The shirt save Frodo a fourth time when it caused the Tower of Cirith Ungol orcs to almost wipe each other out fighting over it. Sam wouldn't have been able to rescue Frodo without that.
@@skycryztals Heck no. Titanium is light. Problem with it though is that it's difficult to work with and shape. It isn't diamond by any understanding but it's very resilient. Because of its rigidity it's possible to make very strong and thin items out of it such as medical implants - screws, brackets, and such. It is kind of a neat metal, really. Thinking of how it's made and used, it is probably closer to adamantium than mithril. I just picked up on the phrase is all.
Mithril is something Ive always loved about LOTR. Its perfect fantasy because its a metal/material stronger than anything we have and magical in ways but its not over the top or excessive. It just adds so much more... depth to the world. Add in the fact of the dwarves greed and the Balrog and it becomes a warning as well.
@@adventuresofavalon2477 Oh 100% I remember when I got The Nature of Middle Earth last year or whenever it was released and I flicked through the chapters and there was a whole chapter dedicated to economy and what Tolkien had noted and scribbled down. Shows the depth he really went to
@@adventuresofavalon2477 "Economy" that doesn't make any sense. Small chain shirt is worth more than Shire but armoring whole regiments of glorified city watch, or making whole huge gates or even ships out of the stuff is somehow so cheap it can be funded out of pocket of one dude, eh?
@@michaelf.2449 Pure Titanium was first made in 1910, looking it up. That's kind of funny that Tolkien didn't know about it and invented it at about the same time as it really came into our world.
@@KuK137 you have to remember the Shire was so insignificant the Dark Lord didn’t know of it. ~120 miles x ~150 miles. I’ve seen estimates of Gondor’s population being north of 1 million, based on how large their fighting forces were.
The shirt save Frodo a fourth time when it caused the Tower of Cirith Ungol orcs to almost wipe each other out fighting over it. Sam wouldn't have been able to rescue Frodo without that.
I find it intriguing that Eärendil's ship was said to have been made of mithril and elven glass. Not unlike how our sea faring vessels are traditionally of wood and our sky and star faring ships are made of metal with glass windows.
Mithril! All folk desired it.. Its beauty was like to that of common silver, but the beauty of mithril did not tarnish or grow dim! Great video again Nerd! you continue to amaze the Tolkien community
"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" - GANDALF As said in The Fellowship of the Ring.
Another fantastic video. It felt nearly like a history lesson (which, as a true geek, I love) vs. a simple LOTR video. You make the legendarium come alive.
Another fantastic video, keep up the great work. Mithril is proof, with numerous other examples, of how in depth Tolkien was when writing LOTR. How many other authors went this deep to describe a metal? Just incredible.
I suppose he had an appreciation for metals. As a knife geek, the different blade steels and bolster/ inlay materials can leave you imagining all the different set-ups. Brass and nickel silver commonly used in knives tarnishes quite a bit, while precious metals would only be used for inlays. He describes it as being distinct from steel, silver, copper, or nickel alloys. After all, pyrite is known as fool's gold.
Hypothetically Question: if the Balrog was never under the Misty Mountains. And it never intervened with the dwarfs. Do you think the dwarfs would have dug deeper into meeting the creatures like the Nameless things?
That is a good question and that is a likely possiblity. The deeper the dwarves mined the closer they would have likely to encounter the Nameless Ones.
You are my go to channel for all things Tolkien and this video gives another chance to show your quality. I’ve always loved the mithril lore and learned more than a few things today. The best nugget I learned was about the Elendilmir and how it was found by Saruman while he looked for the ring. I had no idea they came across his remains while searching in the Gladden Fields. Bravo sir and keep up the great work!
Beautiful video! I once calculated how much that Mithril vest (made for Legolas), was worth. That's about £50m - £60m in today's money. Give or take. I did a lot of calculations. I've calculated the entirety of Bilbo's wealth. Happy to run you through the calculations if you want to make a video of that. But it was so expensive that really it was not a liquid asset. Like my Transformers collection
Mithril is like a combination of the best properties of titanium and platinum: the luster and resistance to tarnish from platinum, and the strength and lightness of titanium.
Mithril is one of my favorite things from Tolkien, and I often hope to find some whenever I play D&D, even though it has some different meaning there. I did often find it strange, though, that Moria's wealth was based on it, yet we honestly see very little of it, in the wider world. It certainly makes sense; even at only 10x gold, that's a price you would probably need to be a successful king to pay, but then where did all the things made of it go, that Khazad-dum became so rich for? They didn't mint mithril coins, to the best of my knowledge, and though elves in other lore love it, the elves of Middle Earth don't seem to have much of it, either. An assortment of helmets is fine, and the shirt was wonderful, but I hardly feel it would have made Durin's folk rich, if there is so little of it floating around "in the market". Still, a wonderful substance.
