The Ages of Middle-earth
‘“You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!”’(The Hobbit, Ch. 19).
The history of Middle-earth forms part of the far larger picture of the creation of the world by Ilúvatar, the One, as announced by the music of the Ainur, the primordial beings that he created as company. The Ainur who entered into the world were known as the Valar, while the secondary beings in their entourage were called Maiar. Melkor, the most powerful of the Valar, rebelled by trying to corrupt and dominate Ilúvatar’s creation. During the long ages that preceded the appearance of the Sun, the Valar founded Valinor, to the west of the world. There they created two Trees of Light that illuminated the Undying Lands. They then made the stars as a counterpoint to the darkness of Middle-earth, where the Children of Ilúvatar – the Elves (the Firstborn) and the Men (the Successors) – were destined to awaken. One of the Valar, Aulë, created the Dwarves, and Ilúvatar agreed to give them life, on condition that they did not awaken before the Firstborn.
The Ainur who entered the world were known as the Valar, while the secondary beings in their entourage were called Maiar.
It is difficult to calculate the duration of the First (and longest) Age. When the Elves awoke under the stars, to the east of Middle-earth, Melkor was the first to discover them. He was intent on persecuting them, but when the Valar became aware of the emergence of the Elves, they imprisoned Melkor. They subsequently invited the Elves to come and join them, and those that accepted this offer were called the Eldar. Others remained in Beleriand, to the north-west of Middle-earth, alongside their king, Thingol, who married Melian, a Maia from Middle-earth, and founded the kingdom of Doriath. When Melkor was freed, after feigning repentance, he became obsessed with revenge and secretly sought to corrupt the Elves. Fëanor, the primary creator of the Elves, then made the Silmarils: three magnificent jewels energized by the light of the Two Trees. Melkor reacted by destroying the Trees and seizing the Silmarils. Fëanor then made his seven sons swear to track down whoever was in possession of the Silmarils, and he also recruited a large number of the Noldor to pursue Melkor (whom he referred to as Morgoth, the Black Foe). In the course of this expedition, the Noldor rebelled against the Valar and committed the first ever fratricides by killing other Elves to gain possession of their ships. When Morgoth returned to Beleriand, he embarked on a war against the Elves, who fought back for five whole centuries without ever gaining a decisive victory. After the first sunrise (created by the Valar), the solar years of the First Age began to be counted and the Men awoke in the Far East of Middle-earth, where they fell under the domination of Morgoth. Some of them rebelled and headed westward, and those who eventually arrived in Beleriand joined forces with the Elves and became known as the Edáin. As the years passed, the Eldar who had settled in Beleriand built up several kingdoms, which prospered until 455 P.A., when Morgoth launched a major offensive. Shortly afterwards, an Edáin called Beren met Lúthien, Thingol and Melian’s daughter, who was the most beautiful of all the Elves. They fell in love and together they set out on the highly dangerous mission to steal one of the Silmarils from Morgoth. However, the Elves and their allies were eventually crushed by Morgoth at the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. In 495, Tuor, Beren’s cousin, discovered the hidden kingdom of Gondolin, where he married an Elf who was the daughter of Turgon, the king of Gondolin. They had a child, Eärendil. Following a dispute, Thingol was killed by the Dwarves, who subsequently sacked Doriath in 503. Dior, the son of Beren and Lúthien, inherited both the kingdom of Doriath and the Silmaril, but he was killed by the sons of Fëanor, who also razed Doriath. Dior’s daughter, Elwing, sought sanctuary in the Havens of Sirion while guarding the Silmaril, and there she married Eärendil, who was similarly taking refuge after the fall of Gondolin in 510 F.A. Eärendil then went to sea to beg the Valar to help the Elves and the Men.
Ëarendil took advantage of the Silmaril given to him by Elwing to make his way to Valinor. The Valar defeated Morgoth, who was thrown out of the world, but Beleriand was submerged as a result of the violent conflict and the two other Silmarils disappeared. Thus ended the First Age. At the start of the Second Age, the Men of Númenor (an island between Valinor and Middle-earth given to the Edáin by the Valar) consolidated their power. In Middle-earth, Sauron convinced the Elves of Eregion to create the Rings of Power and secretly forged the One Ring, which was destined to dominate all the others. Sauron’s deception was exposed, however, and he devastated Eregion, before being overcome by a Númenórean intervention. Over time, the Númenóreans became extremely arrogant and began to envy the immortality of the Elves. Their last king, Ar-Pharazôn, was determined to remove any obstacles to his power and thus captured Sauron – but Sauron won him over and persuaded him to embark on the conquest of Valinor. The Valar responded furiously and mercilessly: both the Númenóreans’ fleet and their island itself were engulfed by water, and only a few Faithful, headed by Elendil, managed to escape. They settled in Middle-earth, as did Sauron, who returned to Mordor. In the War of the Last Alliance (3429–3441 S.A.), the Elves and the Men succeeded in overthrowing Sauron, and Isildur, the son of Elendil, took possession of the One Ring. These events marked the close of the Second Age.
