LOTR Read-Along: The Fellowship of the Ring: A Journey in the Dark

After the disaster of the Caradhras Mountains, the Fellowship must choose another route that will keep them out of Saruman's sight. Eventually, their options are narrowed down to one less than desirable path. The Mines of Moria. A once powerful and glorious country built entirely underground within a mountain. However, Moria has become a desolate hell hole of only which Gandalf and Aragorn have been through and neither wish to go back. However, they have no other alternative and must brave the mines. First they have to get through the door.

Moria (like the Lonely Mountains) can only be led into by a door, a magic door most specifically. And typical of the Dwarves and their secrecy, one must know a rather simple password. Gandalf for all his wisdom and knowledge is unable to cipher what the password is, even though it's literally written on the entrance. Yet, after a time Gandalf remembers (while giving unexpected credit to Merry who was actually the one who figured the password out immediately). 

After almost being eaten up by a sea creature, the Fellowship are permanently locked into the mines. During days of traveling in the dark, little is said or even done. Gimli gives everyone a brief history lesson on Moria and the culture of the Dwarves and their mining. Pippin also does something stupid, which results in getting a reprimand from Gandalf. Yet, as they travel deeper and deeper into the mines, the Company are beginning to wonder if they are not as alone as they thought themselves to be.

It would be typical of Tolkien to spend three pages talking about a door on the side of a Mountain. What amazes me more was that it was a Hobbit and not the all powerful wizard that could figure out the simplest of riddles. As the story progresses, the hobbits are definitely coming into their own. They are not timid little country folk, they are proving to be intelligent and very adaptable to the situations they find themselves in. 

Traveling through the mines was as good a time as any to hear the history of the dwarves (while getting some snark from both Legolas and Gimli). In the films, Dwarvish history isn't really talked about, so it's been fun reading about the history of Gimli and his people and what the Dwarves and their mining contributed to the economy and culture of Middle-Earth. 

Heidi's Questions:

• Pippin's fascination with the well/dropping in the stone reminds me of Digory's waking of Jadis in The Magician's Nephew. Both bring up similar questions. In here, do you think it was all just Pippin messing around or were there darker forces at work?

Good question. Pippin has a naturally curious nature. In Hobbit culture, Pippin is still considered a young teenager who still needs discipline and training. However, in the text it read that Pippin was 'moved by a sudden impulse.' What would be so impulsive about a stone on a well? Nothing happens by coincidence, either. One action, no matter how small, can cause extreme consequences. Moria is clearly rife with dark power and that power could have gotten a hold of Pippin, making it seem like innocent curiosity so the rest of the Company would never think that there was something more sinister behind the actual deed.