Also, I like how small chain shirt is worth more than Shire but armoring whole regiments of glorified city watch, or making whole huge gates or even ships out of the stuff is somehow so cheap it can be funded out of pocket of one dude, eh? Unless Elendil or Aragorn can casually spend bigger sums than the richest dwarven kings...
"Shadow of war" Says that they did mint mithril coils, called Miriam. But sauron desired it above all things, and spent millenia sending his forces to collect every last piece that was known.
@@johnnymcblaze And then made his own dragon's hoard in the bowels of Barad-dur? Because we never see him wearing it, handling things made of it, and despite being an epic craftsman, never making anything of it. It might as well have left the earth, or been lost when the foundations of Barad-dur were finally destroyed.
10x it's weight in gold is just got the raw material Add Dwarven craftsmanship expertise in the mix and fashion it in something beautiful and sturdy and I think they'd be able to get 100x weight in gold easily. The fact that they know how to shape it and craft with it is what made them rich, not simply extracting it for whole sale raw ingots, I believe
Just want to give a shout out to the creator of these Videos! Definitely a blast to watch and helps put everything into perspective! Thanks Nerd of the Rings!!
So happy to be early to this video!! Mithril was a fascinating metal and topic of discussion. I wonder if some metalologist and chemist would create an artificial element with the properties of Mithril.
A couple of minor points. Vingilot was the ship he sailed TO Valinor with. Later, when he was there (according to Bilbo) "A ship then new, they built for him, of mithril and of elven glass." Also, I'm not sure we can be certain that Bilbo wasn't embellishing the story a little. Plus, Eregion was actually founded by Galadriel, who ruled there for its first 600 years until she left for Lothlorien and Celebrimbor took control.
The story of Galadriel and Celeborn is extremely confusing, Tolkien had no clear concept of what they were doing in the Second Age except that they were in Eregion and at some point during the War of the Elves and Sauron went to Lothlorien.
Could Mithril be a Lord of the Rings universe version of platinum? Some of its properties like "never tarnishing" and the coloration seem to imply this. (Although mithril also has special properties more akin to titanium or zirconium alloys?!)
Speak friend and enter has a new meaning after watching this video. The elves and dwarves fighting is one of the more saddening plot lines of the series, but it’s nice to know they were friends ONCE
Seems to me that Mithril was like what we call platinum. It's also silver in color and doesn't tarnish. It has been used for the perfect setting material for white diamonds for centuries.
@@kirbyculp3449 I see where you are going but challah bread is fluffy, kind of, and Matzo bread or hard tack is closer to Lembas bread. Titanium isn't silver, is it? I went with platinum because of it's durability and above all value. I have two platinum and diamond rings from my grandmothers and they still shine like brand new, without cleaning.
Small note: "It is worth times times that of gold" does NOT specify "by weight" which would actually diminish the value of Mithril given it's notoriously light weight and the relatively heavy weight of gold even compared to iron. I believe it was 10 times the cost of gold by volume.
This channel just made me Nerd of the rings. I was always fan of LOTR movies, but this channel has given my appreciation so much depth! Just how imaginative, creative and great of a thinker was Tolkein!
One thing I hove always been curious about is how did animal-husbandry work for the elves (and other long lived races like the dwarfs). The lifespan of a horse is only like 20, so do they simply get a new one every twenty years (a time period that must seem like a week to a 2000 year old elf). Or are their pets like dogs and horses also immortal?
Pretty sure they are not immortal, although I wouldn't be surprised if they had longer lifespan in elven care, thanks to elven magic and medicine. Also elves can basically talk with animals and tame them instantly so they don't have to spend as much time training them and stuff... Btw 20 years for 2000 years old elf is 1/100 of his whole life. Like, it's not that much but its nowhere near to feel like just one week...
@@KuK137 I don't think elves would have problem with that if it was the normal thing for them... There are people who train guide dogs for 6 months and then send them to blind people and start training new dog, so even for people it seems to be just ok, once they are adjusted to this... For me it would be unimaginable to give away a dog after few months but for some people it's not. It's all about context and what you consider to be normal. I imagine that people from alternative universe, where dogs live for decades, wouldn't understand how we can get dogs only for 15 years and be ok with that...
@@KuK137 It would be more akin to gardening from their perspective. Gardeners do not fret that their flowers bloom but once a season and many plants flower only the once before dying. They would raise them with the same perspective on their lifespans. One of the many idle pursuits elves attended to while away eternity.
I always have to wonder what Caradhras was in the first shape of the world that gave it mithril. Maybe the remnants of one of the pillars of the Lamps?
