Q: What Happened to the West-gate after Eregion Fell to Sauron?
ANSWER: The Second Age is on many people’s minds now that we know the Amazon show will be set in that period. However, this question comes from someone who was asking about book history. I received this question in December 2020:
How should we interpret the phrase that after the fall of Holin, “the Gates of Khazad-dum were shut”? Specifically, in the Second Age did Sauron ever besiege Moria?
I could have addressed this in 2 separate articles, but I think they’re closely related enough that one article will suffice.
My Interpretation of “the Gates of Khazad-dum were shut”
I scanned several sources for that exact phrase but it was not an exhaustive search. I did find a few similar phrases, including:
- The Lord of the Rings – “The power of Moria endured throughout the Dark Years and the dominion of Sauron, for though Eregion was destroyed and the gates of Moria were shut, the halls of Khazad-dûm were too deep and strong and filled with a people too numerous and valiant for Sauron to conquer from without.”
- The Peoples of Middle-earth – “Eregion is laid waste. The Naugrim (or Dwarves) close the gates of Moria.” and “1600. Eregion is laid waste. The gates of Moria are shut.” and “1697. Eregion is laid waste. The gates of Moria are shut. Elrond retreats with the remnant of the Eldar to Imladris.”
- The Silmarillion, “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age” – “From that time war never ceased between Sauron and the Elves; and Eregion was laid waste, and Celebrimbor slain, and the doors of Moria were shut.”
- Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth – “Sauron withdrew the pursuit of Elrond and turned upon the Dwarves and the Elves of Lórinand, whom he drove back; but the Gates of Moria were shut, and he could not enter. Ever afterwards Moria had Sauron’s hate, and all Orcs were commanded to harry Dwarves whenever they might.”
The gates the texts seem to refer to are the western gates, the gates built by Celebrimbor for his people to travel to Khazad-dûm under the mountains. Technically, Khazad-dûm was built on the eastern side of the mountains. In The Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship don’t really reach the ancient Dwarven city for several days.
When Glóin spoke of Khazad-dûm at the Council of Elrond, he said “no dwarf has dared to pass the doors of Khazad-dûm for many lives of kings, save Thrór only, and he perished.” Thrór entered by the eastern gate. It was that gate Dáin himself approached at the end of the Battle of Azanulbizar. So the East-gate was the one that remained in use after the West-gate was closed. There would have been little need for the West-gate after the fall of Eregion.
Unfinished Tales says that Durin led an army of Dwarves and Elves (from Lorinand) out from the West-gate to attack Sauron’s forces when he invaded Eregion. Sauron’s army drove them back to the West-gate, which was then shut.
Sauron then turned his attention to Elrond’s army. It would have been prudent to leave a force to prevent another attack from the West-gate, but Tolkien doesn’t mention such a blocking force in any of the texts I consulted.
In the Second Age, Did Sauron Ever Besiege Moria?
Yes, sort of.
The essay “Of Dwarves and Men”, published in The Peoples of Middle-earth, appears to be somewhat older than the text describing Durin’s attack on Sauron. However, this essay describes how Men related to the House of Hador/Marach had migrated into the Vales of Anduin in the First Age and built up a large culture there. During the Second Age they traded with the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm and formed an alliance with them.
“Of Dwarves and Men” says that during the War of the Elves and Sauron the Orcs (Orks) returned to the Misty Mountains at this time and seized fortresses and cities throughout the Misty Mountains and the Vales of Anduin:
…The Second Age had reached only the middle of its course (c. Second Age 1695) when he invaded Eriador and destroyed Eregion, a small realm established by the Eldar migrating from the ruin of Beleriand that had formed an alliance also with the Longbeards of Moria. This marked the end of the Alliance of the Longbeards with Men of the North. For though Moria remained impregnable for many centuries, the Orks reinforced and commanded by servants of Sauron invaded the mountains again. Gundabad was re-taken, the Ered Mithrin infested and the communication between Moria and the Iron Hills for a time cut off. The Men of the Alliance were involved in war not only with Orks but with alien Men of evil sort. For Sauron had acquired dominion over many savage tribes in the East (of old corrupted by Morgoth), and he now urged them to seek land and booty in the West. When [Sauron was defeated in the east by the Númenoreans and Gil-galad], the Men of the old Alliance were diminished and scattered, and those that lingered on in their old regions were impoverished, and lived mostly in caves or in the borders of the Forest.
