Sirannon

The Sirannon flowed from its springs near the Doors of Durin, the West-gate of Moria (hence its name) along the highroad to Eregion to the city Ost-in-Edhil. It originally ran through a shallow valley that lay in front of the West-gate and then dropped through a wide cleft down the Stair Falls over a thirty-foot high cliff. It then continued as a swift and noisy river through a deep, narrow channel over a river bed consisting of brown and red stained stones, with the highroad on its northern side. It is possible that the Sirannon flowed into the nearest river, Glanduin, which flowed from the western side of the Misty Mountains south of the Doors of Durin to the river Greyflood.

At some point in time, probably between the time that Gandalf had been to Moria to search for Thráin after his disappearance in Third Age 2845 and the time that Aragorn had been there, maybe during his great journey and errantries from Third Age 2957 until Third Age 2980 and the end of the failed attempt of the dwarven expedition of Balin to resettle Moria in Third Age 2994, someone or something had dammed the river so that a dark, still lake filled the entire valley before the West-gate of Moria, and hardly a trickle of water flowed down the Stair Falls into the channel.

At the time of the expedition of Balin to Moria between Third Age 2989 and Third Age 2994, the lake reached the wall of the West-gate and the Watcher in the Water in the lake took the dwarf Óin, which prevented the dwarves from getting out of Moria through the West-gate.

On 13 January Third Age 3019 the Fellowship of the Ring reached the channel with the river bed and were surprised that the river was reduced to a trickle. They travelled upriver on the road next to the river, climbed the stairs cut into the rock beside the Stair Falls, and discovered that the Sirannon had been dammed. There was now a lake so wide that the great roots of two very large holly trees next to the West-gate reached from the wall of the cliff to the water of the lake. After Boromir threw a stone into the lake, the Watcher in the Water nearly caught the Ring-bearer Frodo Baggins. The Fellowship of the Ring fled from his attack into Moria, but the Watcher in the Water, with a noise of rending and crashing, closed the doors of the West-gate with its tentacles, thus blocking the exit through the Doors of Durin.

Moria was eventually resettled by Dwarves during the Fourth Age. As a consequence, it is possible that the dam was removed and that the original course of the Sirannon was restored.

Sirannon is a Sindarin name. It literally means "stream of the Gate". The Westron name Gate-stream is its translation. Paul Strack suggests that the name is a combination of sîr ("river", "stream") and annon ("(great) gate", "door").

2008: The Lord of the Rings Online:

The waters of Sirannon still flow into the Black Pool before the Door of Durin but not out - instead the water seeps through its bottom into the Water-works of Moria. The dry riverbed of Sirannon's former course can be followed to the point of meeting with Glanduin.

1. Esta ficha se ha importado inicialmente de TolkienGateway.net el día 29/05/2026.