Balin's Mission to Moria Explained

Comments · 725

• IS

  @istari0 · 3 years ago

  Balin forgot what Dain had said to Thrain at the end of the Battle of Azanulbizar: "Beyond the shadow it waits for you still: Durin's Bane. The world must change and some other power than ours must come before Durin's Folk walk again in Moria."  It was a fatal mistake.

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• MA

  @magalingo · 3 years ago (edited)

  "The end comes soon. We hear drums, drums in the deep. They are coming." Those words often haunt me. When your ambition turns against you.

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• MV

  @mvmlego1212 · 2 years ago

  Thank you. When watching the movies I'd wondered why Balin was buried in an ornate tomb, since I assumed that he died in a last stand with the rest of the party.

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• LE

  @legionarybooks13 · 3 years ago

  Sad when one realises the skeleton holding the tome Gandalf finds is Ori. 😢

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• DA

  @davidlewis8814 · 3 years ago (edited)

  That’s quite something, that the orcs dammed the one side and trapped the waters with the Watcher before attacking the other gate. It really shows them far more capable of cunning and strategy than I had thought.

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• MI

  @minimalrho · 3 years ago

  For whatever reason, I really liked Balin when I first read The Hobbit. It was really quite sad reading about his ultimate fate in FotR.

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• DR

  @dragonlordskater5028 · 3 years ago

  I never made the connection between Ori of the Hobbit and the bookskeep of Moria. The fact that Gabdalf knew him makes the scene so much more tragic.

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• DO

  @donweatherwax9318 · 3 years ago

  Notice that when Roäc the Raven responds to Thorin's summons, the old bird only greets two Dwarves by name:  Thorin... and Balin.

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• TH

  @TheDeadlyKnight · 3 years ago

  Biggest reason it was doomed:  even if the dwarf pilgrims withstood the numerous prospecting goblins, & avoided the Watcher creature, Durin’s Bane still very much haunted the stronghold. They never encountered Him during their 5 years, but inevitably they would have

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• AU

  @augustineliyanda1465 · 3 years ago

  Balin is a beloved Tolkien character, but perhaps the love we have for him as a character can cloud our judgment on what his true intentions were when he took up the quest to reclaim Moria. Balin's quest was fueled by the rumors of the riches left in Moria. The haste at which he was quick to declare victory and declare himself Lord of Moria even with Orcs still present in Moria is indicative of a very desperate man with a limited time frame. Balin was royalty, he had a slim legitimate claim to the throne and he must have thought of his quest as his last chance to prove his royalty. His death is somehow poetic because he visited the Mirrormere Lake that the first Durin gazed into and saw a crown of stars on his head that signified his right to rule and set up his kingdom there. Balin must have been weighed down by thoughts of his illegitimate rulership and visited the lake to seek any signs that can prove he is indeed a legitimate ruler of Moria. His death at the lake, however, was the outcome. A fitting end to a beloved character. I would like to believe when he gazed into the lake he saw the doom that awaited his quest and accepted his fate.

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• BR

  @briantneary2248 · 3 years ago

  To me, this is the best LOR lore channel PERIOD

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• UN

  @Uncle_Fred · 3 years ago (edited)

  Balin&apos;s quest to reclaim Moria was noble and ambitious but ultimately short-sighted. With so few, it would have been absolutely vital to maintain safe passage from the eastern gate to friendly territories, along with at least one other secret exit. The Western gate was just too far away to be continuously watched and not designed to be defended. There&apos;s the endless stair, but it&apos;s not known if Balin discovered that or if there&apos;s any way to access it outside the Under-deeps. Balin was smart enough not to attempt that journey.<br><br>Moreover, to protect the eastern gate, they&apos;d need to pacify the surrounding hills and mountain areas, which they clearly didn&apos;t have the numbers to accomplish. The dwarves very unwisely entered a trap and allowed their enemies to creep in from the shadows and surround them.

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