A partial translation of Khazad-dûm, the name given by the Dwarves to their vast underground dwelling within the Misty Mountains. Founded by Durin the Deathless in the Elder Days, it remained the seat of his descendants the Longbeards throughout the Second Age and well into the Third. In the year III 1980 the mining Dwarves awakened a Balrog beneath the mountains and were driven out of their Mansion, after which time it became commonly known as Moria, the Black Pit. More than a thousand years later, Balin made a brief and ultimately disastrous attempt to recolonise Khazad-dûm, but it would not truly return into the hands of the Dwarves until some time after the War of the Ring.
The name 'Mansion of the Khazâd' shows us that the Dwarvish word dûm means 'mansion' (because it is known that Khazâd was the Dwarves' name for their own kind, originally given to them by Aulë their maker). A full translation of Khazad-dûm, then, would be 'Mansion of the Dwarves'.
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- Updated 23 March 2024
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