Azanulbizar

The Dwarves' name for the wide valley that ran down out of the Misty Mountains, into which the East-gate of Moria opened. Known to the Elves as Nanduhirion and to Men as the Dimrill Dale, the valley formed on the eastern side of a high and dangerous pass over the Mountains of Moria. Many streams flowed down into the valley from the Misty Mountains and these streams, shadowed by the mountains towering over them, gave the valley its name, which means 'vale of shadowed streams' in all three languages.

The waters of the shadowed streams of the Dimrill Stair collected into a wide lake, which the Dwarves called Kheled-zâram, the Mirrormere, and from this lake rose the river of Kibil-nâla, which Men named the Silverlode, that flowed southeastward through the lower part of the valley and on into the woods of Lórien.

The Time of Khazad-dûm

In ancient times, Durin the Deathless entered the valley of Azanulbizar in his wanderings after the awakening of the seven Fathers of the Dwarves. Coming to the lake of Kheled-zâram, he saw the Crown of Durin reflected in its waters, which he took as a sign that he should settle in the mountains above the valley. Thus he began the delving of Khazad-dûm, the mansions of Durin's Folk, which would extend far into and beneath the Mountains of Moria. The East-gate of the city would open into Azanulbizar for ages to come, and at the place where Durin had first looked into the waters of the lake a standing stone, Durin's Stone, was raised.

Durin founded Khazad-dûm in the distant past, soon after the awakening of the Elves, and over the millennia that followed, it grew to become the greatest of the Dwarf-cities in Middle-earth, ruled by direct descendants of the House of Durin. As the First Age came to a close, the War of Wrath in far-off Beleriand destroyed the citadels of the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains, and many of these Dwarves travelled eastward. Coming to Khazad-dûm, they swelled its numbers and increased its power even further.

In the Mines of Moria, the Dwarves found many gems and metals, especially iron. Almost² uniquely in the world, the remarkable metal known as mithril was also mined from beneath the great Dwarf-city. Strong and light beyond comparison with any other metal, this 'true-silver' was the foundation of Khazad-dûm's wealth, which continued to grow greater as the ages passed. In these prosperous times, the valley of Azanulbizar and the road to the Great Gates of the city must have been busy with merchants and traders seeking the unparalleled work of the Dwarves.

Through the Second Age and into the Third, the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm mined deeper and deeper for precious mithril. In the year III 1980, their miners stumbled upon a Balrog that had lain hidden in the depths of the earth for thousands of years. Awakened and unleashed, the Balrog brought ruin on the Dwarf-city, slaying King Durin VI as the Dwarves attempted to stave off its attacks. Within a year, Durin's successor Náin I was also slain, and the surviving Dwarves abandoned their city, fleeing down the valley of Azanulbizar. In the chaos, many of the Elves of Lórien, downriver from Khazad-dûm, also abandoned their land.

After the Fall of Khazad-dûm

Over the following centuries, Khazad-dûm was left darkened and deserted, haunted by the horror of the Balrog. From this time, the empty city became more commonly called Moria, the Black Pit. This state of affairs persisted for some five hundred years, until Sauron, in his guise as the Necromancer, began to take direct steps against the Free Peoples of Middle-earth. As part of this plan, he wished to close the passes of the Misty Mountains, and Moria guarded the way through one the major passes, the Dimrill Stair at the head of Azanulbizar. At this time, then, many Orcs passed up the valley and joined the Balrog in the halls of Moria.

The Orcs began to occupy Moria in about the year III 2480, and from this time the way through the valley and over the Mountains of Moria became dangerous for travellers. One such unfortunate traveller was Celebrían the wife of Elrond, who was captured and wounded by the Orcs while traversing the pass, though she was ultimately rescued by her sons.

As the centuries passed, the exiled Dwarves of Durin's Folk wandered across Middle-earth. They founded a kingdom in the far northeast beneath the Lonely Mountain of Erebor, but were driven out by the Dragon Smaug. Their leader at that time was Thrór, who became determined to revisit the glory of Khazad-dûm, which had been lost more than a millennium before his time. He travelled north from Dunland to the valley of Azanulbizar and entered the open Great Gates of Moria. This was his last act; the Orcs still held the darkened city, and they slew the King of Durin's Folk, casting out his body onto the steps of the East-gate.