Over the course of the Third Age, the kingdom of Arnor, originally founded by Elendil, grew weak and was eventually destroyed, but Isildur’s lineage was secretly perpetuated in Rivendell, which was home to Elrond. Further south, the kingdom of Gondor flourished but then fell into decline when its royal line of descent was extinguished. Around the year 1000, it became apparent that Sauron had reappeared and the Valar mobilized the Wizards in response to this threat. The White Council brought together both the Wizards and the main Eldar to tackle the shadow that was hanging over Mirkwood (the Forest of Great Fear). Saruman managed to convince the Council members that the One Ring was lost for good but, unbeknownst to all of them, it had fallen into the hands of one of the Hobbits who was still living to the east of the Misty Mountains – Sméagol, who later became the creature called Gollum. In 2940–41 T.A., the Quest of Erebor freed the North from the danger posed by the dragon Smaug and the horde of invading Goblins. The White Council decided to drive Sauron out of Mirkwood, and he secretly took refuge in Mordor. The most decisive factor in this period, however, was the discovery of the One Ring by Bilbo Baggins, although it was not until 3001 that Gandalf began to suspect the true nature of Bilbo’s ring. The terrible War of the Ring erupted from 3018 to 3019, during which the One Ring was destroyed by Bilbo’s heir, Frodo Baggins. Sauron was finally defeated and Isildur’s heir, Aragorn, came to the throne and restored the kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor. Bilbo and Frodo went to Valinor in the company of Gandalf, Elrond and Galadriel – bringing the Third Age to a close.
At the start of the Fourth Age, the Reunited Kingdom of Aragorn thrived, while the Shire, which enjoyed the king’s protection, was also prosperous. Frodo’s old friends had become important figures in the Shire and were responsible for keeping alive the stories of the major events of Middle-earth. After Aragorn’s death, Legolas, Thranduil’s son, set off for the Undying Lands, accompanied by his friend Gimli, who was the son of Glóin – leaving no members of the Fellowship of the Ring in Middle-earth.
Very little is known about the Fourth Age and the ones that succeeded it. In the 1950s, Tolkien started to write a story that took place after Aragorn’s death but he soon abandoned it. He realized that once the Men had taken over and visible incarnations of Evil (such as Morgoth, and later Sauron) had been removed, the narrative lost much of its power and had to fall back on banal suspense. As far as he was concerned, only the Elder Days could convey the enchantment of Faërie.
Tolkien’s decision to tell the story of the War of the Ring obliged him to develop the first three Ages of Middle-earth more fully. The Third Age thus threw new light on the stories of the Silmarillion, set in a low period for the world that was imbued with nostalgia, even though the First Age belonged to an extremely remote past. The Men and, above all, the Hobbits of the Third Age had a connection with the Elder Days that reflects our own yearnings for an idealized past, although Tolkien’s characters are sufficiently removed from our times to allow him to weave the enchantment of Faërie. As Tolkien often pointed out, his Legendarium did not unfurl in an imaginary place, since Middle-earth is our world in an imaginary era, long before our own history began. Tolkien would suggest that a period of at least 6000 years separates the start of the Fourth Age from the opening of our historical era. Accordingly, we would now be at the end of the Sixth Age or the start of the Seventh (bearing in mind that the succession of the Ages speeded up once human domination was established). Nevertheless, as Tolkien himself insisted, there is no perfect correlation between our scientific and historical knowledge of our planet and the Ages of Middle-earth, which will always remain shrouded in the mists of time, witnesses to a Faërie wondrously revealed by Tolkien’s writing.
The Battle of the Five Armies
‘So began a battle that none had expected; and it was called the Battle of Five Armies, and it was very terrible.’(The Hobbit, Ch. 17).
