Mithril

**Mithril** was a precious, silvery metal, very lightweight but immensely strong, that was discovered and mined by the Dwarves in Khazad-dûm.

## Description

The wizard Gandalf explained *mithril* to the Fellowship of the Ring, when passing through the Mines of Moria in TA 3019:

*"The wealth of Moria was not in gold or jewels, the toys of the Dwarves; nor in iron, their servant... Its worth was ten times that of gold, and now it is beyond price; for little is left above ground, and even the Orcs dare not delve here for it."'... '"Mithril!* 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 to that of common silver, but the beauty of Mithril did not tarnish or grow dim.*"*

Mithril in its pure form was rather soft and malleable. It could be used in various alloys to produce extremely lightweight, hard and durable armour. It was also used as a type of inlay called ithildin. The Elves loved it for its beauty and presumably used it for jewelry and attire rather than weapons or armour.[*citation needed*]

## History

Mithril was extremely rare by the end of the Third Age, as it was found only in Khazad-dûm. The Dwarves mined for mithril "too greedily and too deep", ultimately releasing a Balrog, Durin's Bane. Once it destroyed the kingdom of the Dwarves at Khazad-dûm, Middle-earth's only source of new Mithril ore was cut off.

Before the Dwarves abandoned Moria, mithril was worth ten times its own volume in gold. However, after the abandonment the excavation of mithril ore stopped entirely, it became priceless, as the presence of the Balrog prevented the Orcs in Moria from mining for it. The only way to obtain a *mithril* object at the end of the Third Age was to either use heirloom mithril weapons and armour that were produced before the fall of Moria, or to melt down these existing objects to forge new ones. However, most of the mithril produced by the Dwarves before the fall of Moria was gathered by Orcs and paid as tribute to Sauron, who was said to covet it.

The Ñoldor of Eregion discovered how to make an alloy out of it called *ithildin* ("star moon"), which was often used to decorate gateways and portals, and was visible only by starlight or moonlight. The West-gate of Moria bore inlaid *ithildin* etchings and runes.

The helmets of the Guard of the Citadel were made of mithril, heirlooms of Gondor's past wealth. After the War of the Ring the Great Gate of Minas Tirith was rebuilt by the Dwarves of Aglarond out of mithril and steel.

While Moria was the only known source of mithril, there are inconclusive indications that it may also have been found in Númenor and Aman in smaller quantities.[*citation needed*]

## The mithril coat

*See main article*: "*Bilbo's Mithril shirt*"

"*That spear-thrust would have skewered a wild boar!*"
—Aragorn, after seeing that the coat had blocked a spear wielded by a Cave Troll, in Moria
Of all items made of *mithril*, the most famous is the "small shirt of mail" retrieved from the hoard of the dragon Smaug, and given to Bilbo Baggins by Thorin Oakenshield. "It was close-woven of many rings, as supple almost as linen, cold as ice, and harder than steel..." and studded with white gems of unknown variety.

## Other mentions in Tolkien's works

* Galadriel possessed one of the three Elven Rings, Nenya. It was wrought of mithril with a white stone.
* Bilbo Baggins’ Eärendillinwë says the Powers of Aman built Eärendil’s ship “of mithril and of elven-glass”.
* Searching Orthanc, King Elessar and his aides found the long lost Elendilmir, a white star of Elvish crystal affixed to a fillet of mithril. Once owned by Elendil, the first King of Arnor, it was an emblem of royalty in the North Kingdom.
* The Guards of the Citadel of Minas Tirith wore helmets of mithril, "heirlooms from the glory of old days."
* As Aragorn's ships sailed up the Anduin to relieve the besieged Minas Tirith during the War of the Ring, the standard flying on his ship shows a crown made of mithril and gold.
* After Gimli became Lord of the Glittering Caves, he and his Dwarves forged great gates of mithril to replace the gates of Minas Tirith which were broken by the Witch-king of Angmar during the Siege of Gondor.
* The doors of Moria were inscribed with ithildin, an alloy of unknown composition that contains mithril.