The official Rings of Power account posted three new images from Khazad-dûm on November 8 at noon MST, captioned "Deep beneath the mountain, the greats are carved." Amazon says the first four episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 3 premiere on November 11, 2026 on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories, with episodes 5 and 6 on November 18 and the last two on November 25. Amazon's season guide says the Dwarves "are now sealed deep within their mountain halls" in Khazad-dûm, and that Simon Pegg voices the Balrog. Here is what J.R.R. Tolkien wrote about the Dwarf kingdom the show keeps returning to. Check out the official post down below:
Durin The Deathless And The Founding
Tolkien's account of the kingdom's beginning is in Appendix A of The Lord of the Rings, in the section titled "Durin's Folk." Durin was the eldest of the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves. He slept alone until the awakening of his people and then came to Azanulbizar, the valley below the Misty Mountains. There he looked into the lake Kheled-zâram, the Mirrormere, and saw a crown of stars reflected over his head. He founded Khazad-dûm in the caves above it.
Durin lived so long that he was called Durin the Deathless, and Tolkien writes that the Dwarves believed he would be reborn several times in his line. That belief explains why the name Durin repeats through the kings of Khazad-dûm, and why the show can have a King Durin III and a Prince Durin IV in the Second Age.
The name itself is Khuzdul, the Dwarves' own language. Men called the kingdom the Dwarrowdelf. After its fall, the Elves named it Moria, the Black Chasm, which is the name most readers meet first in The Fellowship of the Ring.
Mithril And The Friendship With Eregion
Khazad-dûm's wealth came from mithril, which Gandalf describes in "A Journey in the Dark" as "Moria-silver, or true-silver," a metal found nowhere else in Middle-earth. He tells the Fellowship it was "worth ten times its weight in gold" and that the Dwarves could "beat it like copper, and polish it like glass," and it would never tarnish. Bilbo's mail-coat, given to him by Thorin, is made of it, and Gandalf says its value was greater than the Shire.
In the Second Age, the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm were close to the Elves of Eregion, also called Hollin, the Elven land of the smiths led by Celebrimbor. The West-gate shows that friendship. Its inscription, which Gandalf reads aloud, says: "The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter. I, Narvi, made them. Celebrimbor of Hollin drew these signs." Gandalf adds that it dated from "happier times," when there was "close friendship" between the two peoples.
The Seven Rings For The Dwarf-Lords
The Ring verse gives seven rings to "the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone," and Appendix A ties one of them to Khazad-dûm. The Dwarves of Durin's line said their ring was given to Durin III, King of Khazad-dûm, by the Elven-smiths themselves and not by Sauron, though Sauron's evil was still on it because he had helped in the forging of all seven. Tolkien writes that the rings did not turn the Dwarves into wraiths, but they inflamed their desire for gold and precious things.
Durin's Bane And The Fall Of The Kingdom
According to Appendix A and the Tale of Years, the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm kept their kingdom through the end of the Second Age and into the Third. Then, in the Third Age year 1980, their search for mithril beneath Barazinbar, the mountain Caradhras, went too deep. They woke a Balrog of Morgoth that had been hiding under the mountain, which became known as Durin's Bane. It killed King Durin VI, and a year later his son Náin I, and the surviving Dwarves fled.
The Dwarves came back to the East-gate in 2799 for the Battle of Azanulbizar, the climax of their war against the Orcs who had taken Moria. Appendix A says Dáin Ironfoot killed the Orc chief Azog there, but refused to let the victorious army enter the halls. Dáin had looked through the gate and seen that Durin's Bane was still waiting inside, and he told Thráin that only a power greater than the Dwarves had could take Moria back.
Balin led an attempt to retake the kingdom in 2989, and the Fellowship finds the result in "The Bridge of Khazad-dûm": his tomb in the Chamber of Mazarbul and the damaged Book of Mazarbul, whose last line reads "They are coming." On the bridge, Gandalf faces the Balrog with the words "You cannot pass," breaks the bridge under it and falls with it into the abyss.
What The Rings Of Power Has Done With It
The Rings of Power is built on the rights to The Lord of the Rings and its appendices, and it adapts Khazad-dûm in its own way. The show introduced Prince Durin IV, played by Owain Arthur, and his wife Disa, played by Sophia Nomvete, in the kingdom's Second Age prime, and its Dwarf storyline has centered on mithril. Both actors return in Season 3, per Amazon's cast list.
Amazon's synopsis says the new season is set five years after the fall of Eregion, with Sauron's armies conquering most of the world. Only a few pockets hold out, including Khazad-dûm and the Elven lands of Lindon and Rivendell. Amazon adds that "familial ties are strained among the Dwarves in Khazad-dûm," and its new cast includes Eddie Marsan as Thrain, described as Durin IV's older brother. Pegg's casting as the voice of "The Balrog" confirms that Durin's Bane plays a part in the season.
SFFGazette has been tracking the season, including The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Season 3 Trailer Unleashes Sauron And His Nazgnagôl and The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Season 3 First Reactions Say Series Is "Getting Better & Better". Prime Video released the official Season 3 trailer:
Do you want The Rings of Power to show Durin's Bane in full in Season 3, or keep the Balrog in the shadows a while longer?
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