The death of the Dragon Smaug transformed the lives of all the peoples living in the vicinity. The Dwarves of Thorin and Company found themselves masters of the Lonely Mountain and Thrór’s treasure – this came as a great surprise, after a hiatus of three days before Roäc and the old thrush arrive with the news of Smaug’s death. This unexpected fillip was tempered, however, by the announcement of an imminent influx of armed soldiers hunting for treasure.
The Elves of Thranduil left Mirkwood and headed towards the treasure, believing it to have been abandoned. They stopped en route to provide assistance to the inhabitants of Lake-town, which had endured Smaug’s attack and was now in ruins. Winter was approaching and the Men comforted themselves with thoughts of the treasure and the benefits that it may bring them. As for Bard, the Dragon-slayer, he dreamed of reviving the kingdom of his ancestor, Girion, as many of the inhabitants of Esgaroth want to make him king of Dale. Once they had completed their preparations, the respective armies of the Elves and the Men set off, and the local population sought a safe haven.
Meanwhile, Thorin sent ravens with messages to the nearest Dwarf kingdoms, most notably to his cousin Dáin in the Iron Hills. He requested reinforcements in order to resist the new invaders on the treasure trail. Thorin also set about fortifying Erebor in preparation for a siege. Tension mounted still further with the arrival of ambassadors from the Men from the Lake and the Elves of the Forest. Thorin demanded the departure of the Elves responsible for imprisoning him, while Bard and Thranduil refused to leave without taking a share of the treasure. Bilbo Baggins believed his adventures have come to an end with the death of the Dragon, but he felt obliged to fight against the gold fever that seemed to have infected the land. He devised a plan to resolve the situation and finally return home, with the help of Thráin’s Arkenstone. One night, while supposedly on guard duty, Bilbo slipped into the camp of Bard and Thranduil, using the invisibility afforded by his ring. He wanted the negotiations to reach a swift conclusion, before the arrival of Dáin’s army, and so he gave the Arkenstone to Bard. On the road leading to the Mountain, Gandalf congratulated and encouraged him, without giving him the chance to ask a single question. Bilbo was reunited with the Dwarves and wondered what the future held in store.
The Goblins and the Wargs had a numerical advantage and were able to encircle the Mountain. The Free Peoples repel their first attacks but the Goblins climb up the Mountain and oblige their opponents to fight on several different fronts.
The following day, Bard, Thranduil and Gandalf had a meeting with Thorin and offered the Arkenstone as a bargaining chip. Thorin was furious with Bilbo and chased him away, even though he eventually gave into the besiegers’ demands. Then came the news that Dáin and his army of Dwarves were on their way, making a battle between them and the Lake and Forest coalition seem inevitable. Furthermore, the Dragon’s death had served the purposes of the Goblins and their allies, the Wargs. Their desire to avenge the death of the Great Goblin and conquer new territories had led them to secretly recruit a large army, which was heading towards Erebor under a cloud of bats that darkened the sky. Gandalf, acting as a mediator between the Dwarves, the Men and the Elves, convened a meeting to discuss the imminent threat posed by their common enemy, the Goblins. This impromptu alliance gave rise to the Battle of the Five Armies, which pitted the Elves, the Dwarves and the Men against the Wargs and the Goblins.
The Goblins and the Wargs had a numerical advantage and were able to encircle the Mountain. The Free Peoples repelled their first attacks, but the Goblins climbed up the Mountain and obliged their opponents to fight on several different fronts. Thorin mounted an attack in an attempt to kill the Goblins’ military leader, Bolg (Azog’s son), but he found himself cornered by a hail of spears. Thorin’s nephews, Fili and Kili, fought to the death to prevent the Goblins from capturing him. At that critical moment when all seemed lost, Bilbo – removed from the battle but still equipped with his ring – announced the arrival of the Eagles with unfettered exuberance. The birds immediately dislodged the Goblins fighting on the slopes of the Mountain, enabling the Elves and the Men to concentrate their forces in the valley – where a gigantic bear appeared, crushing wolves and Goblins underfoot and disrupting their battle lines. This was none other than Beorn, who welcomed Thorin and Company after their escape from the Misty Mountains. He rescued Thorin from the battlefield and then returned in a fearsome rage to crush Bolg, thereby causing the Goblins to scatter in total disarray. The victory was overwhelming: it was estimated that the Goblins had lost three quarters of their troops in the North. After the departure of the Necromancer from Dol Guldur and the death of Smaug, this military triumph brought peace back to the region. Thorin died after saying goodbye to Bilbo, and his closest relative, Dáin II Ironfoot, replaced him as King under the Mountain. Bard was the new king of Dale and Lake-town was rebuilt. Beorn became chief of the Men living between Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains. The Elves, the Dwarves and the Men were now united in mutual understanding.
