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The Mines of Moria - Zirak-zigil"Long has the Endless Stair been lost," said Gimli.
"Many have said that it was never made save in legend,
but others say that it was destroyed."
"It was made and it had not been destroyed," said Gandalf.
"From the lowest dungeon to the highest peak it climbed,
ascending in unbroken spiral in many thousand steps,
until it issued at last in Durin's Tower
carved in the living rock of Zirak-zigil,
the pinnacle of the Silvertine."
"There upon Celebdil was a lonely window in the snow,
and before it lay a narrow space,
a dizzy eyrie above the mists of the world.
The sun shone fiercely there, but all below was wrapped in cloud.
Out he sprang, and even as I came behind, he burst into new flame.
There was none to see, or perhaps in after ages
songs would still be sung of the Battle of the Peak."
Suddenly Gandalf laughed.
"But what would they say in song?
Those that looked up from afar
thought that the mountain was crowned with storm.
Thunder they heard, and lightning, they said, smote upon Celebdil,
and leaped back broken into tongues of fire.
Is not that enough?"
"A great smoke rose about us, vapour and steam.
Ice fell like rain.
I threw down my enemy, and he fell from the high place
and broke the mountainside where he smote it in his ruin.
Then darkness took me, and I strayed out of thought and time,
and I wandered far on roads that I will not tell."
"And naked I lay upon the mountain-top.
The tower behind was crumbled into dust, the window gone;
the ruined stair was choked with burned and broken stone.
I was alone, forgotten,
without escape upon the hard horn of the world."
(The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers, page 129)
"There is the land where our fathers worked of old," said Gimli,
"and we have wrought the image of those mountains
into many works of metal and stone,
and into many songs and tales.
They stand tall in our dreams: Baraz, Zirak, Shathûr!
Only once before have I seen them from afar in waking life,
but I know them and their names,
for under them lies Khazad-dûm, the Dwarrowdelf,
that is now called the Black Pit, Moria in the Elvish tongue.
Yonder stands Barazinbar, the Redhorn, cruel Caradhras;
and beyond him are Silvertine and Cloudyhead:
Celebdil the White, and Fanuidhol the Grey,
that we call Zirak-zigil and Bundushathûr."
(The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring, page 369)
Gandalf: "Through fire... and water.
From the lowest dungeon to the highest peak
I fought with the Balrog of Morgoth.
Until at last I threw down my enemy...
and smote his ruin upon the mountainside.
Darkness took me..."
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