Dark Days

The name given by the Galadhrim of Lórien to a dark period of their history. Haldir - who used the phrase on meeting the Fellowship of the Ring - did not explain its significance. However, given that the Dark Days evidently brought an end to dealings between Lórien and the Dwarves, the term almost certainly refers to the period after III 1980. At that time, more than a thousand years before the War of the Ring, the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm unwittingly awakened a Balrog within their realm. That awakening was disastrous not only for the Dwarves themselves, but also for the people of neighbouring Lórien.

Fearing the new evil beneath the Mountains of Moria, many of the Galadhrim fled their land and sought passage into the West. Among them was the Lord of Lórien at that time, Amroth, whose journey would end when he was lost in the waters of the Bay of Belfalas. Those who remained in Lórien, then, might have seen the Dwarves as responsible for driving many of their people away, and for the loss of their Lord. Indeed, it is not impossible that Haldir was alive during these events, and so his initial reluctance to admit a Dwarf into his homeland is somewhat comprehensible.