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Middle-Earth Tours
Tour 2: The Places of Middle-Earth
Balin's Tomb & Beyond
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Their feet disturbed a deep dust upon the floor, and stumbled among things lying in the doorway whose shapes they could not at first make out. The chamber was lit by a wide shaft high in the further east wall; it slanted upwards and, far above, a small square patch of blue sky could be seen. The light of the shaft fell directly on a table in the middle of the room: a single oblong block, about two feet high, upon which was laid a great slab of white stone.
'It looks like a tomb,' muttered Frodo. --FotR, "A Journey in the Dark" |
Balin's Tomb, image courtesy of
Le Seigneur Des Anneaux |
Balin's Tomb, by Anke-Katrin Eiszmann |
image from a Decipher trading card |
| In the books, of course, Pippin alerts the orcs to the Fellowship's presence by dropping a stone down a well. In the movies, his mistake is fiddling with a Dwarf skeleton in Balin's Tomb. The skeleton topples backwards into the well and raises a bigger ruckus than any stone would. |
Well in Moria, by Tim Kirk |
a composite of frames (by yours
truly) from the 2nd commercial
on the official movie site |
image from Numenoreen |
Note that the dead dwarf at right above is holding the Book of Mazarbul. |
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Balin's Tomb, pic courtesy of
Le Seigneur Des Anneaux |
Gandalf had hardly spoken these words, when there came a great noise: a rolling Boom that seemed to come from depths far below, and to tremble in the stone at their feet. They sprang towards the door in alarm. Doom, doom it rolled again, as if huge hands were turning the very caverns of Moria into a vast drum. Then there came an echoing blast: a great horn was blown in the hall, and answering horns and harsh cries were heard further off. There was a hurrying of many feet.
'They are coming!' cried Legolas. --FotR, "The Bridge of Khazad-Dûm" |
| It [the door] began to grind slowly open, driving back the wedges. A huge arm and shoulder, with a dark skin of greenish scales, was thrust through the widening gap. Then a great, flat toeless foot was forced through below. --FotR, "The Bridge of Khazad-dûm" |
image from the second commercial available on the official movie site |
image from the second commercial available on the official movie site |
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The images below show a scene that takes place, in the movie, somewhere between Balin's Tomb and the Bridge of Khazad-Dûm. A giant piece of masonry shatters a bridge just as the Fellowship are about to cross. Frodo is stranded, and Aragorn leaps to his rescue.
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Suddenly at the top of the stairs there was a stab of white light. Then there was a dull rumble and a heavy thud. The drum-beats broke out wildly: doom-boom, doom-boom, and then stopped. Gandalf came flying down the steps and fell to the ground in the midst of the company.
'Well, well! That's over!' said the wizard struggling to his feet. 'I have done all that I could. But I have met my match, and have nearly been destroyed. But don't stand here! Go on!" --FotR, "The Bridge of Khazad-dûm" |
image from a Decipher trading card |
image from the 2nd commercial available on the official movie site |
image from the 2nd commercial available on the official movie site |
image from the Cannes film book
on the official movie site |
Full-size versions of these pictures are on display at Rolozo Tolkien and the official LotR movie site
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