The Battle of Azanulbizar, III 2799

The slaying of Thrór kindled war between the Dwarves and the Orcs. When Thrór's son Thráin heard of his father's loss, he mustered Dwarves from across Middle-earth to take vengeance against the Orcs. The war that followed lasted for ten years, until the day of its final battle saw the Dwarves gathered in Azanulbizar ready for a final assault against the Orcs, who still held Moria as a last stronghold.

The forces of the Orcs held the higher land at the head of the valley, and were joined by reserves from within Moria itself, while the smaller force of Dwarves marched forward up Azanulbizar. The battle that followed was bloody, but the Dwarves of the Iron Hills reinforced their fellows, and were able to force their way to the Gates. There Náin of the Iron Hills challenged the Orc-chieftain Azog, but was slain by the great Orc before his son Dáin - later called Dáin Ironfoot - avenged his father and cut down the Orc Azog, bringing final victory to the Dwarves.

With the battle won and Moria cleared of the Orcs, Thráin proposed that the time had come for the Dwarves to reclaim their old kingdom. Dáin, however, had spied the Balrog lurking in the shadows beyond the Great Gates, and warned the King that the time had not yet come to reclaim Moria. This Balrog was Durin's Bane, the very being that had driven the Longbeards from their home more than eight centuries beforehand, and beyond their power to defeat. So the Dwarves made pyres for their many dead, filling Azanulbizar with the smoke of their burning, before they once more abandoned the valley where Durin the Deathless had first gazed on the Mountains of Moria.

Later History

After the Orcs had been driven out of Moria and the Dwarves had given up any thought of recovering their old home, the valley of Azanulbizar lay quiet for nearly two centuries. In III 2989, Balin led a band of Dwarves from Erebor into the dale, hoping to finally reclaim the ancient Dwarf-city. He found that Moria had not been entirely deserted by the Orcs, and a skirmish was fought in the valley, but the Dwarves were victorious. Only a single loss is recorded among the Dwarves, one of their number named Flói, and he was buried in the Azanulbizar beside the lake of Kheled-zâram. Balin and his companions then entered ancient Khazad-dûm, and the old Dwarf proclaimed himself the Lord of Moria.

Though initially successful, the Dwarves' recolonisation proved to be short-lived. In its fifth year, III 2994, another force of Orcs appeared in the vale of Azanulbizar. By misfortune, Balin himself happened to be in the valley at the time, and he was shot with an arrow by a ranging Orc. Many other Orcs followed the river Silverlode up the valley of Azanulbizar, ready to once again claim Moria. The Dwarves barred the East-gate, but the Orcs broke through and drove them back, destroying the Dwarf-colony and reclaiming the dark halls for themselves.

After this disaster, the ruins of Balin's attempt to recolonise Moria were left abandoned for twenty-five years, until a band of travellers happened across them: the Company of the Ring. Their attempt to cross the Mountains of Moria and come down the Dimrill Stair into Azanulbizar had been thwarted, and so they had resorted to passing beneath the mountains through Moria. The discovered the record of Balin's fate in the Book of Mazarbul, but they disturbed the Orcs and the Balrog that lurked in the deeps, and were forced to flee. Escaping through the Great Gates, they found the Sun shining on the valley of Azanulbizar, and so were able to evade the night-eyed Orcs. They made their way on down the valley, following the river Silverlode into the land of Lórien that lay downstream.

The further history of the valley is unknown, but it seems that the Dwarves revisited it again during the Fourth Age. According to lore,³ King Durin VII - a descendant of Dáin Ironfoot who had fought in the Battle of Azanulbizar - would later return to reclaim Moria. If this is true (and we're given frustratingly little detail on the point), then the vale of Azanulbizar would once again have formed part of a great kingdom of the Dwarves.