At the entrance to the mines
 

I've always wondered, if Moria was a dwarven stronghold, and with the general enmity between the elves and the dwarves - why did Gandalf have to say 'friend' in Elvish to open the doors. Shouldn't it have been in Dwarvish?

I've been thinking about that too. I thought they hated each other....so why use Elvish to write on their expensive and fancy stuff?

Gandalf himself gives the answer to this question in FotR, A Journey in the Dark, when the fellowship arrives at the gate: Part of the inscription on the door is: Celebrimbor, being an Elf, did not know the Dwarven language, which was kept quite secret by the Dwarves. It is only logical that he wrote in his own, the Elven, language.

Thanks for telling me...I must have forgotten that Gandalf said that....

what estelyn said is right. that and they don't hate hate each other it's really just a grudge from the bloody battle for the silmaril that they already got over. [img]smilies/evil.gif[/img]

The Dwarves kept their tongue secret from other races. So maybe they prefered to use elven words than to make known some of their own.

Then maybe this way to open the dooe was meant for guests who were elves. The hosts could have other way to open the lock.

Maybe it was a way of keeping people out. Not many orcs and things like that are going to be willing to speak in elvish. Also since dwarves are famous for hating elves you wouldn't think they'd use elvish for their doors. It's all trikery. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

(though it didn't work to well, did it)

[ September 01, 2002: Message edited by: Rose Cotton ]

Even so if dwarves and elves likked each other, wouldn't the front door of the dwarves castle be in Dwarvish?(what do you call the Dwarf language?)

Basically the Elves of Eregion were really good friends with the dwarves of Moria. There is a bunch of info on it somewhere in the books i just cant remember where

I myself can't remember-and I've been thinking of that...

So they were good friends, I'm not going to tell my best friend the number combination to the security keypad, and I"m sure you ain't either, it's the same thing.

But those were better days, Estelyn Telcontar already proved that. They didn't worry as much.

The Elves of Eregion probebly didn't want to go all the way around the mountain to get to the front door.

It wasn't the front door it was the back door, I think.

To add to what someone already said about the Elves and the Dwarves being friendly at that time, the road going up to the Western door (was it western... I think so. heh heh), was from Hollin--where the Elves lived. Besides that, the doors usually stood open with sentries watching them just in case.
The Dwarves told no one their language and they did not write it on anything that might be seen by another race. So, logically, if the Dwarves would not tell their language and the Elves and Dwarves were friends, the writing on the door would be in the language of the Elves. Did what I just type make any sense? Heh heh... I lose myself sometimes.

Back in the day would elves let dwarves into Lothlorien?