Durin the Deathless was the first ever Dwarf in Middle-earth, the world of . Unlike the Elves and Men, created by the god of J. R. R. Tolkien's universe, Eru Ilúvatar, , the Vala of crafting and forging. The Elves and Men had not yet awoken in Middle-earth, and Aulë was impatient to pass his knowledge on to others, so he created seven Dwarves without Ilúvatar's permission, the first being Durin. When Ilúvatar learned of the Dwarves, he allowed them to exist, but he ordered that they must sleep until after the Elves and Men inhabited Middle-earth.
Early in the First Age of Middle-earth, the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves awoke, and each of them set out to form his clan.
Durin's clan, which came to be known as Durin's Folk or the Longbeards, was the most important in Tolkien's stories; Gimli from and from were members of Durin's Folk. As the progenitor of the Dwarves, Durin possessed unique abilities, and he was connected to many key characters, locations, and objects that appeared in and the rest of Tolkien's legendarium.
In the chapter "A Journey in the Dark" from , Gimli tells the Fellowship about the life of Durin the Deathless in the form of a poem.
Though the novel had previously mentioned Durin's name, this poem marked the first time that readers — and some members of the Fellowship — learned anything about him. Tolkien did not elaborate upon Durin's life other than in ' appendices, so the poem provided a window into . When Sam started asking questions about their campsite, Gimli proudly declared, "This is the great realm and city of Dwarrowdelf. And of old it was not darksome, but full of light and splendor, as is still remembered in our songs."
, when Durin first awoke, he wandered Middle-earth in search of a place to start his kingdom and gave names to "the nameless hills and dells.
" One night, he discovered a lake near the Misty Mountains that he called Mirrormere. The reflection of the stars in Mirrormere made it appear as if there was a bejeweled crown on his head, which he took as a sign that he should settle there. He founded the land of Moria, or Khazad-dûm in the Dwarvish language of Khuzdul. Durin chose well, as the Mines of Moria contained and other precious ores that made Durin's Folk rich. In Peter Jackson's film, the audience only saw Moria in a state of ruin, but in the episode "Adrift" from Prime Video's , viewers saw the ancient Dwarven realm before its destruction.
The beauty and might of the architecture showcased the grandeur that Gimli wanted to communicate to his traveling companions.
Despite his title, Durin the Deathless was not truly immortal. However, he lived for thousands of years, which was an unusually long lifespan even for a Dwarf; the second-oldest Dwarf in Tolkien's writings, Dwalin, died when he was only 340 years old. Tolkien did not give a clear explanation for Durin's longevity, but his status as the first-ever Dwarf likely made him more powerful than most. In , Tolkien noted that Aulë made the Dwarves particularly tough so that they could withstand the evils of
. In the section "Of Aulë and Yavanna," Tolkien described the Dwarves as such: "They are stone-hard, stubborn... and they suffer toil and hunger and hurt of body more hardily than all other speaking peoples; and they live long, far beyond the span of Men, yet not forever." This gift of resilience would have been especially potent in the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves that Aulë created directly.
His long life was not the only reason that he was known as Durin the Deathless.
There were several other Kings of Durin's Folk named Durin, and the Dwarves believed they were Durin I reincarnations. According to Appendix A of , Durin I's "line never failed, and five times an heir was born in his House so like to his Forefather that he received the name of Durin. He was indeed held by the Dwarves to be the Deathless that returned." Tolkien noted that this may have been nothing more than one of the Dwarves' "strange tales and beliefs," but there was a precedent for reincarnation in Tolkien's legendarium. For example, after the tragic deaths of , the Valar took pity on them and placed their souls in new bodies so that they could have a second chance at life.
The first supposed reincarnation of Durin the Deathless, Durin II, did little of note, but Durin III was one of the seven Dwarf-lords who received Rings of Power from the Dark Lord Sauron. His mental fortitude was so great that Sauron was unable to bend him to his will as he had . The Kings of Durin's Folk passed this Ring of Power down through the generations until Thorin's grandfather Thror died with it in the Mines of Moria. Tolkien did not write much about Durin IV, but he and his father played prominent roles in . In this series, , and their relationship played an important part in the politics of the Dwarves and Elves in the Second Age.
Durin V, like Durin II, did little of note. The Durin who was most important to the events of and was Durin VI. During his reign, mithril was becoming difficult to find in the Mines of Moria. In "A Journey in the Dark," Gandalf said that the Dwarves "delved too greedily and too deep" in search of new mithril veins, which caused them to awaken an ancient monster: a Balrog.
It killed Durin VI and his son, . The Balrog rendered Moria uninhabitable, so the surviving Dwarves moved to the Lonely Mountain and founded the kingdom of Erebor. Durin's Bane was the same Balrog that Gandalf fought almost a thousand years later in .
By the time of , there had not been a Durin for over a thousand years, but the Dwarves believed that he would reincarnate one more time. In Appendix A of , Tolkien stated that Durin VII was the last Durin and that he was a direct descendant of Dáin II Ironfoot, who became the King of Erebor following . This was the only information about Durin VII that Tolkien published in his lifetime, but he made some notes about Durin VII's reign.
, which collected some of Tolkien's unfinished writing, revealed that Durin VII successfully reclaimed Moria during the Fourth Age after the War of the Ring had concluded. Poetically, Durin the Deathless used his final life in Middle-earth to take back the home he created in his first life and give back a kingdom to his people.
