The Table
(I have been saving most of this for almost two years.)
The table in Lindon was a direct representation of mithril.
The following question from episode 5 was honest, but leading.
Gil-galad: “Khazad-dûm has been called the quietest of Dwarven Kingdoms, but in recent months, your furnaces are said to be burning as bright as the eyes of Aulë himself. Your mines delving ever deeper. To what do you credit this new invigoration? […] I would think our Dwarven friend far too stout of heart to be offended by an honest inquiry.”
The answer Gil-galad wanted was, of course: mithril. He suspected the Dwarves had found it, and sought for confirmation that it was responsible for the increase in their productivity. Prince Durin, who believed Gil-galad only wanted an alliance to gain access to “their” mithril, asked what he considered an equally honest question.
Durin IV: “I have an honest inquiry for you. Form where did you procure the table?”
Attention was drawn to Durin’s hand on the table, like it was drawn to Gil-galad’s cup when Elrond began to recount The Roots of Hithaeglir. Knowing that Durin fabricated a story of the table, the table-motif should indicate that we are to receive The Roots of Hithaeglir with the same veracity.
Durin IV: “This stone grows only at certain depths.”
As does mithril.
“So rarely do our resonators locate a deposit…”
That is, the one time Disa detected mithril “during a routine gold-seaming.”
“…we consider each to be a precious gift.”
Ah, there they are. The two words which are almost always associated with Sauron: precious and gift. Precious, of course, is the word often used to describe the One Ring, and gift is in one of Sauron’s names (Annatar, Lord of Gifts). He also essentially “gifted” the small piece of mithril back to Celebrimbor.
“Call it a gift.”
Gil-galad did not believe Durin’s story for a moment, but knowing the folly of accusing a Dwarven prince of lying, he entertained the notion; nor did he believe The Roots of Hithaeglir, as Celebrimbor did, but the situation was precarious, and the Elves truly seemed to be in danger, so he allowed Celebrimbor’s work to continue.
The end of episode 5 contained some of the strongest evidence against The Roots of Hithaeglir, and for Sauron already tampering with mithril.
Elrond: “You made it up, didn’t you?”
Yes, he did.
Durin IV: “Disa’s been wanting a new table for years, so…”
Disa strongly desired mithril. But also, Sauron had been wanting access to it for thousands of years.
Durin IV: “Oh, come on.. It’s not that heavy.”
Truly.
It so happens that the conversation transitioned into mithril. Elrond confessed that he unknowingly went to Khazad-dûm for mithril (apparently). His explanation of the Elves’ need for it sounded like it had recently been told to him, and compared to Galadriel’s description of the Elves’ fading in the book, it sounded just as conspicuous as The Roots of Hithaeglir. After all, he had only just finished a conversation with Celebrimbor, who whole-heartedly believed certain fables; who “was not corrupted in heart or faith, but had accepted Sauron as what he posed to be.”* I have thoroughly talked about this before, but I will offer a refresher.
* Unfinished Tales: The History of Galadriel and Celeborn
This is Galadriel’s description of the fading of the Elves:
“Do you not see now wherefore your coming is to us as the footstep of Doom? For if you fail, then we are laid bare to the Enemy. Yet if you succeed, then our power is diminished, and Lothlórien will fade, and the tides of Time will sweep it away. We must depart into the West, or dwindle to a rustic-folk of dell and cave, slowly to forget and to be forgotten.”
The Lord of the Rings: The Mirror of Galadriel
This is Elrond’s description. He used the same words, but not in the same way:
“Without [mithril], my kind must either abandon these shores by spring or perish. […] Our immortal souls will dwindle into nothing, slowly diminishing, until we are but shadows swept away by the tides of Time, forever” (1×05).
At some point, presumably around the time the song of The Roots of Hithaeglir was first told (over a thousand years ago), someone (a.k.a. Sauron) convinced some Elves that every description of their fading applied to their souls. Ninety-five percent of Elrond’s account was correct, but the interpretation is rendered entirely false with the remaining five percent:
Their souls will not diminish; their power will. Their souls will not be swept away by the tides of Time; their lands will. Their souls will not dwindle into nothing; they themselves will dwindle to a rustic folk of dell and cave. They will not perish if they fail to go West by spring; they will slowly forget and be forgotten.
And yet, Sauron created a scenario where the Elves had no choice. And from what Galadriel told Frodo, we see that the Elves remained trapped after thousands of years. It was all a blatant threat: “Without it, my kind must either abandon these shores by spring or perish.” In other words, “If you don’t want to live under my rule, you can either leave by spring, or die.” Or, in his own words:
“You have no choice. Without me, your people will fade, and the Shadow will spread and darken to cover all the world. You need me” (1×08).
A side-by-side comparison clarifies everything.
Elrond: “Without it, my kind must either abandon these shores by spring or perish. […] Our immortal souls will dwindle into nothing, slowly diminishing, until we are but shadows swept away by the tides of Time, forever.“
Finally, the end of the scene is much darker than we perceive on the surface.
Elrond: “Tell Disa the table’s from me.”
Durin IV: “Don’t push your luck, Elf.”
I have mentioned several times that Elrond is Sauron’s mirror image. So, once again, picture Sauron instead of Elrond.
“Tell Disa the [mithril]’s from me.”
Sauron—the one who will pose as Annatar, Lord of Gifts, and possibly bring attention to his allegiance to Aulë to gain the Dwarves’ trust—telling Durin to tell his wife, Disa—the one who first detected mithril, desires it more than pretty much anyone, and told her husband that one day the mithril will belong to them—that the mithril is a gift from him.
Again, Sauron could not be the giver of a gift if the gift never belonged to him in the first place.
The scene concluded on one of the most ominous notes of the season. Elrond and Durin ended the conversation positively, laughing as they walked. But Gil-galad, who had always been wary about the situation with mithril, was eavesdropping. As he stood concerned, we heard voices singing lilómëa (very dark, full of darkness), which transitioned into Sauron staring at his mysterious pouch.