The Rings of Power: Why is mithril so important to Middle-earth? Gil-galad’s plan and the song of the elves

• The dwarves treasure the mysterious metal mithril.
• Mithril is the most valuable and rarest material in Middle-earth and is incredibly powerful.
• In the fifth episode “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”, Gil-galad reveals where his power is supposed to come from.

Watch “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” on Amazon Prime Video❯

In the fourth episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Durin IV makes a big thing out of the mysterious metal mithril. It is so valuable that the dwarves keep it a huge secret and hide it from strangers. But why do the dwarves hoard their mithril like a dragon his gold?

Mithril is a precious metal that is almost indestructible. It represents the wealth of Khazad-dum. When Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and the companions walk through the mines in the first The Lord of the Rings film, they also see some veins of mithril.

Frodo (Elijah Wood) even wears a mithril mail shirt given to Bilbo (Martin Freeman) by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) in The Hobbit. According to Gandalf, the mithril shirt is worth more than all the Shire.

The special thing about mithril is not only that the metal is so robust. Mithril is also incredibly light, lighter than silk. Thus, a mithril mail shirt is not only intended for protection, you are also extremely agile in it and can move without restrictions.

We learn a lot more about mithril in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. When Elrond discovers the dwarves’ secret digs.

The Song of the Roots by Hithaeglir

The Elf King Gil-galad asks his follower Elrond to recite the “Song of the Roots of Hithaeglir”. This is a confused legend, not accepted as truth by many Elves.

The song tells of a battle high up on the peak of the neighboring mountains. There was a tree in which the last of the Silmaril was said to have been hidden. An Elf warrior and a Balrog of Morgoth fought for this tree. The warrior had a pure heart and poured all his strength into the tree to protect it. The Balrog, on the other hand, channeled all of its hatred into the tree to destroy it.

During their endless duel, lightning struck the tree, forging a power out of their animosity. A power as pure and clear as good and as strong and unyielding as evil. It is said that through the roots it made its way to the very heart of the mountains, where it has waited for centuries: mithril.

The elves want to take advantage of this power because their kingdom is beginning to die. With the light of the last Silmarils, Gil-Galad wants to give his people new strength. We also already know that Celebrimbor will forge a ring of mithril that will come into Galadriel’s possession. With the help of the ring Nenya, the elf later manages to keep her empire Lothlórien alive.

With this discovery of the precious metal, the greed of the dwarves begins. On their hunt for mithril, they sooner or later awaken Durin’s Bane, a Balrog that leads to the downfall of Khazad-dum. But that’s far in the future, isn’t it?

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is now available to stream on Amazon Prime Video. The new episodes appear weekly, always on Fridays at 6 a.m. In these, we’re sure to see more of Khazad-dum and the mysterious mithril.