This cache is placed in Pace Bend Park, a Travis County Park located approximately 30 miles west of Austin on Lake Travis. The park is open 7 days a week from sunrise to 9pm for day-use visitors with overnight camping available. There is a fee to enter the park. Please be respectful of the posted signs and the other people using the park. This cache is placed in accordance with the guidelines for geocaches by the Travis County Park system.
It is in Rivendell that the Fellowship of the Ring is formed. Our heroes who have now bee joined by Gandalf the Grey, Boromir of Gondor, Gimli the Dwarf, and Legolas the Elf, leave on the most desperate of missions, to destroy the One Ring by tossing it in Mount Doom. Every path is guarded by the Enemies of the Fellowship. In the end it is through the Mines of Moria that they must pass. In order to find the Mines of Moria, you will have to find the Balrog, the bad guy, and Gandalf the Grey, the good guy.
Background
The Dwarrowdelf was founded by Durin 'the Deathless' in the far distant past, long before the creation of the Sun and Moon. Durin had awoken at Mount Gundabad not long after the Elves first awoke, and as eldest amongst the Fathers of the Dwarves was acknowledged as preeminent amongst them, a status subsequently inherited by his descendants, the kings of the Longbeards.
From Gundabad, Durin's growing clan "spread southward down the vales of Anduin", all the while "under attack from the orcs (sic) of Morgoth". According to legend, Durin ultimately found "a glen of shadows between two great arms of the mountains, above which three white peaks were shining".[2] Within this heavily wooded valley, a long series of short water falls led down to a long, oval lake, which appeared to have a magical quality: "There, like jewels sunk in the deep shone glinting stars, though sunlight was in the sky above". Perceiving these stars as a crown glittering above his head, Durin took this as an auspicious sign, and named the lake Kheled-zarâm, the 'Mirrormere'.
The three peaks overshadowing the lake he named Baranzinbar 'the Redhorn', Zirakzigil 'the Silvertine' and Bundushathûr, 'Cloudyhead'. The icy cold springs feeding it he called 'Kibil-Nâla', of unknown meaning, although to the valley itself he gave the name 'Azanulbizar', The Dimrill Dale. Durin chose the caves above Kheled-zarâm as the earliest beginnings of his stronghold: Khazad-dûm, 'the Dwarrowdelf'.
All of these places became revered amongst Durin's people in later days. His descendants erected a rune-carved stone monolith at the site whereupon he had first looked into the Mirrormere, and although it had become indecipherably weatherworn by the end of the Third Age — broken, cracked and faded — the influence of Durin I, the founding king of Khazad-dûm, was never forgotten.
Khazad-dûm waxed continuously in size and population in Durin's long lifetime, until it became the "greatest of all the mansions of the Dwarves", even before the return of the Noldor to Middle-earth. By that time, Khazad-dûm was already "a name and a rumour from the words of the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains" to all the Eldar of Beleriand.
After his death, the reputation of Durin's realm continued to grow, not merely due to his spiritual ascendancy over the other Fathers of the Dwarves as the eldest amongst them, or the Dwarrowdelf's growing size, but to its great wealth, which was founded upon the uniquely precious metal mithril, which was universally prized yet found nowhere else in Middle-earth.
Khazad-dûm played no part in the wars of Beleriand, and in fact gained a respite from orc attacks throughout the last five centuries of the First Age, "when Morgoth needed all his strength" elsewhere. The Longbeards maintained contact with all the other six dwarf clans, and after early Men arrived in Rhovanion, Khazad-dûm quickly began trading with them, exchanging the products of their growing metallurgical and masonry skills for food, to the great profit of both peoples.
40 years after the destruction of Beleriand, many Dwarves from the recently ruined cities of Nogrod and Belegost came to the now great and ancient Dwarrowdelf, increasing its power still further, although at the same time, Orcs once again became "well-armed and very numerous, cruel, savage, and reckless in assault. In the battles that followed the Dwarves were outnumbered, and though they were the most redoubtable warriors of all the Speaking Peoples they were glad to make alliance with Men." The Orcs were all the more easily defeated by the new combination of Khazad-dûm's heavy infantry and the horsed archers provided by Men, and the Longbeards consequently came to dominate the northern and central Hithaeglir and the lands east of there, although Khazad-dûm had always "regarded the Iron Hills, The Ered Mithrin, and the east dales of the Misty Mountains as their own land". Ultimately, these Men then assisted the dwarves of Khazad-dûm "in the ordering of the lands that they had secured".
With the foundation of the Noldorin realm Eregion to the west of Khazad-dûm around the year 700, friendly relations between the Longbeards and the Elves became firmly established. Many of the Elves then became involved in the development of Khazad-dûm's mansions as a consequence, and it "became far more beautiful" during this period. This friendship also resulted in a massive subterranean extension westwards: the Dwarrowdelf's habitable parts remained in the eastward side, but passages were delved through miles of rock that terminated at a gigantic stone portal outside this elven realm — The West Gate — "which opened out into their country and was chiefly used by them." Celebrimbor, the Lord of Eregion, used mithril lettering on the dwarf Narvi's behalf when the latter built these, to create an inscription that read Im Narvi hain echant. Celebrimbor o Eregion teithant i thiw hin: "I, Narvi, made them. Celebrimbor of Hollin drew these signs."
The West Gate allowed the Elf lady Galadriel to pass eastwards through Khazad-dûm and establish Lothlórien beneath Azanulbizar, and the Nandorin elves that had earlier evacuated the area to escape Khazad-dûm's growing power, returned to settle there.
