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Originally Posted by Mister Underhill
Galin, my response is that the doors, while obviously the portal to a Dwarvish realm, were a collaboration between the two races and clearly made in tribute to the Dwarves' western allies, with a password of "mellon", no less.
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That much is fine...
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Admittedly I may be reaching when I theorize some underlying humor in the use of "Moria".
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... but yes to me this is the part that seems to be reaching a bit.
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Perhaps it had merely by that time become the common name for the Dwarrowdelf and accepted and used as such even by the Dwarves in their interactions with outsiders despite its somewhat insulting meaning.
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Generally speaking we could have a matter of 'names becoming names' with the meaning becoming secondary or lost, that's true enough... but anyway I guess I find a certain measure of simplicity in positing Moria as the result of the translator -- as the Old Norse must be -- and as the reader would be familiar enough with 'Moria' too.
That said I would prefer a more internal explanation than 'it's the translator' -- though I doubt Tolkien wants to say that these two Dwarf names were internal to the period and just happen to resemble Old Norse!
Hmm, JRRT never really explained
Orthanc in this light, for example
