The door of durin.

[Galin]

Originally Posted by Rumil

I think it was indeed a little slip by JRRT. Not Gandalf's description, because as Galadriel says it could be on-the-spot translation. But the elaborate drawing Tolkien made of the inscription also says Moria, and Khazad-Dum apparently wasn't called Moria until the whole unfortunate Balrog incident.

Appendix F also notes that Moria was a name given without love. The writing on the doors probably was a slip, and Tolkien even comments on another slip concerning the writing on the tomb -- but the solution can be similar enough to Tolkien's solution to the Anglo-Saxon (based) runes appearing in The Hobbit.

The picture of the door in the modern book is (obviously) not a photo of the actual doors, but the picture is still effective enough, giving an idea of what it might have looked like in general, including a general representation of some internal language and script. The runes in The Hobbit are Anglo-Saxon based, but since the actual runes as used by the Elves and Dwarves are 'similar enough' in design (at least), they lend an effective element visually, to the story.


In short, I see nothing wrong with imagining hadhodrond on the actual doors -- despite Moria being written in the picture, just as one must imagine Durin and Narvi are not on the real doors -- also despite being written in the picture in the modern book.

Durin and Narvi can't be on the real doors, as these names are not only not the real names of these Dwarves, they are translations made by someone who knows Old Norse -- a language that did not exist when the actual doors were made, and still very much in the future by Frodo's day even.