Continuing in Gothic tradition, the mines provide horror as the ruins of a once great city, “full of light and splendour… many-pillared halls of stone” ( Fellowship 329-330). Both labyrinths and darkness are quintessentially Gothic. The horror of darkness is accompanied by the massive labyrinth of bridges and tunnels within, “bewildering beyond hope of remembering” ( Fellowship 322, 324). Once the Fellowship passes through those doors, they shut behind them, “and all light lost.” This complete darkness is the first terrifying aspect of Moria, and it follows the Fellowship through all their time there. Besides these specific Gothic tropes, the Mines themselves create a sense of horror and impending doom – “‘The name of Moria is black’… ‘if you pass the doors of Moria, beware!” ( Fellowship 309-310). For example, the Balrog Durin’s Bane represents an “inescapable persecutor,” as mentioned in Ann Blaisdell Tracy’s Patterns of Fear in the Gothic Novel, and a small movement made by Pippin seems to wake up all of the mines, bringing to mind Tracy’s idea of “disproportion of affect to cause.” (4, 10). The Mines also follow certain conventions of Gothic fiction. They provide the first true danger to the Fellowship, and take the first life of a member. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings are immensely important to the nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring.
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