Electricity bill is so high nowadays. If I'm paying 200$ for that precious keyboard, I'm gonna be sitting in the dark with my Dwarven keyboard all alone, with no electricity either. Which still seems accurate, yet ironic...
Interesting how the rings worn by the dwarves brought so much prosperity, but the wearing of these rings, in my opinion, was an antenna of attraction for Morgoth Ingredient. Which in this case inflamed the dwarves' greed so much. And the rings were responsible for the discovery of the Balrog in Moria and Smaug's attack on the lonely mountain.
7:44 Him getting speared by a troll in the movie is kind of iffy. Cause with the size and strength of a troll, especially with Frodo's back against the wall he would have died still cause of the sheer amount of blunt force.
If only Bilbo had left it to him earlier, and Frodo had been wearing that Mail a few weeks prior when he was at Amon Sul, he wouldn't have been tormented quite as horribly after his quest and may have been able to enjoy home and his loved ones upon returning. That one note of Melkor resonates deeply and pierces through even Eru's greatest design, though the end of Frodo's life was probably brilliant, and any number of the Valar may have instantly healed him upon arriving in Valinor, an amazing honor; simply carrying the ring seemed enough to get him there and being wounded so just hastened his departure.. Sorry, I guess I just wanted to take a moment to lament for Frodo, because he truly went through some hard times- and while that is clearly recognized, the extent to which he suffered is often overlooked, and it's difficult to realize that it kinda didn't need to happen, poor guy. :'(
Or the magical blade would have pierced shirt and made a hole for the spear attack to kill Frodo in Moria. If defeating Nazgul was as simple as wearing some cheap (apparently, given glorified town watch of Gondor had tons of the stuff) armor then no one would have feared the Nazgul...
@@KuK137 I think it might had stopped his blade. As for Gondorians, theirs were ancient heirlooms from Numenor and what little they might've gotten in trade over the past age. Sure they had some, but not tons of the stuff. And I only mention surviving or avoiding a single strike, not defeating a Nazgul entirely. Should that had happened, and the mithril proving ineffective against The Morgul Blade, then it's not like the mail couldn't or wouldn't have been repaired in Rivendell upon arriving. They have smiths capable of reforging Narsil, I'm sure they could fix some mithril chain in this scenario, BIG IF, Frodo had it at Amun Sul and it wasn't enough to protect him from the Nazgul. You do make a valid point about the magical nature of the attack, but ultimately it's too difficult to conclude definitively to say if that particular blade would have been able to pierce mithril.
Story wise, if Frodo had been wearing the shirt he wouldn't have been so near to death that would require him to be spirited away to Rivendell in the coming days. And leave him in a coma for .. weeks? Instead, Strider's reappearance might not have been successful in driving them off. They left because after the stab, all they had to do was wait for Frodo to turn and then collect him. I'm not sure that fire really made much difference or that Aragorn being a descendent of a Numinorian king protected him from the Human king's rings. Strider wouldn't be much help once the Nazgul caught up and might actually be a liability. So Frodo gets stabbed and the shirt protects him. Strider shows up and for sake of story, drives them of and is immune to the control power of the 5 rings (4 were still looking). Arwyn shows up later that night to help. But the entire way to Rivendell would take much longer for them moving as a group and it is unlikely that they could fend off the 9 Nazgul (they all show up) each night until they make it to Rivendell. Having Frodo stabbed _and_ Arwyn showing up actually saved the others by making the Nazgul follow, which lets the Hobbits move with safety under Strider's direction. Remember, Strider knows the area, the location of Rivendell, and how to survive off the beaten path. The Hobbits don't.
@@mTealeaf hmm you might be right. I know that the water scene that temporarily destroys the nazgul is different. The actual *who* it is doesn't make much difference in either book nor movie except that another actor doesn't need to be hired. Point is still that 1 hobbit on horseback with an elf travels a lot faster than 4 hobbits on foot with a guide. Earlier their secrecy protected them but at that point they've been directly located by the nazgul. Unless that encounter happened on Rivendell's doorstep it would be unlikely for them to make it there. And if it did then Rivendell would be a terrible place to rest with the ring and wait for others to arrive for the council. I think the way it played out with Frodo not having the shirt worked out fine. Much better than the complications that would arise if he had it.
The explanation of mithril presence at Minas Tirith gate in 3019 TA is awesome. Fourty years after Durin's Bane, twenty years after the defeat of Angmar in the ruin of the gate of Minas Arnor is 2022 TA. Do you think the gate of Minas Tirith is planned, in progress or finished in 2022 TA ?
Would really love to see a video that helps explain the current year of Rings of Power (1200-1500SA?) and how that aligns with the timeline of the second age. I’m confused how Elendil is in the show now but will be alive and ~136 years old when he fights during the last alliance like 1500 years later.