Although the text doesn’t say that Sauron’s forces marched up to the East-gate, it’s clear that the Dwarves lost control of a lot of territory and had to defend their most important halls.
I think after the war the East-gate was used as before. The Dwarves re-established contact with the Iron Hills and perhaps other places they had once controlled. Since they eventually joined the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, they clearly were in contact with other people’s by the end of the Second Age again. I think they would have cleared the way to the Iron Hills soon after receiving word of Sauron’s defeat.
Conclusion
I don’t think the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm would have had a real need to use the West-gate again. They certainly could have, but with Elrond’s people guarding the western end of the High Pass and the ancient road that ran through it (the same road that ran through the middle of Greenwood), I just don’t see any reason for the Dwarves to do much trade through the West-gate.
We don’t know if Tharbad was a major city or fortress at the time. But Calenardhon, which had once been occupied by Telerin Elves, was now in the hands of Men who may or may not have traded with the Dwarves. They were related to the Folk of Haleth (the Second House of the Edain) and the Men of Eryn Vorn and Bree, but they seem to have been primitive all along. I can’t imagine that Durin’s Folk would have traded with them.
The texts say the Dwarves’ population began to dwindle from this time forward. I’m sure their losses in war explains part of that. But the loss of so many strong allies who traded food with them probably contributed to that dwindling in Tolkien’s mind.
See Also
How Could the Númenóreans Defeat Sauron in the Second Age?
How Did Sauron Give the Seven Rings to the Dwarven Kings?
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Have you read our other Tolkien and Middle-earth Questions and Answers articles?
One can also wonder if the particular properties of the western gate did not add to that, the West-doors were invisible when closed and probably near indestructible through some cunning dwarven craft, Sauron though he heavily interacted wtih Elves of Eregion may have not paid enough attention to the Dwarves back then so he did not learn enough about their defenses and so on so shutting those gates would be serious detriment to his war plan. One would assume that after the war in Eriador in Second Age, the gates would be open again for some time, after all it’s hard to expect that those doors would be closed for thousands of years, possibly it was no longer as open as in the days of old, when supposedly the doors stood open at all times and only guards at the doors were there to protect the entrance to dwarven domain (plus all the trade and traffic), it’s one of the things that is not said what were the relations of the Dwarves with the later period Eriador, the realm of Lindon of Gil-galad towards the War of the Last Alliance and the kingdom of Arnor. One wonders if the Dwarves of Moria had any interactions with the Dunedain kings in early Third Age? Maybe there would be some trading going on but with the Dwarves growing more and more insular, isolationistic even, we know that in the years 1300s of Third Age again Orcs started to assail the dwarven territory:
“c._ 1300
Evil things begin to multiply again. Orcs increase in the Misty Mountains and attack the Dwarves. The Nazgûl reappear. The chief of these comes north to Angmar. The Periannath migrate westward; many settle at Bree.”
Maybe this made the Dwarves reluctant to keep the west gate open? And soon after the fall of Arnor in 1974 there came a time when Moria fell to Durin’s Bane and it’s people abandoned it, escaping no doubt through the eastern gate! So the dwarven people migrated mostly up north to Grey Mountains and Thrain I the Old reached Erebor. Ad the West-door reained shut, though Gandalf and Aragorn both seem to have crossed Moria before and knew only bits about the operation of West-door, Gandalf at least knew that it needed password and that it was unseen when closed. The password was no longer remembered, maybe for long there was no need to use it and nobody rememered that it was basically written down on the very door :), through ithildin inscription, such things once known were now long forgotten detail of a different era. Then additionally the blocking of Sirannon stream caused the whole pool of a lake to arise altering landscape immediately before the gates and complicating matters.
I’ve always read this whole question as “The West-gate was thereafter closed and not reopened (until the arrival of the Fellowship”. I was quite surprised to see a blog post on the topic, so I’m curious as to what other questions have been asked that are (to my mind) self-evident … And vice versa!
I wonder how easy it would have been for Sauron to starve the dwarves out of Moria. Even if he wasn’t able to storm the West-gate or the East-gate, would he have been able to cut off supply lines that the dwarves needed to survive? Or did Moria somehow produce its own food?
