One Geek to Rule Them All

A Song in the Dark

"Huh?" Devin said, surprised, as she touched her wet cheek to see what they were talking about. She had not even been aware that she was doing it. "Ah, I'm sorry... It's just my father also knew that song and used to sing it to me, and Gimli sounded so much like him that I... I suppose I was a little shocked," she explained with a wan smile.

"There is no need for you to apologize," said Aragorn.

"That's right, we all get homesick from time to time," said Merry.

"I often wish I was back at home," added Pippin. Frodo silently seconded this thought, while Sam agreed more openly with a nod of his curly head.

"You must miss your family terribly," said Legolas sympathetically. Not only were the girls the youngest of their Company, but they were also the farthest away from home.

"Yes..." said Devin sadly, though she would say no more on the matter. She didn't want to speak of her parents' deaths while surrounded by such heavy darkness.

"Well, Sam, didn't you want to hear more about the Mines? You looked like you were just about to ask a question," said Aragorn, who along with the hobbits had already heard very briefly of their passing, and was able to guess Devin's thoughts and endeavored to change the subject for her.

"Oh, all right then... Then what do the dwarves want to come back for?" asked Sam, taking the obvious hint that they should talk about something else.

"For mithril," answered Gandalf. "The wealth of Moria was not in gold and jewels, the toys of the Dwarves; nor in iron, their servant. Such things they found here, it is true, especially iron; but they did not need to delve for them: all things that they desired they could obtain in traffic. For here alone in the world was found Moria-silver, or true-silver as some have called it: mithril is the Elvish name. The Dwarves have a name which they do not tell. Its worth was ten times that of gold, and now it is beyond price; for little is left above ground, and even the Orcs dare not delve here for it. The lodes lead away north towards Caradhras, and down to darkness. The Dwarves tell no tale; but even as mithril was the foundation of their wealth, so also it was their destruction: they delved too greedily and too deep, and disturbed that from which they fled, Durin's Bane. Of what they brought to light the Orcs have gathered nearly all, and given it in tribute to Sauron, who covets it.

"Mithril! All folk desired it. It could be beaten like copper, and polished like glass; and the Dwarves could make of it a metal, light and yet harder than tempered steel. Its beauty was like to that of common silver, but the beauty of mithril did not tarnish or grow dim. The Elves dearly loved it, and among many uses they made of it ithildin, starmoon, which you saw upon the doors. Bilbo had a corslet of mithril-rings that Thorin gave him. I wonder what has become of it? Still gathering dust in the Michel Delving Museum, I suppose."

"A corslet of Moria-silver?" cried Gimli. "That was a kingly gift!"

"Yes," said Gandalf. "I never told him, but its worth was greater than the value of the whole Shire and everything in it."

Frodo said nothing, but he put his hand under his tunic and touched the rings of his mail-shirt. He felt staggered to think that he had been walking about with the price of the Shire under his jacket. Had Bilbo known? He felt no doubt that Bilbo knew quite well. It was indeed a kingly gift. But now his thoughts had been carried away from the dark Mines, to Rivendell, to Bilbo, and to Bag End in the days while Bilbo was still there. He wished with all his heart that he was back there, and in those days, mowing the lawn, or pottering among the flowers, and that he had never heard of Moria, or mithril—or the Ring.

A deep silence fell. One by one the others fell asleep. Frodo was on guard. As if it were a breath that came in through unseen doors out of deep places, dread came over him. His hands were cold and his brow damp. He listened. All his mind was given to listening and nothing else for two slow hours; but he heard no sound, not even the imagined echo of a footfall.