Hollin Gate

The West-gate of Moria, the magically protected western entrance into the Dwarf-realm of Khazad-dûm. It was made during the Second Age, when the land known as Eregion or Hollin was established in the lands westward of Khazad-dûm, and there was great friendship between the Elves who dwelt there and the Dwarves. To a traveller entering Khazad-dûm from Hollin, the gate required a password (which was simply the Elvish word mellon, 'friend'). To one leaving Khazad-dûm, no password was needed, and the doors could simply be pushed open. On either side of the Gate grew a great holly tree, the emblem of Hollin.

The land of Hollin fell in the War of the Elves and Sauron, but the Dwarves remained shut safely behind the Doors of Durin within Khazad-dûm.¹ After the loss of Eregion, Khazad-dûm survived for nearly four thousand years until Durin's Bane was awoken in its depths, and its people were slain or fled into the wilderness.

A thousand years passed, during which the old mansons of the Dwarves fell into darkness and earned the name Moria, the Black Chasm. In III 2989, Balin led an attempt to recolonise the old halls, and it is from these colonists that the name 'Hollin Gate' comes - that is, from their point of view, this was the gate that led out into the old lands of Hollin to the west of the Misty Mountains.

Balin's colonists explored the way to the Hollin Gate soon after arriving in Moria, but after some years, when they found themselves besieged by creatures of the Enemy, they were unable to use it to escape. The stream that ran past the gate had swollen to form a deep pool, and within it lurked a creature they named the Watcher in the Water. While the Hollin Gate could be opened from inside Moria, it was impossible to pass the pool and its Watcher to escape into the western lands.

Twenty-five years after the loss of Balin's colony, the Company of the Ring passed through the Hollin Gate, travelling into Moria from the old lands of Hollin as they sought a way through the Misty Mountains. They too encountered the Watcher in the Water, though its pool had receded and they were able to enter Moria. As they fled through the doorway to escape the Watcher, it grasped the doors of Hollin Gate and sealed them shut behind the Company.