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What Is Mithril, the Rare Dwarven Metal on RINGS OF POWER?
- Impenetrable armour occurs in Norse mythology in Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks, a story that Tolkien certainly knew and could have used for his mithril mail-coat.
- While it is never explicitly stated where the mithril shirt originally came from, in the extended edition, Gandalf tells the Fellowship that Bilbo had a set of mithril rings given to him by Thorin.
- In modern times, aluminum and its alloys are used for many industrial purposes due to its light weight — at 35 to 45% less weight than steel, when built to the same standards, it is considered much stronger per unit weight.
- The Rings of Power is a beautiful ode to Tolkien’s Middle-earth, sharing deep cuts but also expanding the lore.
Frodo should at least have had broken ribs and crushed organs; squished like a bug. More likely, he’d have had a deep wound with Mithril chain mail stuffed into it. Elsewhere on Middle-earth, other mithril remnants remain. As mentioned, the elves learned to make the metal ithildin using mithril. It reflects only starlight and moonlight and marks the door at the West-gate to Khazad-Dûm. The helmets of Gondor’s guards of the citadel are also mithril.
The scholar Paul Kocher interprets the Dwarves’ intense secrecy around mithril as an expression of sexual frustration, given that they have very few dwarf-women. Other than workability, Graphene seems to match the properties. It is being actively researched for a number of applications, including electronics. Possibly an alloy of Osmium and iridium, which is extremely hard and used for things like fountain pen nibs which need to resist high wear. I’d say its nearest real world analog is some kind of titanium alloy.
The Rings of Power is a beautiful ode to Tolkien’s Middle-earth, sharing deep cuts but also expanding the lore. In the Second Age, the dwarves of Khazad-Dûm, also known as Moria, discover mithril as we see on The Rings of Power. The rare ore will bring fame and fortune to their kingdom… and also trouble. But for now, the dwarves’ discovery of mithril is momentous.
The Rings of Power: What Is Mithril, and Why Is It Important?
Always extremely valuable, by the end of the Third Age it was beyond price, and only a few artefacts made of it remained in use. Before the Dwarves fled, mithril was worth ten times its own volume in gold. However after the Dwarves had fled, the excavation of mithril ore stopped entirely, it became priceless, as the presence of the Balrog prevented the Orcs in from mining for it. The only way to obtain a mithril object at the end of the Third Age was to either use heirloom mithril weapons and armour that were produced, or to melt down objects to forge new ones. However, most of the mithril produced by the Dwarves was gathered by Orcs and paid as tribute to Sauron, who was said to covet it. The Dwarves mined for mithril “too greedily and too deep”, ultimately releasing a Balrog, Durin’s Bane.
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This is curious, given how it’s easily recognized by the Elvish name in the events of LOTR. Perhaps this is due to the lasting friendship Elrond maintained with Durin during these times, it being one of the namesakes of their bond and common secret, or perhaps it’s because Elrond, an Elf, is the surviving witness to this discovery. For fans of The Lord of the Rings, you might recognize it as the ore used for the shirt which saved Frodo’s life from a rampaging cave troll in Moria and was eventually seized by the orcs of Mordor as an offering to Sauron. Impenetrable armour occurs in Norse mythology in Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks, a story that Tolkien certainly knew and could have used for his mithril mail-coat. Mithril is the only invented mineral in his Middle-earth writings. Chemists note mithril’s remarkable properties, strong and light like titanium, perhaps when made into alloys with elements such as titanium or nickel, and in its pure form malleable like gold.
Of all items made of mithril, the most famous is the “small shirt of mail” retrieved from the hoard of the dragon Smaug, and given to Bilbo Baggins is mithril real by Thorin Oakenshield. “It was close-woven of many rings, as supple almost as linen, cold as ice, and harder than steel…” and studded with white gems of unknown variety. A new use of Mithril arrives on The Rings of Power in season two.