As Gandalf pointed out to Gimli and Frodo during their stay in Minas Tirith, after the War of the Ring, things would have turned out very differently after Sauron attacked the North if there had been no resistance from Erebor, Dale and Thranduil, if the Goblins had remained numerous and powerful, and, above all, if the Dwarves, the Elves and the Men had set about killing each other on that day. The Battle of the Five Armies, the most significant military encounter to take place between the War of the Dwarves and Orcs and the War of the Ring, was the first battle to involve a Hobbit for several generations, and also the only one in that Age to bring together so many different factions. The arrival of the Eagles at such a desperate moment is an example of ‘eucatastrophe’, and the course of the battle itself demonstrates the effects of good fortune. If the armies of the Dwarves, the Men and the Elves had not already been on a war footing, the Goblins and the Wargs would have taken advantage of their numerical superiority and the element of surprise, or they would merely have had to kill any survivors of the Free Peoples if they had arrived after the latter’s fight over the treasure.
The Quest of Erebor
‘Well, that is how the Quest of Erebor began; and from that day on the Dwarves and the Hobbits have been wonderfully entangled together on all the chief events of our time.’(The Annotated Hobbit, Appendix A, p. 375).
The Quest of Erebor was an expedition undertaken in 2941 T.A. by Thorin and Company to recapture the treasure of the Lonely Mountain from the Dragon Smaug and wreak vengeance on him.
In March 2941, 100 years after his father’s first, unsuccessful attempt to mount an expedition to Erebor, Thorin Oakenshield was planning to organize one of his own. While travelling along the Great East Road, not far from Bree, he met Gandalf the Grey. Thorin hoped to benefit from Gandalf’s wisdom and so he told the Wizard about his plan and asked for help and advice, particularly with respect to killing Smaug. Gandalf himself was also extremely anxious to see the last of the monster. To the East, Sauron had regained power, much to the concern of the Free Peoples, most particularly the Elves Galadriel and Elrond, who were in charge of Lórien and Rivendell. Gandalf feared that Smaug could join forces with Sauron and provide him with a path to the North, leading to an invasion of Eriador and an attack on Rivendell, the last bastion of the High Elves. Gandalf was willing to use his brainpower to help bring the project to fruition and he started to draw up a plan of action for Thorin. Whereas Thorin envisaged a full-scale assault on Erebor by the Dwarf armies, Gandalf advocated a secret expedition based on stealth and wile. The Wizard knew that the Dwarves could not approach the Dragon without being discovered, as Dragons recognized the smell of Dwarves and had a perfect memory. Gandalf therefore recommended adding a Hobbit to the group.
Gandalf knew the Shire and its inhabitants well, and he immediately thought of the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins. Given the Dwarves’ antipathy towards Hobbits, Gandalf had to draw on all his powers of ingenuity, so to gain the Company’s approval he described Bilbo as an expert burglar. On 26 April, he led the Company to Bag End and introduced them to Bilbo Baggins. Unfortunately, the Hobbit became flustered by the unexpected appearance of thirteen Dwarves and a Wizard in his home. Thorin lost his temper and was on the point of leaving the Shire and giving up on the Quest of Erebor, but Gandalf pulled out his trump card: an old map and a key, which the dying Thráin II had entrusted to him ninety-one years previously in the dungeons of Dol Guldur. Thrór’s map revealed a secret entrance on the side of the Lonely Mountain that was decisive in convincing Thorin of the wisdom of a secret expedition in the company of a master burglar.
The Quest of Erebor was an expedition undertaken in 2941 T.A. by Thorin and Company to recapture the treasure of the Lonely Mountain from the Dragon Smaug and wreak vengeance on him.
Shortly after the group’s departure, when they were unsuccessfully trying to take shelter from the rain and Gandalf was nowhere to be seen, the glow of a fire on a nearby hill attracted their attention. Bilbo was sent to reconnoitre. He approached the fire surreptitiously and discovered three trolls, Bert, Tom and William, roasting mutton. Instead of retracing his steps and warning the Dwarves of the danger, Bilbo decided to steal a bag from one of the trolls. Unfortunately, Bilbo’s dexterity counted for little against the magic powers of the troll bag, which was endowed with the gift of speech and promptly warned its owner of the attempted theft. Bilbo was caught by William, causing the trolls to argue about the best way to cook a Hobbit; they eventually came to blows over this conundrum, giving Bilbo a chance to escape. The rumpus also alerted the Dwarves, who rushed to assist Bilbo, but the trolls caught them in sacks as soon as they appeared on the scene. Soon, the entire Company was trapped, apart from Thorin. He used a flaming branch to strike two of the trolls, before being captured in his turn by William. The trolls started to squabble again, this time over the best ways to cook Dwarves. Gandalf returned at this juncture. He confused the trolls by imitating their voices, causing them to forget about the approaching dawn, and they ended up petrified as a result.