I just had a vision of Saruman being so old, he forgot he was just an NPC and thought he was the main character. Searching for an hording all the good loot, choke-hold on the best trade routes, just selfish in gathering wealth and power, not really giving anything back to the world. Great video and you really highlight just how valuable, and yet misunderstood mithril really was. I loved the part about the elven smiths who were allied in trade with the dwarves. Thank you.
Check out the LOTR keyboards here: dro.ps/nerdoftherings-lotr
I want one of those Keyboards!!!
Imrahil life and jorneys please. Thanks for the vast content of Tolkien world.
Cool...great video...
You should do a video on Umbar soon because of the TROP TV series...
Description wise I would guess it was inspired by aluminium.
Lord of the Rings? More like Whored of the Rings
The shirt save Frodo a fourth time when it caused the Tower of Cirith Ungol orcs to almost wipe each other out fighting over it. Sam wouldn't have been able to rescue Frodo without that.
Mithril: worth 10 times its weight in gold
Also Mithril: weighs less than silk
Also Mithril: so available we make gates and helmets out of it.
@@skycryztals And rare things, like flags ....
It is a bit like titanium which is as strong as steel and as light as aluminum.
@@emrek99205 i thought titanium was heavy?
@@skycryztals Heck no. Titanium is light. Problem with it though is that it's difficult to work with and shape. It isn't diamond by any understanding but it's very resilient. Because of its rigidity it's possible to make very strong and thin items out of it such as medical implants - screws, brackets, and such. It is kind of a neat metal, really.
Thinking of how it's made and used, it is probably closer to adamantium than mithril. I just picked up on the phrase is all.
Mithril is something Ive always loved about LOTR. Its perfect fantasy because its a metal/material stronger than anything we have and magical in ways but its not over the top or excessive. It just adds so much more... depth to the world. Add in the fact of the dwarves greed and the Balrog and it becomes a warning as well.
@@adventuresofavalon2477 Oh 100% I remember when I got The Nature of Middle Earth last year or whenever it was released and I flicked through the chapters and there was a whole chapter dedicated to economy and what Tolkien had noted and scribbled down. Shows the depth he really went to
@@adventuresofavalon2477 "Economy" that doesn't make any sense. Small chain shirt is worth more than Shire but armoring whole regiments of glorified city watch, or making whole huge gates or even ships out of the stuff is somehow so cheap it can be funded out of pocket of one dude, eh?
I felt like mithril is just the titanium of LOTR
@@michaelf.2449 Pure Titanium was first made in 1910, looking it up. That's kind of funny that Tolkien didn't know about it and invented it at about the same time as it really came into our world.
@@KuK137 you have to remember the Shire was so insignificant the Dark Lord didn’t know of it. ~120 miles x ~150 miles.
I’ve seen estimates of Gondor’s population being north of 1 million, based on how large their fighting forces were.
As valuable as the mithril shirt was, its contribution by saving Frodos life, and thus the defeat of Sauron, was worth so much more!
Bilbo, and Frodo deserved a little more plot armour than anyone.
Yeah you can't put a price on that!!!
@@Reveers the good kind of plot armour
The shirt save Frodo a fourth time when it caused the Tower of Cirith Ungol orcs to almost wipe each other out fighting over it. Sam wouldn't have been able to rescue Frodo without that.
@@dlxmarks Good point. It sure did.
I find it intriguing that Eärendil's ship was said to have been made of mithril and elven glass. Not unlike how our sea faring vessels are traditionally of wood and our sky and star faring ships are made of metal with glass windows.
elves are aliens!
Yes, like a spacecraft.
Mithril! All folk desired it.. Its beauty was like to that of common silver, but the beauty of mithril did not tarnish or grow dim! Great video again Nerd! you continue to amaze the Tolkien community
“Great video again Nerd!” lol
It is said that when asked what Nenya meant, Galadriel would often reply: " Nenya-Business..."
"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" - GANDALF As said in The Fellowship of the Ring.
Another fantastic video. It felt nearly like a history lesson (which, as a true geek, I love) vs. a simple LOTR video. You make the legendarium come alive.
Amazon really needs to watch this one after ep 5...
They literally can't use lore because the Tolkien society won't let them
"Amazon disliked this". It's like the RoP writers just went 'Meh'. Thanks for sharing, great video as always
They can't use lore because of the Tolkien society blame the right people
Yeah imagine having enough money to think your story is better than a literal master of English language (and others)
Another fantastic video, keep up the great work. Mithril is proof, with numerous other examples, of how in depth Tolkien was when writing LOTR. How many other authors went this deep to describe a metal? Just incredible.
I suppose he had an appreciation for metals. As a knife geek, the different blade steels and bolster/ inlay materials can leave you imagining all the different set-ups. Brass and nickel silver commonly used in knives tarnishes quite a bit, while precious metals would only be used for inlays. He describes it as being distinct from steel, silver, copper, or nickel alloys. After all, pyrite is known as fool's gold.
Hypothetically Question: if the Balrog was never under the Misty Mountains. And it never intervened with the dwarfs. Do you think the dwarfs would have dug deeper into meeting the creatures like the Nameless things?
Ooh, that's intresting. I guess they would of.
Yes, certainly. Remember that the Endless Stair extended down into passages that met with those gnawed by the Nameless Things.
That is a good question and that is a likely possiblity. The deeper the dwarves mined the closer they would have likely to encounter the Nameless Ones.
@@EAP267 *would HAVE 🙄
@@michaelcairns8778, do they ever say what the Nameless Ones are?
Your Gandalf (and many others I’ve heard you do) is excellent! Thank you for your work!
The dwarves found jewels to keep
But then they dug too deep
A balrog below
But they didn't know
And woke it from it's sleep
Whoops!
You are my go to channel for all things Tolkien and this video gives another chance to show your quality.
I’ve always loved the mithril lore and learned more than a few things today.
The best nugget I learned was about the Elendilmir and how it was found by Saruman while he looked for the ring. I had no idea they came across his remains while searching in the Gladden Fields. Bravo sir and keep up the great work!
Beautiful video! I once calculated how much that Mithril vest (made for Legolas), was worth.
That's about £50m - £60m in today's money. Give or take. I did a lot of calculations. I've calculated the entirety of Bilbo's wealth. Happy to run you through the calculations if you want to make a video of that.
But it was so expensive that really it was not a liquid asset. Like my Transformers collection
Spot the accountant. Wow.
@@cerberaodollam Head of Data and Analysis actually
Mithril is like a combination of the best properties of titanium and platinum: the luster and resistance to tarnish from platinum, and the strength and lightness of titanium.
Depleted Uranium
I get way more entertainment from this than 'rings of power'.
Well said
Mithril is one of my favorite things from Tolkien, and I often hope to find some whenever I play D&D, even though it has some different meaning there. I did often find it strange, though, that Moria's wealth was based on it, yet we honestly see very little of it, in the wider world. It certainly makes sense; even at only 10x gold, that's a price you would probably need to be a successful king to pay, but then where did all the things made of it go, that Khazad-dum became so rich for? They didn't mint mithril coins, to the best of my knowledge, and though elves in other lore love it, the elves of Middle Earth don't seem to have much of it, either. An assortment of helmets is fine, and the shirt was wonderful, but I hardly feel it would have made Durin's folk rich, if there is so little of it floating around "in the market". Still, a wonderful substance.
Also, I like how small chain shirt is worth more than Shire but armoring whole regiments of glorified city watch, or making whole huge gates or even ships out of the stuff is somehow so cheap it can be funded out of pocket of one dude, eh? Unless Elendil or Aragorn can casually spend bigger sums than the richest dwarven kings...
"Shadow of war" Says that they did mint mithril coils, called Miriam. But sauron desired it above all things, and spent millenia sending his forces to collect every last piece that was known.
@@johnnymcblaze And then made his own dragon's hoard in the bowels of Barad-dur? Because we never see him wearing it, handling things made of it, and despite being an epic craftsman, never making anything of it. It might as well have left the earth, or been lost when the foundations of Barad-dur were finally destroyed.
10x it's weight in gold is just got the raw material
Add Dwarven craftsmanship expertise in the mix and fashion it in something beautiful and sturdy and I think they'd be able to get 100x weight in gold easily.
The fact that they know how to shape it and craft with it is what made them rich, not simply extracting it for whole sale raw ingots, I believe
Loving the newer music man. Keep up the killer content.
You really know how to snag a cool sponsor! Never heard of Drop or Lord of Maps but I'm already obsessed with both. You know your audience lol
2:38 It is Nenya... Nenya Business! 🤣
Just want to give a shout out to the creator of these Videos! Definitely a blast to watch and helps put everything into perspective! Thanks Nerd of the Rings!!
This was really useful background. Especially in the context of this week's RoP episode ...
Man, I could watch your videos all day long! This is awesome! Thank you! Greetings from Brazil!
This is one of my favorite videos so far.
I hope that we will be able to mine Mithril in the upcoming Moria game, but that it would be very rare and hard to find.
There's an upcoming Moria game? Do you know on what platform(s)?
@@PersianGato I don't know yet, but considering it would be a multi-player it will probably be avaliable for PC.
@@PersianGato 2023 Epic Exclusive on pc
Great video! Like always!!
wait! so mithril wasn't elven tree fertilizer?
Mithril was oxidized and made into vitamins, but it made elves impotent.
@@trentw.3566 "MITHRIL OXIDE IS MAKING THE FROGS GAY" - Elven Alex Jones
@@f0rth3l0v30fchr15t I always thought of Alex Jones as a paranoid Dwarf.
@@trentw.3566 impotent or omnipotent?🤔🧝♂️🧝♀️
So happy to be early to this video!! Mithril was a fascinating metal and topic of discussion. I wonder if some metalologist and chemist would create an artificial element with the properties of Mithril.
maybe also something that shines similar to ithilden, just sadly not magically only in the starlight/moonlight
Creating an element is not easy. From what I remember from college one needs a super-conducting super-collider. The man-made elements decay rapidly.
but it’s still a cool thought, maybe it will be easier 100 or so years from now or something.
Literally one of my favorite channels ever, thanks!
Never mind I found it and I’ve seen it watching it again 💪🏽
Dude that is an awesome keyboard!!!!!
A couple of minor points. Vingilot was the ship he sailed TO Valinor with. Later, when he was there (according to Bilbo) "A ship then new, they built for him, of mithril and of elven glass." Also, I'm not sure we can be certain that Bilbo wasn't embellishing the story a little. Plus, Eregion was actually founded by Galadriel, who ruled there for its first 600 years until she left for Lothlorien and Celebrimbor took control.
It was founded by Celeborn and Galadriel.
And, of course, these facts make us hang our heads in sorrow at Amazon's Rings of Power fiasco.
The story of Galadriel and Celeborn is extremely confusing, Tolkien had no clear concept of what they were doing in the Second Age except that they were in Eregion and at some point during the War of the Elves and Sauron went to Lothlorien.
So it wasn't created because a tree was truck by lightning while an elf was taking a crap under it? Which somehow has something to do with a Silmaril?
Keep in mind, Elrond and Durin know of the legend, not of the history to Mithril.
Yeah, your videos and lectures are always impressive.
And in the Amazon serie they have destroyed this myth wiith an absurd history argh...
Thanks to keep the real History of the LOTR.
I never thought I'd need a video explaining mithril.
Could Mithril be a Lord of the Rings universe version of platinum? Some of its properties like "never tarnishing" and the coloration seem to imply this. (Although mithril also has special properties more akin to titanium or zirconium alloys?!)
Mithril is like the perfect alloy, taking the best properties of all natural metals and combine them to the make greatest alloy of all time
No. The armour properties are much much stronger
@@michaelcairns8778 The alloy was ithildin, mithril was just the metal, I believe. No alloying needed for the top-tier in middle earth!
More like there version of virbranium
Thank you for these videos.
Speak friend and enter has a new meaning after watching this video. The elves and dwarves fighting is one of the more saddening plot lines of the series, but it’s nice to know they were friends ONCE
Seems to me that Mithril was like what we call platinum. It's also silver in color and doesn't tarnish. It has been used for the perfect setting material for white diamonds for centuries.
I was thinking that titanium is more like mithral. And that elf-food-bread is like challah bread.
@@kirbyculp3449 I see where you are going but challah bread is fluffy, kind of, and Matzo bread or hard tack is closer to Lembas bread. Titanium isn't silver, is it? I went with platinum because of it's durability and above all value. I have two platinum and diamond rings from my grandmothers and they still shine like brand new, without cleaning.
@@snoozieq4584 Well mithril is like diamonds but in metal form, I'd say. Incredibly strong but also so beautiful.
Amazing content good sir👌 👏
What a genius idea to release this, two weeks before the last episode of Rings of Power. Right on!
Basically the way Tolkien made plot armor without making it obvious
Even Mithril has such a huge backstory
Can someone send a link for this video to Rings of Power writers?
I watched a lot of these videos and I’ve learned so much to were I knew even more about and follow rings of power
Gotta love the sponsors of these videos
Small note: "It is worth times times that of gold" does NOT specify "by weight" which would actually diminish the value of Mithril given it's notoriously light weight and the relatively heavy weight of gold even compared to iron. I believe it was 10 times the cost of gold by volume.
I'm no expert in jewellery, but doesn't "worth ten times by weight" mean that the same mass of mithril would be worth ten times the same mass in gold?
I'll make up some numbers to illustrate what I mean: one kg of gold may be worth 10 money units, then one kg of mithril is worth 100 money units
In volume the mithril might end up being much larger though, so I really don't know which measure is usually taken
I have been waiting for a video like this
Are you planning to do a video on the vast forest, Taur-in-Duinath? So little seems to be known about that area.
Watching your videos, ME-TRILLED!
This was a cool one to see. My favorite would be the new and improved Minis Tirith gate.
Would it be possible for you to do a video explaining the history of men in Middle Earth similar to your guide to the different clans of elves?
Spot on video and Freak’n awsm Video!!!!
As an organic chemist I really want Mithril to be a real thing. What a catalyst! :-). This was a very nice summary - Thank you.
Love it! You should do a video on the Evenstar!
no cap your gandalf accent is amazing
As someone with the MT3 Dwarvish keycaps, I can 100% recommend them.
This channel just made me Nerd of the rings. I was always fan of LOTR movies, but this channel has given my appreciation so much depth! Just how imaginative, creative and great of a thinker was Tolkein!
what is the name of the music that plays in the video?
One thing I hove always been curious about is how did animal-husbandry work for the elves (and other long lived races like the dwarfs). The lifespan of a horse is only like 20, so do they simply get a new one every twenty years (a time period that must seem like a week to a 2000 year old elf). Or are their pets like dogs and horses also immortal?
Pretty sure they are not immortal, although I wouldn't be surprised if they had longer lifespan in elven care, thanks to elven magic and medicine. Also elves can basically talk with animals and tame them instantly so they don't have to spend as much time training them and stuff...
Btw 20 years for 2000 years old elf is 1/100 of his whole life. Like, it's not that much but its nowhere near to feel like just one week...
@@toncek9981 1/100 of human life is about 8-9 months. Would you like to be dog owner knowing it will die before your next birthday?
@@KuK137 I don't think elves would have problem with that if it was the normal thing for them... There are people who train guide dogs for 6 months and then send them to blind people and start training new dog, so even for people it seems to be just ok, once they are adjusted to this... For me it would be unimaginable to give away a dog after few months but for some people it's not.
It's all about context and what you consider to be normal. I imagine that people from alternative universe, where dogs live for decades, wouldn't understand how we can get dogs only for 15 years and be ok with that...
@@KuK137 It would be more akin to gardening from their perspective. Gardeners do not fret that their flowers bloom but once a season and many plants flower only the once before dying. They would raise them with the same perspective on their lifespans. One of the many idle pursuits elves attended to while away eternity.
I mean, rat owners exist...
Wow, those keyboards look wonderful! I want the dwarf keyboard!
It's these videos of yours that make me really want to read the lord of the rings
4:10
Isn't mithril as light as a feather...?
Great videos, thank you!
You would probably make an outstanding Historian and Curator
You ought to do a video on the Druedain.
Imagine being a smith working with Ithildin.
You'd constantly be losing it.
Constantly working the night shift would be annoying too.
I always have to wonder what Caradhras was in the first shape of the world that gave it mithril. Maybe the remnants of one of the pillars of the Lamps?
Electricity bill is so high nowadays. If I'm paying 200$ for that precious keyboard, I'm gonna be sitting in the dark with my Dwarven keyboard all alone, with no electricity either. Which still seems accurate, yet ironic...
Wonderful vid!
That keyboard looks so cool!
Definitely ordered that keyboard! I may not have an actual PC yet but I am hoping to relatively soon and I can always plug it into my laptop XD
Pretty sure Sauron gathered all the mithril items he has into a giant heap that he sleeps on.
Interesting how the rings worn by the dwarves brought so much prosperity, but the wearing of these rings, in my opinion, was an antenna of attraction for Morgoth Ingredient. Which in this case inflamed the dwarves' greed so much. And the rings were responsible for the discovery of the Balrog in Moria and Smaug's attack on the lonely mountain.
Did you use an Ai to create some of those numenor pictures?
Also, the music you use seems like it was made as middle earth theme (don't know if was like this), but it brings beautiful middle earth vibes 🎷👌
Great video
7:44
Him getting speared by a troll in the movie is kind of iffy. Cause with the size and strength of a troll, especially with Frodo's back against the wall he would have died still cause of the sheer amount of blunt force.
I do wish the elvish keyboard had a little more hints for certain keys but I am so incredibly tempted
Awsome episode
If only Bilbo had left it to him earlier, and Frodo had been wearing that Mail a few weeks prior when he was at Amon Sul, he wouldn't have been tormented quite as horribly after his quest and may have been able to enjoy home and his loved ones upon returning. That one note of Melkor resonates deeply and pierces through even Eru's greatest design, though the end of Frodo's life was probably brilliant, and any number of the Valar may have instantly healed him upon arriving in Valinor, an amazing honor; simply carrying the ring seemed enough to get him there and being wounded so just hastened his departure.. Sorry, I guess I just wanted to take a moment to lament for Frodo, because he truly went through some hard times- and while that is clearly recognized, the extent to which he suffered is often overlooked, and it's difficult to realize that it kinda didn't need to happen, poor guy. :'(
Or the magical blade would have pierced shirt and made a hole for the spear attack to kill Frodo in Moria. If defeating Nazgul was as simple as wearing some cheap (apparently, given glorified town watch of Gondor had tons of the stuff) armor then no one would have feared the Nazgul...
@@KuK137 I think it might had stopped his blade. As for Gondorians, theirs were ancient heirlooms from Numenor and what little they might've gotten in trade over the past age. Sure they had some, but not tons of the stuff. And I only mention surviving or avoiding a single strike, not defeating a Nazgul entirely. Should that had happened, and the mithril proving ineffective against The Morgul Blade, then it's not like the mail couldn't or wouldn't have been repaired in Rivendell upon arriving. They have smiths capable of reforging Narsil, I'm sure they could fix some mithril chain in this scenario, BIG IF, Frodo had it at Amun Sul and it wasn't enough to protect him from the Nazgul. You do make a valid point about the magical nature of the attack, but ultimately it's too difficult to conclude definitively to say if that particular blade would have been able to pierce mithril.
Story wise, if Frodo had been wearing the shirt he wouldn't have been so near to death that would require him to be spirited away to Rivendell in the coming days. And leave him in a coma for .. weeks?
Instead, Strider's reappearance might not have been successful in driving them off. They left because after the stab, all they had to do was wait for Frodo to turn and then collect him. I'm not sure that fire really made much difference or that Aragorn being a descendent of a Numinorian king protected him from the Human king's rings. Strider wouldn't be much help once the Nazgul caught up and might actually be a liability.
So Frodo gets stabbed and the shirt protects him. Strider shows up and for sake of story, drives them of and is immune to the control power of the 5 rings (4 were still looking). Arwyn shows up later that night to help. But the entire way to Rivendell would take much longer for them moving as a group and it is unlikely that they could fend off the 9 Nazgul (they all show up) each night until they make it to Rivendell.
Having Frodo stabbed _and_ Arwyn showing up actually saved the others by making the Nazgul follow, which lets the Hobbits move with safety under Strider's direction. Remember, Strider knows the area, the location of Rivendell, and how to survive off the beaten path. The Hobbits don't.
@@emrek99205 Arwyn doesnt even show up in the books, it's Glorfindel.
@@mTealeaf hmm you might be right. I know that the water scene that temporarily destroys the nazgul is different. The actual *who* it is doesn't make much difference in either book nor movie except that another actor doesn't need to be hired.
Point is still that 1 hobbit on horseback with an elf travels a lot faster than 4 hobbits on foot with a guide. Earlier their secrecy protected them but at that point they've been directly located by the nazgul.
Unless that encounter happened on Rivendell's doorstep it would be unlikely for them to make it there. And if it did then Rivendell would be a terrible place to rest with the ring and wait for others to arrive for the council.
I think the way it played out with Frodo not having the shirt worked out fine. Much better than the complications that would arise if he had it.
The explanation of mithril presence at Minas Tirith gate in 3019 TA is awesome.
Fourty years after Durin's Bane, twenty years after the defeat of Angmar in the ruin of the gate of Minas Arnor is 2022 TA.
Do you think the gate of Minas Tirith is planned, in progress or finished in 2022 TA ?
Thanks for your fan content Matt! You make me more and more a fan of Tolkien. ❤👏🏾
OMG Those Keyboards!
I love those videos.
great video as always. Now let's wait for amazon's version of it...lol
I think much like the Silmarils for Morgoth, Sauron horded Mithril simply to covet / posses it.
This was great 👍
Wonder what weapon Sauron would have made of True Silver?
I wish I has the money to spare, DAAAAM this keyboards are AMAZING
could you do a video about Eol the dark elf next?
Why are all the elven smiths bare chested? Do the sparks from the forge not hurt?
Would really love to see a video that helps explain the current year of Rings of Power (1200-1500SA?) and how that aligns with the timeline of the second age. I’m confused how Elendil is in the show now but will be alive and ~136 years old when he fights during the last alliance like 1500 years later.
I think it's lore modification like in Shadow of Mordor/Shadow of War. Compression of time.
“There is no explanation in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of Men for this abomination.”
It's called a cash grab. You don't care about the lore just through everything you can in to make money.
I just had a vision of Saruman being so old, he forgot he was just an NPC and thought he was the main character. Searching for an hording all the good loot, choke-hold on the best trade routes, just selfish in gathering wealth and power, not really giving anything back to the world.
Great video and you really highlight just how valuable, and yet misunderstood mithril really was. I loved the part about the elven smiths who were allied in trade with the dwarves.
Thank you.
I'm back here for no particular reason at all...