuses to tell the Elves if the Dwarves have discovered the metal. Eventually, though, a highly suspicious story from Celebrimbor convinces Elrond to talk to Durin about the Mithril, and the duo set off to try and convince Durin’s father to offer the metal to the Elves.
