[Mithadan]

<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Shade of Carn Dûm
Posts: 275</TD><TD></TD></TR></TABLE>
Re: The Bridge of Khazad-dum

I think we need an agreement to disagree here. We could go back and forth forever. Examples; no west gate until Eregion arises means no westward trade heightening the need for eastward trade; the section of HoME 12 that we've been trading quotes from does not say Gundabad only and footnote 30 clearly implies Dwarvish presence in the Moria area; footnote 29 says dwarves didn't like to ride horses, but &quot;never&quot; raised animals, so where did their meat come from; the dwarf-man alliance died in mid-Second Age but then Sauron was defeated in Eriador with the assistance of Numenor and retreated leaving eastward trade more or less open but still no one to the West; there is no textual evidence that the dwarves used the lightshafts to grow crops, etc. To these, there are a number of contrary responses (no horses = no wagons, the men of the North were diminished and impovershed, etc.). We disagree on this point. Nice discussion, good points all around.

--Mithadan--
"The Silmarils with living light
were kindled clear, and waxing bright
shone like stars that in the North
above the reek of earth leap forth." </p>