What is Mithril? Why is it so important in The Rings of Power?

The Lord of the Rings left us with Peter Jackson’s films, a complete universe in which the different peoples of Middle-earth seek their place in a moment of conflict, and the dwarves have always been responsible for forging the best weapons and armor for combat thanks to mines full of riches in the depths of the mountains in which they live. And there is a mineral that has just been revealed in The Rings of Power that will be key: Mithril.

What is Mithril

The strongest metal in the world

Indeed, the Prime Video series, which places its action within the Second Age of Middle-earth, has revealed to us one of the best cards that the dwarves have ever achieved in the fight against the evil that nests in the world. It is Mithril, an extraordinarily light metal but stronger than any other that the people of the mountains can forge. A wonder of nature that will be well used in the following centuries.

Mithril is a silver metal and due to its characteristics it is perfect for forging weapons and armor but like all good things it has a problem and that is that it is not abundant. The mines of Khazad-dûm are not pecked at and appear alone. Their presence is rare and the little that can be obtained is not enough to clothe all the warriors who are going to face the hosts of Sauron. So, immediately, it becomes the object of desire of all the peoples who come to know of its existence.

Now, this metal, which can only be extracted by the dwarves who live in Khazad-dûm, has its own legend within the series, specifically in the fifth episode when Elrond (who already knows of its existence) recites the song of the roots of Hithaeglir , which talks about the tree that everyone believes hides one of the lost Silmarils , some gems that Morgoth himself wanted to find and that to get them he practically burned Middle-earth in a bloody war. Its importance lies in the fact that the light of Valinor and the elves are intimately related in such a way that their decline supposes their departure from Middle-earth and the Mithril, without a doubt, can avoid the diaspora.

Bilbo y la camisa de Mithril.

You already knew the Mithril

But this mineral is not new to all fans of The Lord of the Rings because if you have seen the original films of Peter Jackson and the later ones of The Hobbit , surely you remember an object that Bilbo gave to Frodo and that the former got from the hands of the dwarves after defeating the dragon Smaug. That’s where that shirt enters the halfling family and is passed down through the generations, at least that we’ve seen.

That shirt, which is actually a small Mithril armor, will also save Frodo’s life in the famous battle of Moria when the Hobbit is supposed to be pierced by a sword and realizes that he has not received any damage. It is in these mines, which we see full of life and splendor in The Rings of Power , where the fellowship of the ring waits to be received by the dwarves of Khazad-dûm who, in their quest to obtain more Mithril and dig deeper, they encountered Durin’s Bane, the famous balrog who will rampage through the city and end up facing Gandalf in the well-known opening of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers .