Tolkien's Mistakes

[gorthaur_cruel]

Perhaps the blade was white while the haft was silver?

Oh, here's another one...

This is from "A Journey in the Dark" from the Fellowship of the Ring.

The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter. And underneath small and faint is written: I, Narvi, made them, Celebrimbor of Hollin drew these signs.'

Now, this door was made by the Elves Narvi and Celebrimbor from Eregion. This was during the Second Age, while the dwarves of Khazad Dum and Eregion had great friendship. Anybody spot Tolkien's mistake yet?

The name of "Moria" was not given to Khazad-dûm until the Dwarves deserted it; Tolkien says so a few times, but I could only find this from the Silmarillion:

Greatest of all the mansions of the Dwarves was Khazad-dûm, the Dwarrowdelf, Hadhodrond in the Elvish tongue, that was afterwards in the days of its darkness called Moria;

Also, the Encyclopedia of Arda says:

The name 'Moria' is often used as a synonym for Khazad-dûm. This is not strictly correct - 'Moria' was not used of the ancient Dwarf-city until after it was deserted by the Dwarves themselves - but by the late Third Age the two names had come to be used interchangeably.

Anyway, back to my point. The name of Moria was not used until around 1980 of the Third Age. Yet, Celebrimbor, who died 1697 of the Second Age, wrote Moria on the gates of Khazad-dûm before its name was even invented. After all, Moria merely means "Black Chasms", which wouldn't be a name given to the greatest Dwarf city at the time. Even if the Elves called it that secretly, surely the Dwarves wouldn't permit it. So we now have a second seer; Malbeth...and Celebrimbor, the one who foresaw Moria's future!