Mithril

"Here's a pretty thing...light as a feather, and hard as dragon's scales."

- Bilbo Baggins (Peter Jackson Movie Trilogy)

Mithril was a precious silvery metal, very lightweight but capable of providing extreme strength in alloys, which was mined by the Dwarves in the mines of Khazad-dûm. The name mithril came from two words in Sindarin—mith, meaning "grey", and ril meaning "glitter". Mithril was also called "true-silver" by Men, while the Dwarves had their own, secret name for it.

The wizard Gandalf explained mithril to the Company, passing through Khazad-dûm, the Mines of Moria:
 * "The wealth of Moria was not in gold or jewels, the toys of the Dwarves; nor in iron, their servant.... 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.


 * "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 Fellowship of the Ring, "A Journey in the Dark").

Mithril in its pure form was apparently rather soft and malleable. It could be used for various alloys to produce extremely lightweight, hard and durable armour but it was also a component of ithildin. The Elves loved it for its beauty and presumably used it for jewelry and attire rather than weapons or armour.

Mithril is extremely rare by the end of the Third Age, as it was found only in Khazad-dûm. Once the Balrog destroyed the kingdom of the Dwarves at Khazad-dûm, Middle-earth's only source of new mithril ore was cut off. Before Moria was abandoned by the Dwarves mithril was worth ten times its own weight in gold. After the Dwarves abandoned Moria and production of new mithril ore stopped entirely, it became priceless. The only way to obtain a mithril-object at the end of the Third Age was to either use heirloom mithril weapons and armour that were produced before the fall of Moria, or to melt down these existing weapons to forge new ones. The Ñoldor of Eregion made an alloy out of it called ithildin ("star moon"), which was used to decorate gateways and portals. It is visible only by starlight or moonlight. The West Gate of Moria bore inlaid ithildin designs and runes.

While Moria is the only known source of mithril, there are inconclusive indications that it may also have been found in Númenor and in Aman in smaller quantities.

Real-world counterpart
For the literal-minded reader, it is unclear whether or not mithril is a real metal; many have thought it to be platinum, however, platinum is far too heavy to qualify as a candidate. It is possible that this legendary material was modelled after titanium, as this metal, while actually quite abundant as ore, was very expensive to produce in its metallic form (especially by medieval technology), and has some of mithril's properties of strength, bright silvery color, corrosion resistance, and light weight. Other possibilities are aluminium or magnesium; these metals are even lighter than titanium, but not as strong or as silvery and shiny. (Famously, Napoleon III of France once bought dinnerware made out of aluminium because it was more expensive than gold at the time.) Certainly Tolkien, being highly educated, would have had knowledge of these three metals and the difficulty in preparing them. However, probably because nobody is known to have asked Tolkien about mithril, it will never be known with certainty whether mithril is based on any real metal.

The Mithril Coat
"That spear would have skewered a wild boar!"

- Aragorn

Of all items made of mithril, the most famous is the "small shirt of mail" retrieved from the hoard of the dragon Smaug, and given to Bilbo Baggins by Thorin Oakenshield. "It was close-woven of many rings, as supple almost as linen, cold as ice, and harder than steel..."
 * "'It's a pretty thing isn't it,'" said Bilbo, moving it in the light. (Fellowship of the Ring, "The Ring goes South")

A kingly gift, Gandalf states that the mithril-coat was actually worth more than the entire worth of the Shire and everything in it (though Gandalf says that he never told Bilbo, it is unknown whether Bilbo was aware of its value). Bilbo later gave the coat to a museum in the Shire but before he left he took it back and then later in Rivendell he passed it on to his nephew Frodo, who wore it during the Quest to Mount Doom. It saved Frodo's life when he was nearly skewered by an Orc chief in the Mines of Moria. The orc's spear point could not penetrate the mithril-alloy armour coat yet still left Frodo bruised and unconscious. (In Peter Jackson's film adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring, the attack was by a cave troll and should have maimed Frodo inside his mail shirt.) It was later taken by the Orcs who captured Frodo in the pass above Cirith Ungol, and passed on to the Dark Lord's servants at Barad-dûr. When the coat was displayed before the hosts of Aragorn at the Gates of Mordor, many despaired, thinking Frodo had been captured or killed, and the Ring taken. Gandalf reclaimed it from Sauron's lieutenant, and was later able to return it to Frodo after the battles were won.

