Something that I find confusing is that if I’m interpreting the Silmarilion correctly (I’m re-reading it) Morgoth was defeated after Kazad-dûm was settled, so how did Durin’s Bane even get there? Did he hide in a different cave system that just happened to be breached by the dwarves? Are we sure the dwarves weren’t attacked deliberately? On close inspection, it’s so weird.
Hard to say, given it’s a corrupted Maiar and mostly a creature of spirit as a result.
It’s kind of important to remember that the setting literally becomes “material” as the Ages progress, the world only becomes a globe after the drowning of Numenor.
Did it find a secret tunnel to a deeper cave system? Was it imprisoned after the war? Or did Eru Ilvatur somehow bring it under Moria when he was globifying the planet?
Or was it just magic, and it fled there by traveling between shadows or whatever?
On that note, there’s a theory that elves can see so far because the world is still flat to them. They are mostly creatures of spirit as well, but men and dwarves are not. Who knows how a Balrog really sees the world? Was it really awoken by something as crude as a dwarf being too noisy, or was it their greed that drew its attention?
Never underestimate how special and pretty Tolkien elves are!
But, yeah, mostly. If you assume Legolas seeing beyond the curvature of the planet is just a writer’s error and don’t insist every detail needs to be correct, but elves still don’t interact with the world quite the same way Men do, and that’s presumably even more the case for Maia.
Something that I find confusing is that if I’m interpreting the Silmarilion correctly (I’m re-reading it) Morgoth was defeated after Kazad-dûm was settled, so how did Durin’s Bane even get there? Did he hide in a different cave system that just happened to be breached by the dwarves? Are we sure the dwarves weren’t attacked deliberately? On close inspection, it’s so weird.
Hard to say, given it’s a corrupted Maiar and mostly a creature of spirit as a result.
It’s kind of important to remember that the setting literally becomes “material” as the Ages progress, the world only becomes a globe after the drowning of Numenor.
Did it find a secret tunnel to a deeper cave system? Was it imprisoned after the war? Or did Eru Ilvatur somehow bring it under Moria when he was globifying the planet?
Or was it just magic, and it fled there by traveling between shadows or whatever?
On that note, there’s a theory that elves can see so far because the world is still flat to them. They are mostly creatures of spirit as well, but men and dwarves are not. Who knows how a Balrog really sees the world? Was it really awoken by something as crude as a dwarf being too noisy, or was it their greed that drew its attention?
I thought that was a joke.
Never underestimate how special and pretty Tolkien elves are!
But, yeah, mostly. If you assume Legolas seeing beyond the curvature of the planet is just a writer’s error and don’t insist every detail needs to be correct, but elves still don’t interact with the world quite the same way Men do, and that’s presumably even more the case for Maia.