MineArchive

Mithral Hall

Fictional record. This page describes a mine from a fictional setting, not a real place. Information is based on the cited canon, with adaptations and interpretation distinguished where necessary. It is kept separate from the real MineArchive corpus — see Fictional.

SettingDungeons & Dragons (Wizards of the Coast)
LocationA dwarven stronghold beneath Fourthpeak Mountain in the Frost Hills, part of the Spine of the World mountain range, in the Forgotten Realms setting.
TypeMetal
WorkedFounded by Clan Battlehammer at an unspecified date, worked as a mine for its namesake metal for generations before the clan's expulsion. – Reclaimed by Clan Battlehammer and its allies in The Halfling's Gem (1990), after Bruenor Battlehammer's apparent sacrifice slew the duergar's shadow dragon in the preceding novel, Streams of Silver (1989).
Status Researched

Overview

A dwarven stronghold built around vast deposits of mithral -- a lightweight, exceptionally strong metal prized above all for armour -- whose loss to invading grey dwarves and reclamation by the dwarf Bruenor Battlehammer forms the climax of R.A. Salvatore's Icewind Dale Trilogy.

History

Mithral Hall was founded by Clan Battlehammer as a mining stronghold built around its own extensive deposits of mithral ore, becoming a centre of dwarven craftsmanship as well as extraction. While Bruenor Battlehammer was still a beardless youth, duergar (grey dwarves), aided by a shadow dragon named Shimmergloom, attacked and drove Clan Battlehammer out; survivors, including the young Bruenor, scattered, eventually settling in Icewind Dale far to the north. Decades later, having forged the weapon Aegis-fang, Bruenor set out with his companions Drizzt Do'Urden, Regis and Wulfgar -- who together became known as the Companions of the Hall -- to reclaim his ancestral home, recorded in Streams of Silver. On reaching Mithral Hall, they found the duergar who had driven out Bruenor's clan still there, working the mines for their own ends under Shimmergloom's mastery. In the fight that followed, Bruenor's own sacrifice was what finally slew the shadow dragon, allowing his companions to survive, though he himself was believed lost. Word of the dragon's death and the hall's vulnerability spread; in the trilogy's concluding novel, The Halfling's Gem, soldiers drawn from surrounding dwarven kingdoms, barbarian tribes and human cities united to reclaim Mithral Hall outright, restoring it to Clan Battlehammer.

Workings

A mine and stronghold built directly around its own mithral veins, worked by Clan Battlehammer for its ore before its loss, and by the occupying duergar afterward 'for their own ends' once they had driven the original clan out.

What became of it

Restored to Clan Battlehammer by the end of The Halfling's Gem, with Bruenor's own fate at that point left genuinely uncertain by the sources checked for this record.

Recorded claims

Each claim is marked with its basis — explicit canon, MineArchive inference, adaptation only, or fandom interpretation — and attached to the source(s) below. Where tellings disagree, both are kept.

Sources

  1. (interpretation) Mithral Hall — Forgotten Realms Wiki — Forgotten Realms Wiki
  2. (primary) Streams of Silver (R.A. Salvatore, 1989) — TSR/Wizards of the Coast
  3. (primary) The Halfling's Gem (R.A. Salvatore, 1990) — TSR/Wizards of the Coast

Record created: 30 August 2026 · Last researched: 30 August 2026