Other Mithril objects in the Lord of the Rings novels

 * Galadriel possesses one of the three Elven Rings, Nenya. It is wrought of mithril with a white stone.
 * Searching Orthanc, King Elessar and his aides found the long lost Elendilmir, a white star of Elvish crystal affixed to a fillet of mithril. Once owned by Elendil, the first King of Arnor, it is an emblem of royalty in the North Kingdom. After Elendil fell in the First War of the Ring, his eldest son Isildur ascended to the throne. On his journey back to the northern capital of Arnor, his retinue was ambushed by orcs. Isildur tried to escape by jumping into the Anduin but was shot to death by arrows. Saruman may have found his body and the Elendilmir with it.
 * The Guards of the Citadel of Minas Tirith wear helmets of mithril, "heirlooms from the glory of old days."
 * As Aragorn's ships sail up the Anduin to relieve the besieged Minas Tirith during the War of the Ring, the standard flying on his ship shows a crown made of mithril and gold.
 * After Gimli became lord of Aglarond, he and his Dwarves forged great gates of mithril to replace the gates of Minas Tirith which were broken by the Witch-king of Angmar during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.
 * The doors of Moria are inscribed with ithildin, an alloy of unknown composition that contains mithril.

Other contexts
Mithril, or similarly spelled names, has been used in other fictional contexts as a strong and semi-magical metal. Examples include:
 * In the Computer RPG series known as The Elder Scrolls, Mithril is a kind of armour.
 * Within Bored of the Rings (a Lord of the Rings parody), objects are made of cheap "mithril plate" rather than solid mithril.
 * In the Role-Playing Game Dungeons &amp; Dragons, mithral is one of the special materials used to make high-quality or magical items.
 * In the computer game HeXen II, there is a mithril wall underwater that must be transformed into wood via a spell in order to proceed in the game.
 * In the video game RPG series Final Fantasy, Mythril is a material for shields, weapons, armour, helmets and so on. This equipment is usually found in the early or middle portions of the game.
 * In the computer game ADOM, mithril is a type of metal, one of the strongest.
 * The computer game Princess Maker 2 has a character who wears mithril armor when she fences.
 * The computer game Simon the Sorcerer features milrith.
 * In the computer game Age of Mythology, mithril is a special armor type.
 * In the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game Kings of Chaos, mithril is a defence weapon for humans.
 * In the MMORPG Everquest, mithril is a metal that can make weapons, armor, and other equipment.
 * In the MMORPG RuneScape, mithril is a dark blue metal that can be mined, made into bars, and then forged into various weapons and armor. While it is one of the weaker metals in the game, it is stronger than steel. It also appears to be lighter than other metal armors in the game, possibly as a reference to Tolkien.
 * The MMORPG The Realm Online features Mythril as a strong, light-weight metal green in color used to make quality weapons and armor.
 * In the MMORPG World of Warcraft, (and other games in the Warcraft series) mithril is used to make weapons, armor, and gadgets.
 * In the video game Kingdom Hearts, mithril is a rare material used for "synthesis" in high-level items.
 * In the sci-fi/fantasy anime series wikipedia:Hyper Police|Hyper Police, it is possible to buy or make "mithril-tip" bullets.
 * In the anime series Full Metal Panic!, Mithril is a mercenary organization. In the second series, the origin of the name is explained as a reference to The Lord of the Rings.
 * In the roguelike IVAN, mithril is a rather strong and valuable metal.
 * In the GameBoy Advance game Shining Soul, mithril can be forged with other materials to make valuable weapons, accessories, and armor.
 * In the PlayStation game Star Ocean: The Second Story, mithril is a rare metal that can be used for blacksmithing and for customization of weapons.
 * In the video game Breath of Fire, some armors are made out of the legendary metal mithril.
 * In the video game Chrono Cross, Mythril is a component that can be used in forging new weapons, armor and accessories.
 * The name of a Celtic/World music quartet - Mithril (band).
 * In the video game Tales of Symphonia "mythril" is used to customize many late game weapons, shields, and other items to equip to characters.
 * MIThril is a wearble computer system being developed at the MIT Media Lab.
 * In the video games Harvest Moon:Back to Nature for the PlayStation and Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town for the GameBoy Advance, mystril, a take-off of Mithril, is a rare mineral found while mining.
 * In the video game Shining in the Darkness, lumbs of mithril ore can be found and forged into some of the strongest weapons and armor available.
 * In the PC/Xbox 360 game Lord of the Rings: The Battle For Middle-Earth II, Mithril Mail is an armor upgrade available to Dwarven forces.

Tolkien's inspiration
In Hervarar saga, which was a cycle dealing with the magic sword Tyrfing (and from which Tolkien borrowed, for instance, the names Dwalin and Durin), the hero Orvar-Odd wore a silken mailcoat which nothing could pierce (Oddr svarar: "ek vil berjask við Angantýr, hann mun gefa stór högg með Tyrfingi, en ek trúi betr skyrtu minni, enn brynju þinni, til hlífðar").

Mithril