All of the Dwarrowdelf was originally illuminated by many "shining lamps of crystal", although the halls of the highest level were also lit with windows and shafts carved through the mountain sides. These levels lay between flights of fifty or more stone steps, with seven hollowed out of the mountains above ground level, and many more subterranean levels — or 'Deeps' — beneath the Great Gates at the head of the Dimrill Dale. Every level comprised a multitude of arched passages, chambers and many pillared halls, often with "black walls, polished and smooth as glass". Below the level of the Gates lay mines, treasuries and even dungeons, although far below the lowest Deep of Khazad-dûm, lay primordial tunnels in perpetual darkness, gnawed by 'nameless things' that had lived there since the earliest beginnings of Arda. Few if any actually ever glimpsed these creatures, and no description of them is extant.
One important feature of the Dwarrowdelf was the defensive structure known as Durin's Bridge, "a slender bridge of stone, without kerb or rail", that spanned a fifty feet wide chasm of indeterminate depth. Another, steeped in legend, was The Endless Stair, which ascended "from the lowest dungeon to the highest peak", where it terminated within Durin's Tower, carved from the solid rock at the tip of Zirakzigil.
The West Gate and the Great Gates remained the only two known exits from Khazad-dûm, however, which proved fortunate during the War of the Elves and Sauron in the middle of the Second Age: the Dark Lord's victorious host in Eregion was unexpectedly distracted by a powerful assault of dwarves from Khazad-dûm, who subsequently retreated behind Narvi's impregnable doors after their purpose was achieved. Afterwards, Sauron harboured deep hatred for Khazad-dûm and ordered his Orcs to trouble Durin's folk at every turn, even though "the halls of Khazad-dûm were too deep and strong and filled with a people too numerous and valiant for Sauron to conquer from without". Despite this, "its people began to dwindle" from this time, possibly due to the loss of foodstuffs that had been provided by Men in the vales of Anduin.
With the defeat of Sauron, Khazad-dûm was able to recover somewhat, and it was not until 1300 years later that the Longbeards came under renewed attacks by Orcs.[2] Disaster was not to strike Khazad-dûm from the outside, however: by that time, the more easily accessible veins of mithril had become exhausted, and eventually, in the year 1980, the miners of Khazad-dûm delved so deep that they disturbed or released a balrog, an ancient demon from long before, forgotten, and powerful. This balrog of Morgoth killed King Durin VI in that year, and in the following year Náin, his son. The Dwarves were unable to defeat Durin's Bane, or even drive it away, for steel and stone had no effect on the ancient being, and so were forced to flee their ancient home, relocating to Erebor. Khazad-dûm was deserted, and the elves renamed it Moria. Thereafter, Orcs of the Misty Mountains made Moria their home: at the command of Sauron, according to some sources.
Many centuries later, in 2790, driven from Erebor by the dragon Smaug, Thrór, heir of Durin, foolishly attempted to re-enter his ancestral home despite warnings not to. He was slain by the Orc chieftain Azog, an infamous murder that precipitated The War of the Dwarves and Orcs culminating in a bloody battle outside Moria's eastern gates nine years later. The Dwarves were victorious and Azog himself was beheaded by Dáin II Ironfoot before the great orc could reach the safety of the gates, but the Dwarves had suffered great losses and remained unwilling to face Durin's Bane. Casualties were so high that the dwarves were unable to craft sufficient crypts for the slain, as was their wont, and were forced instead to burn their dead. The felling of trees to accomplish this was so great that the Valley of Azanulbizar (the "Dimrill Dale") was forever deforested. Those slain were honoured in future years with the appellation "Burned Dwarf". After this Pyrrhic victory, Thrór's son Thráin II attempted to re-enter the Mines, but Dáin stopped him and prophesied that some power other than the Dwarves must come before Durin's folk could return to Moria.
Towards the close of the Third Age a few generations later, the dwarf Balin led a company to reopen the city, including Flói, Óin, Ori, Frár, Lóni, and Náli, although Balin's mission was against King Dáin's wishes. At first all went well, but after five years the colony was destroyed by Orcs. King Dáin was then visited twice by a messenger from Mordor, offering to return the remaining three of the Seven dwarf rings and the realm of Moria, if Dáin would cooperate in finding the One Ring. The offer was refused, but it is not known whether Sauron "the base master of treachery"[2], had any power over Durin's Bane.
The Fellowship reluctantly passed through Moria in 3019, and although the Great Gates lay shattered by this date, they passed beyond Narvi's doors in the west only with difficulty and in great peril. Many of the long deserted lower Deeps had become flooded and inaccessible, and the Fellowship were gambling that most of its Orcs had been killed in the Battle of Five Armies a few decades earlier. After reaching the Chamber of Mazarbul towards the end of their journey, the Fellowship were attacked there by a Troll and many Orcs, before being approached by Durin's Bane itself. Gandalf confronted the Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, near the remains of the Eastern Gates, where the two duelled briefly before plunging together into the abyss beneath it, allowing the rest of the Fellowship to escape. Both Gandalf and the Balrog survived the fall to continue their epic duel from the primordial depths below Moria to the tip of Zirakzigil, ultimately demolishing both the tower and the top of the Stair.
Following their exile from Khazad-dûm, the Longbeard dwarves always yearned for their homeland, even after more than a thousand years had passed; Azanulbizar became "the deep-shadowed valley which we cannot forget", just as they felt compelled to continue incorporating "the image of those mountains into many works of metal and stone, and into many songs and tales. They stand tall in our dreams.."
With the death of the balrog, the way was at last clear for the Longbeards to reclaim the Dwarrowdelf however, and it is told that a few centuries into the Fourth Age, Durin VII - a descendant (some sources say the son) of Thorin III Stonehelm - at last led his people back to their longed-for ancient homeland early in the Fourth Age, retrieving what they could of Khazad-dûm's once-mighty riches.