Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Episodes 1-5 of The Rings of Power.
In the fifth episode of The Rings of Power, Elrond (Robert Aramayo) was made to recount an obscure legend about an elf battling a Balrog on top of the Misty Mountains called The Song of the Roots of Hithaeglir. High King Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker) seems to believe that this legend is true, and has been making many of his recent leadership decisions based on this belief. Because of how mithril was created, the King believes there is some divine purpose to the metal that will be the salvation of all elves on Middle-earth, which is why he is focusing on Elrond rebuilding his relationship with Durin (Owain Arthur). There are many assumptions in King Gil-galad’s theory motivating his actions, though, and it may turn out that his desire to obtain mithril for the salvation of the elves could be a disaster in the making.
What Actually Happens in The Song of the Roots of Hithaeglir?
The Song of the Roots of Hithaeglir recounts the story of a lone elf on top of the Misty Mountains trying to protect a tree. The legend says that this particular tree was the hiding place for one of the lost silmarils. A silmaril is one of three incredibly powerful and beautiful gems made before the first age to contain the light from the Two Trees of Valinor. In order to protect the silmaril from being destroyed by an attacking Balrog, an unknown elf poured all of his light, which you can think of as a life force, into the roots of the tree. Simultaneously, the Balrog’s fire whip lashed the tree and an enormous bolt of lightning strikes the tree. The combination of the energies of the elf’s pure light, the Balrog’s fire, the silmaril’ s light and the lightning sent the magic of the silmaril deep down into the Misty Mountain, thus creating the mineral mithril.
Khazad-dûm’s Origins in The Misty Mountains
Durin’s kingdom is Khazad-dûm, the greatest Dwarven city in the history of Middle-earth in the heart of the Misty Mountains. In Tolkien lore, Durin I would make his way down the eastern side of the Misty Mountains before the first age began seeking a new home. He came across a lake one night and, resting to peer in, saw himself in the calm mirrored surface of the water with a crown of seven stars over his head. He took this as a sign from the heavens that he’d found his home, and began working from the east bank of the mountain to create Khazad-dûm, and called the lake outside the entrance The Mirrormere. At the time of old Durin III’s reign in these first few episodes of The Rings of Power, the dwarves have been mining the mountain and developing their city for thousands of years. Viewers hear Durin IV mention the Mirrormere when Elrond is eavesdropping to find out what Durin was hiding, and the secret mine where Durin is mining mithril is located underneath that lake.
Mithril Is One of the Most Valuable Materials in Middle-earth
Mithril is coveted by many of the most powerful beings in Middle-earth. It is much more common in the first two ages, and known for its lightweight and nearly indestructible composition and, importantly, it is only found in the Misty Mountains. Fans of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit will recognize the word mithril because of the shirt that both Bilbo (Martin Freeman) and Frodo (Elijah Wood) wear. This lightweight armor saves them countless times in their adventures. Galadriel’s (Cate Blanchett) ring in the films, Nenya, is made of mithril. The doors of Durin, which Gandalf (Ian McKellen) forgets how to open as the Fellowship was trying to enter the mines of Moria, are lined with Ethilden, a new alloy that Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) created using mithril. It’s used to make moon letters, which is why the door could only be seen in moonlight or starlight. Entering into the third age, mithril became far more rare and more expensive than before. Gandalf tells the fellowship about the riches and wealth they were gaining from mining mithril, and how the dwarves “delved too greedily and too deep, and disturbed that from which they fled, Durin’s bane.” The dwarves awoke a Balrog that had been dormant deep in the mountain, and it destroyed most of Khazad-dûm, causing the dwarves to flee their home. With mithril mining effectively shut down, the price of the metal became immeasurable.
Is The Legend in The Song of the Roots of Hithaeglir True?
The incredible origin story of mithril that The Rings of Power presented to viewers in the last episode is presented as a legend that the King seems to believe is true, but that’s not the case for most elves. When Elrond is asked to recount it, he says it’s “an obscure legend regarded by most to be apocryphal”, a story that they all knew but likely view as legend. It seems odd that the High King would put so much faith in a legend that most of his kind would call apocryphal, but when you hear him describe the power that was created in that legendary battle, “As pure and light as good, as strong and unyielding as evil,” it becomes apparent what his motives are. When he shows Elrond the tree and the blight consuming it, he reveals that it’s a prophecy of the doom of all elf kind. He believes that the light of the Valar is the only thing that will save the elves. Since the Song of the Roots of Hithaeglir tells of a silmaril containing the light of Valar having its magic spread into the mountain, he believes that the mithril created from it literally contains the light of the Valar. That is why the elves need the mithril to save their existence in Middle-earth. Whether there is any credibility behind the legend, it seems that it has caused the High King to become obsessed with obtaining as much of it as possible to save his people.