When the full light of the morning came no signs of the wolves were to be found, and they looked in vain for the bodies of the dead. No trace of the fight remained but the charred trees and the arrows of Legolas lying on the hill-top.

‘It is as I feared,’ said Gandalf. ‘These were no ordinary wolves hunting for food in the wilderness.'

It's interesting that we're given Gandalf's reason for exploring Moria, but never Aragorn's. But once inside, Gandalf is the one who keeps saying, "I remember this place. The place we need to be is southwest of here," etc. So Gandalf spent a lot more time in Moria. I don't think Aragorn once offers any advice or conjures up any memory, which makes me wonder if he just entered the outer gates, came near some orcs, and left again. Similar to kids running up to a haunted house and ringing the door and running away again, all to prove they're brave. (Well, I'm not trying to mock Aragorn, but it's how I'm thinking.) Did he really explore Moria, or just probe the gate?

'I too once passed the Dimrill Gate,' said Aragorn quietly; 'but though I also came out again, the memory is very evil. I do not wish to enter Moria a second time.'

I'm left wondering what "very evil" ranks for him. Did he see the Balrog? Or trolls and orcs? Or, I dunno, orcs eating people alive or something horrific? We never know, but it must have been bad. It seems he could have said, "The place was full of orcs," but he keeps things vague, as if still disturbed by the experience.

Hammond & Scull point out that Trotter, Aragorn's predecessor character, also makes this comment in early drafts. The significance being at that point in the writing that Moria was where he was captured by forces of Sauron.

Possibly the implied backstory changed when Trotter became Aragorn, but the remark still sounded appropriate, so Tolkien kept it?

I suspect their great disappointment at finding no bodies was they didn't get any cool wolf skins and wolf heads to wear. Instead they later got those sissy robes from Lorien.

The Fellowship has traveled to Caradhras without a single attack on them..but then Gandalf does his fire-lighting trick and says that he has revealed his own presence at least.

Maybe someone noticed and sent a patrol?

I had always assumed there were no bodies because Gandalf's wizard fire totally obliterated them.

I thought that it was only natural that the entrance would be labeled with the Elven name, Moria. The Dwarves do not use their own names in public for themselves or their places.

Well, good thing Tolkien didn't let me name things.
That might be fun though. And Amon Hen is an EXCELLENT name for a chicken.



But seriously, I think the same thing about Argonath. This great symbol of Gondor's northern might out in the middle of nowhere as far as civilized population counts. One wonders if Gondorians remember they're still there. They might as well be overgrown with vines and hidden from view, but of course, I'm glad they're not, because they're so impressive. (And something I'm grateful to the movies for capturing so dramatically.)
So much of the quest is a tour of the faded past: the Old Forest is a little outpost of a former great forest; the Barrow Downs' tombs have become corrupted instead of sacred burial places; Eregion is deserted, Moria is evil, and Lorien has shrunk in upon itself. The Ents have gone sleepy, the thrones of Rohan and Gondor are occupied by addled old men, Ithilien is deserted, Minas Morgul is corrupt, and the castles meant to keep evil out of Mordor are in use by Sauron. The King at the Crossroads has his head on the ground and replaced by an orc mockery. It's an endless list, really.


I agree with all of this. The landscape has suffered as the Men dwindle. This land seems to call for some sort of tending: but that's a narrow line between stewardship (good) and industrialization (bad). That strain of 'Elvish blood' that JRRT brought into the line of Men may be what helps to set this line?




Holly: wow, and I thought you delivered the goods on Tolkein & Shakespeare, Brethil, but you did on holly too! I never thought about its meaning at Christmas before and figured it was just chosen because it's pretty, not that it symbolized so much. I'd like to go out and plant some right now! Its enduring nature would certainly explain why Tolkien chose holly trees to be the door wards at Moria's gates, and why, almost absurdly amid the disaster of the Watcher's attack, Gandalf mourns the trees more than anything else.


Why thank you on both counts CG. You are right, in the midst of everything else he does have that sense of loss; one of those tantalizing glimpses of a Gandalf that has seen these trees grow over centuries and then watch them die. That would break my heart too.

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this door being a standing living link to Celebrimor and thus to Feanor and, remotely, the Silmarils. I think that meant a lot to JRRT.

Yeah, I think the door doubles as a gateway to the First Age and before, a link even to Valinor in what it represents. So much history of Arda written and drawn on such a small space! My guess is that's why Tolkien felt so strongly about including it as an illustration. For once, he was NOT going to leave things to the imagination of readers. Too important.