Middle-Earth (Specialty) Tours

Strongholds of the Dwarves
Dwarves typically make their homes in -- or, rather, under mountains. Tolkien describes only two Dwarf strongholds in any detail, but he provides scraps about several others, enough that we can get a fairly coherent view of the Dwarf lifestyle. This tour will move from the general to the specific, beginning in the Blue Mountains and concluding in the greatest of all Dwarf strongholds, Khazad-Dûm.

Blue Mountain Dwarf Hold,
by Rob Alexander		 It came to pass during the second age of the captivity of Melkor that Dwarves came over the Blue Moutains of Ered Luin into Beleriand. Themselves they named Khazâd, but the Sindar called them Naugrim....Far to the east were the most ancient dwellings of the Naugrim, but they had delved for themselves great halls and mansions, after the manner of their kind, in the eastern side of Ered Luin. --The Silmarillion, "Of the Sindar"

The two great Dwarf holds of Ered Luin, Nogrod and Belegost, were destroyed in the cataclysm at the end of the First Age; but the mountains themselves survived and the Dwarves rebuilt. In fact, Thorin, Glóin and Gimli all hail from the Blue Mountains.

Most of those that escaped [from Moria, after the first appearance of the balrog] made their way into the North, and Thráin I ... came to Erebor, the Lonely Mountain, near the eastern eaves of Mirkwood, and there he began new works, and became King under the Mountain. In Erebor he found the great jewel, the Arkenstone, Heart of the Mountain. But Thorin I his son removed and went into the far North to the Grey Mountains, where most of Durin's folk were now gathering; for those mountains were rich and little explored. But there were dragons in the wastes beyond; and after many years they became strong again and multiplied; and they made war on the Dwarves and plundered their works. --RotK, Appendix A, "Durin's Folk"
The Lonely Mountain, by Rob Alexander
So the rumour of the wealth of Erebor spread abroad and reached the ears of the dragons, and at last Smaug the Golden, greatest of the dragons of his day, arose and without warning came against King Thrór and descended on the Mountain in flames.--RotK, Appendix A, "Durin's Folk"

Smaug, by Alan Lee		 They climbed long stairs, and turned and went down wide echoing ways, and turned again and climbed yet more stairs, and yet more stairs again. These were smooth, cut out of the living rock broad and fair....
    [S]uddenly the roof sprang high and far beyond the reach of their torch-light. A white glimmer could be seen coming through some opening far above, and the air smelt sweeter. Before them light came dimly through great doors, that hung twisted on their hinges and half burnt.
    "This is the great chamber of Thror," said Thorin; "the hall of feasting and council."--The Hobbit, "Not at Home"
Thorin's Burial, by Alan Lee
Dwarf holds have a tendency to be overrun by the "bad guys." Just as the folk of the Grey Mountains were driven out by orcs and cold drakes, and the folk of the Lonely Mountain by Smaug, so the folk of the great Dwarf hold of all, Moria, were driven out by the greatest evil of all: Durin's Bane.

The West Gate of Durin,
by Alan Lee		 Durin is the name that the Dwarves use for the eldest of the Seven Fathers of their race, and the ancestor of all the kings of the Longbeards. He slept alone, until in the deeps of time and in the awakening of that people he came to Azanulbizar, and in the caves above Kheledzâram in the east of the Misty Mountains he made his dwelling, where afterwards were the Mines of Moria renowned in song....
    It came to pass that in the middle of the Third Age Durin was again its king, being the sixth of that name. The power of Sauron, servant of Morgoth, was then again growing in the world, though the Shadow in the Forest that looked towards Moria was not yet known for what it was. All evil things were stirring. The Dwarves delved deep at that time, seeking beneath Barazinbar for mithril, the metal beyond price that was becoming yearly ever harder to win. Thus they roused from sleep a thing of terror that, flying from Thangorodrim, had lain in the foundations of the earth since the coming of the Host of the West: a Balrog of Morgoth. Durin was slain by it, and the year after Náin I, his son; and then the glory of Moria passed, and its people were destroyed or fled away. --RotK, Appendix A, "Durin's Folk"

That was in the year 1980 of the Third Age. Later, orcs took over the ancient halls. It is not clear when the Water in the Water moved in.
In 2989, turning a deaf ear to the old tales, Bilbo's friend Balin led a fresh contingent of Dwarves into Khazad-Dûm. They came to a tragic end. The Nine Walkers, forced to pass through Moria in crossing the Misty Mountains, came upon the group's ragged last records. Gandalf attempted to read them.

[Y]esterday being the tenth of novembre Balin lord of Moria fell in Dimrill Dale. He went alone to look in Mirror mere. An orc shot him from behind a stone. We slew the orc, but many more ... up from east up the Silverlode." ....
    "It is grim reading," [Gandalf] said. "I fear their end was cruel. Listen! We cannot get out. We cannot get out. They have taken the Bridge and second hall. Frár and Lóni and Náli fell there. Then there are four lines smeared so that I can only read went five days ago. The last lines run the pool is up to the wall at Westgate. The Watcher in the Water took Óin. We cannot get out. The end comes, and then drums, drums in the deep. I wonder what that means. The last thing written is a trailing scrawl of elf-letters: they are coming. There is nothing more." --FotR, "The Bridge of Khazad-Dûm"


In the Halls of Moria, by Alan Lee

Balin's Tomb, image courtesy of
Le Seigneur Des Anneaux		 The Nine Walkers, of course, encountered not only the Watcher in the Water and the orcs, but Durin's Bane itself.

An image from the second movie trailer on the official movie site
(Note the orcs scrambling down the pillars after the Fellowship)
Suddenly Frodo saw before him a black chasm. At the end of the hall the floor vanished and fell to an unknown depth. The outer door could only be reached by a slender bridge of stone, without kerb or rail, that spanned the chasm with one curving spring of fifty feet....They could only pass across it single file. At the brink Gandalf halted and the others came up in a pack behind. --FotR, "The Bridge of Khazad-Dûm"
The Bridge of Khazad-Dûm, by Paul Monteagle

Detail of a Balrog,
by John Howe		 The ranks of the orcs had opened, and they crowded away, as if they themselves were afraid. Something was coming up behind them. What it was could not be seen: it was like a great shadow, in the middle of which was a dark form, of man-shape, maybe, yet greater: and a power and terror seemed to be in it, and go before it.
     It came to the edge of the fire and the light faded as if a cloud had bent over it. Then with a rush it leaped across the fissure. The flames roared up to greet it, and wreathed about it; and a black smoke swirled in the air. Its streaming mane was kindled, and blazed behind it. In its right hand was a blade like a stabbing tongue of fire; in its left it held a whip of many thongs.--FotR, "The Bridge of Khazad-Dum"
Full-size versions of these pictures are on display at Rolozo Tolkien and the official LotR movie site.