One entering Khazad-dûm by its East-gate would pass into the First Hall, and carrying on through that hall would travel through a passageway and down a great flight of stairs to the First Deep, the first level of Khazad-dûm beneath the gates. Those stairs led down into the Second Hall, a vast space whose roof was supported by a double row of black pillars, carved to resemble great trees.

The Second Hall held an important part of the defences of Khazad-dûm. At its eastern end (that is, the end first encountered by one entering from the gate) was a dreadful chasm fifty feet across, spanned by a single perilous and narrow bridge - Durin's Bridge - making the hall highly defensible against invading forces.

The defences of the Second Hall brought disaster on at least two occasions. In III 2994, after Balin had led an attempt to recolonise Moria, an invading force of Orcs and Trolls captured the hall and the bridge, trapping the Dwarves and dooming their expedition. Twenty-five years later, the Company of the Ring passed through the hall as they escaped from Moria, and it was here that they encountered the Balrog that had driven out the Dwarves long before. In Gandalf's battle with the Balrog, Durin's Bridge was broken and both the combatants fell into the great chasm.

Notes

The narrative of The Lord of the Rings confines itself to factors relevant to the action as the Fellowship of the Ring passes through the Second Hall, and so we have rather limited information about its overall layout and scale. The Fellowship entered the hall from the low archway in its northern wall, which was said to be 'not more than a quarter of a mile' from the Bridge that led outward at the hall's eastern end. This archway was 'near its eastern end' and 'westward it ran away into darkness'. These comments (from The Fellowship of the Ring II 5, The Bridge of Khazad-dûm) all point to a hall of truly vast length. If a quarter of a mile was considered to be 'near' to its eastern end, then the entire hall must have been at least a mile long, and quite possibly even longer. The plan shown here represents a realistic minimum length for the Second Hall, but it might have extended much farther westward than is shown. This vast scale also explains why the chasm crossed by Durin's Bridge appears narrow on this map: in fact, that chasm was some fifty feet across, but that is a relatively small distance on the scale of the entire huge hall.

The vertical (north-south) axis of this plan is exaggerated for clarity. As Durin's Bane pursues the Fellowship down the hall, it is described as spreading its wings from wall to wall (that is, between the northern and southern walls). At the scale shown here, that would make the Balrog's wingspan truly gigantic (perhaps a thousand feet from wingtip to shadowy wingtip). That cannot realistically be correct, and the hall must actually have been rather narrower than is shown here.

The account of the Fellowship's passage through the Second Hall gives us little detail about its connecting halls and doorways. We're only told of the archway in the north wall (through which the Fellowship entered the hall) and the door in the eastern wall, beyond the Bridge, through which they made their escape. There must also have been a western entrance, an opening that is not described, but the existence of which is implied by the fiery fissure intended to trap the Fellowship if they had come by this more direct route from the west. (Note that this fissure was not part of the original Second Hall, but was apparently created as a trap - 'devised for our welcome no doubt', was Gandalf's opinion (ibid).) No other entrances are described, but for a hall on a such a vast scale, there must surely have been numerous doorways and archways leading off to other halls. This is illustrated here by an arbitrary arrangement of openings along the northern and southern walls. If the cavern really was miles in length, there were probably far more such entrances than are shown here, but we know nothing of their placing, nor where they might have led.

Second Hall

The great hall that held Durin's Bridge

Notes

See also...

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