Why Moria?

[Morsul the Dark]

Why go through Moria?

As I recall both Aragorn and Gandalf either feared or hated the place...It may be because it was the only way....but was it?

I was listening to the Hobbit and it occured to me Gandalf coulve taken the secret passage(the one Gollum used to live in. It says the orcs left the passages alone for a great while so wouldnt it be safe to say it was abandonned? and also afterwards if he was still alive they could have stayed with beo0rn for a bit to get themselves rested...I understand this route wouldn't have been as adventurous but if Tolkien was indeed writing basicly freestyle how far ahead did he think, what I mean is when He was writing the Mines of Moria bit was He already thinking about Lothlorien?

Personally I would have went through the passage if I were Tolkien. But that just be my opinion. I mean I love the way iot is right now but is it possible they could have gone the other way?

[Kath]

When you say Gollum's secret passage do you mean the tunnels through which Gandalf and the dwarves and then Bilbo ran through when escaping the goblins? If so then they probably wouldn't have been able to go through there because of the goblins, and also wouldn't that have taken them in the wrong direction?

And Tolkien did actually think ahead as he wrote. In HoME you can see the plot outlines that he wrote and he had forseen at least the basic plot of Lothlorien before they even entered Moria.

[Kuruharan]

It might have been possible for the Fellowship to go through the high pass and then down into the land of the Beornings. However, the problem with that path is that it would take them waaaay to close to Dol Guldur when they turned south.

[Formendacil]

Another thing to note is that when they left Rivendell, the Fellowship had every reason to hope that they would be able to cross over the Redhorn Pass- and so into Lorien, which Gandalf apparently intended to visit, re this statement of Aragorn's:

'Our road leads beside it for many miles. For I shall take you by the road that Gandalf chose, and first I hope to come to the woods where the Silverlode flows into the Great River--out yonder.' They looked as he pointed, and before them they could see the stream leaping down to the trough of the valley, and then running on and away into the lower lands, until it was lost in a golden haze.

That being noted, by the time that the Fellowship reached the Redhorn Pass- and found it impassible, going back north was really a non-option. They would easily have lost a couple of months going back and then down the Vale of the Anduin- even if, as Kuruharan notes, there was no Dol Guldur to worry about.

[Rhod the Red]

They should have gone over the Misty Mountains via the route the Dawrves, Gandalf and Bilbo went in The Hobbit.

[goldfinger]

Originally Posted by Rhod the Red

They should have gone over the Misty Mountains via the route the Dwarves, Gandalf and Bilbo went in The Hobbit.

The Redhorn pass wouldn't have been any easier than Moria, considering Orcs were still known to ambush travelers who took that route.

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Morsul the Dark

Personally I would have went through the passage if I were Tolkien. But that just be my opinion. I mean I love the way iot is right now but is it possible they could have gone the other way?

Presumably, but why? Part of the appeal of LotR is that we get to see different worlds much unlike our own. And anyone who's played D&D know that there be treasure in those dark underground places...

Think about the journey of the Fellowship. We start in the Shire, which I would think that many could at least 'see,' even if the person were from an urban environment. We then travel though the Old Forest (just some animated trees) to Bree, where we start to meet some stranger folk (yes, I know that I skipped Bombadil). After that it's Weathertop (easy to imagine) then Rivendell, which starts us getting used to the nonhuman dwellings. Next it's a lot of scenery (how exciting is the crossing of Hollin?) then Moria, former home of the Dwarves and chock full of mystery and danger. Then we go to Lothlorien, which is completely strange, then down the river onto more human dwellings (but with the story having become full of more action, the scenery gets toned down a bit).

My point is that we needed to go through Moria to maintain the story and fantasy world. It's between Rivendell and Parth Galen that we dip back into the Second Age a bit; afterwards we return to the cusp of the Third and the Fourth Ages, and at that point the story is not so much "hey, look at this world," but "I've been walking with Sam and Frodo and Aragorn et al for so long now that I accept the fantastic scenery as normal and secondary to the lives of my 'walking companions'."

Hope that that makes some sense .

[Thinlómien]

I think I understand you, alatar.

I would like to add one more little thing to your theory, or maybe clear one of your points a bit: LotR is, in a way, a presentation of the diversity of Middle-Earth. If the fellowship wouldn't go through Moria, there'd be no glimpse of dwarven culture.