Gandalf suggests that the elves of Eregion planted holly trees at the west gate to mark the end of their realm. Are the two giant hollies at each side of the gate supposed to have stood there since then? I’ve a hard time imagining that an army of orcs marched to the west gate would have left them standing, but, of course, hollies can’t live for thousands of years (at least not in our age).
As for the age of the holly trees, one could always assume they were affected by the time-delaying effects of the Rings of Power (which, for the Elves, slowed the effects of time’s passing to 1/10 normal) or that they could have been a special species of Holly that (presumably) no longer exists in Middle-earth.
As for the Orcs not doing anything to them, that’s hard to explain.
In our world, holly is not a very long-lived tree. Even had a ring been at the west gate of Moria for the entire time those hollies were there, there were still far more years than ten times the maximum lifespan of the tree. Nonetheless, it’s not a major problem. As you say, they could be a special breed of holly, or the elves could have special ways of planting trees to ensure they endure. Or the 1/10 normal could be the ring’s effect on elves, and the effect on stopping the decay of trees is much more.
As for why the Orcs would leave them alive, the trees were not actually in the city of Eregion itself. They were at the boundary between Eregion and Moria. It’s possible Sauron simply had more important things to do than despoil every tree between the two realms. He’d be pretty thorough in the destruction of Eregion, but once the Dwarves were forced back into Moria, and the way with shut with no chance of his armies entering, he would send the bulk of his forces elsewhere. After Eregion fell, there was no kingdom in the area, so even during the Third Age, he had no reason to send forces down that way from Angmar or at any time after Angmar’s destruction.
Also, destroying trees doesn’t seem a high priority for him. He never even completely despoiled the crossroads in Ithilien, though he must have held it for 100 years by the time of the War of the Ring. Gondor still possessed the ability to raid his armies passing through, but it doesn’t take long to kill a bunch of trees. So he could have done it any time Gondor didn’t hold Ithilien securely. So long as his will was commanding the Orcs, he probably had them concentrate on humanoid targets.
I respectfully disagree with the conclusion that the West-gate would have had little practical use after the fall of Eregion. High mountain passes can be perilous even in summer, and a route over the mountains is both more strenuous and circuitous than a level, straight line through that same range. Ask the Swiss why they tunnel!
Those gates needed to remain shut while Sauron’s minions ravaged the north. However, the Tale of Years tells us the War of the Elves and Sauron began in SA 1693. Eregion was laid waste and the Gates of Moria were shut in SA 1697 but just four years later (SA 1701) “Sauron is driven out of Eriador. The Westlands have peace for a long while.”
A very, very long while. The Second Age ended 1,741 years later (SA 3441) and the Dwarves didn’t flee Moria until TA 1981. Not once in 3,721 years did the Dwarves think of using that trade route? No trips to their kin in the Ered Lúin? No trade with Gil-Galad’s thriving, highly populated (for Elves) realm, not to mention nearby Imladris? What of long-prosperous Arnor? This was not the desolate Eriador crossed by the Fellowship. It’s not until c. TA 1300 that “Evil things begin to multiply again. Orcs increase in the Misty Mountains and attack the Dwarves. The Nazgûl reappear. The chief of these comes north to Angmar….” So even if passage over the high mountains was safe and easy until TA 1300, the Dwarves had 600+ years to remember they had a sheltered, easily defended bypass before Fred the Balrog came knocking and Náín I met his end.
You have a point. But we don’t have any direct evidence that the route was ever used again.
Thrain and Thorin did live in Dunland for about 30 years. So there is clear evidence that the Dwarves engaged in some kind of economic activity with the peoples of that region or nearby lands. That would have included Tharbad, I think, as well as Isengard and Rohan. But as that activity followed Fred’s awakening, I don’t know that we can say it shows there was such activity between S.A. 1701 and T.A. 1980-ish.
I’ll agree it’s open to interpretation.
The High Pass is a more direct route to Rivendell and from there to the Iron Hills, though. If most of the trade was during the summer, it still might might be more worth it to go that way. Particularly since Hollin was mostly an empty land. It’s great to be able to avoid mountain passes, but if the alternative is a weekslong detour through rough, uncharted country, that might be no more appealing for a caravan. Except for orcs, it doesn’t seem the path through the High Pass was particularly treacherous.