Why Moria?

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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 .