The group then continued their journey, before resting in the house of the Half-Elf Elrond on the foothills of the Misty Mountains. Elrond examined Thrór’s map and identified the moon-runes that described how to open the secret entrance into the Lonely Mountain. The travellers set off again on Midsummer’s Day, intent on crossing the Misty Mountains, but they were surprised by a violent thunderstorm. Then, a fight between Stone Giants forced them to take refuge in a cave. While they were sleeping, however, the back of the cave opened to make way for Goblins, who took them prisoner – except for Gandalf, who managed to evade capture after being alerted by shouts from Bilbo. The group were taken to the Great Goblin, who was about to kill them when Gandalf reappeared. He killed the Great Goblin and led his friends to safety along a series of dark tunnels. Bilbo lost his way and, while groping in the pitch blackness, his hand fell on the One Ring. Moving forward by guesswork, he came to a flooded cave, where he encountered Gollum, who challenged Bilbo to a riddle-game. Bilbo won the game, but when Gollum realized that his opponent had the ring that belonged to him, the Hobbit was forced to flee. Bilbo slid the ring on to his finger and discovered that it rendered him invisible. This power enabled him to follow Gollum to the eastern exit of the Misty Mountains, where he was reunited with the Dwarves. Unfortunately, however, the reassembled company were cornered by the Goblins and the Wargs, and when they were obliged to take refuge in the trees, the Goblins promptly set fire to them. They were only saved at the last moment by the Lord of the Eagles and his followers, who had received assistance from Gandalf on a previous occasion. The Company spent the night in the Eagles’ eyries before being deposited on the Carrock. From there, they headed towards the home of Beorn the skin-changer.
They stayed for a few days with Beorn, who provided them with food and ponies for the next stage of their journey. When they arrived at the edge of Mirkwood, Gandalf bid the rest of the group farewell as he had been summoned to the South to participate in the attack on Dol Guldur. The crossing of the Forest proved particularly arduous and the Company ran out of supplies. Despite their exhaustion, they managed to reach the border of the realm of Thranduil, the Elf King, but the Dwarves were taken prisoner by Spiders. Their captivity proved short-lived, however, as Bilbo made use of his ring and his sword, Sting, to release them. Nevertheless, the Dwarves were almost immediately captured again, this time by Thranduil’s Silvan Elves. They were led before the Elf King and then thrown into dungeons. Bilbo, who had remained unnoticed thanks to his ring, hatched a plan to rescue them – one night, he took advantage of the fact that their jailer was getting drunk with the king’s steward to steal his keys and free the thirteen Dwarves. He led them to a cellar, where each Dwarf hid in an empty barrel and was then swept along by the Forest River to the Long Lake.
When they reach Lake-town, they were welcomed by the Lake-men, who accompanied them to the North of the Long Lake. After walking for a few days, Thorin and Company finally reached Erebor. They found the secret door and Bilbo demonstrated his powers of ingenuity by opening it. Bilbo entered the heart of the Mountain, where he found Smaug asleep, and he stole a golden cup; then he came back again, and, under the cloak of invisibility, struck up a conversation with Smaug. The Quest of Erebor came to a fitting conclusion with the death of Smaug, who was struck down by Bard the Bowman above the Long Lake. Thorin was unable to enjoy the recovery of his kingdom, however, as he was killed by the Goblins in the Battle of the Five Armies, but Bilbo and his companions were generously rewarded by his heir, Dáin II Ironfoot, who ruled Erebor with great wisdom for many years.
The Sack of Doriath
‘In ancient days they [the elves] had had wars with some of the dwarves, whom they accused of stealing their treasure. It is only fair to say that the dwarves gave a different account, and said that they only took what was their due, for the elf-king had bargained with them to shape his raw gold and silver, and had afterwards refused to give them their pay.’(The Hobbit, Ch. 8).
When the Dwarves of Thorin and Company pass through Mirkwood during the Quest of Erebor, they meet with a degree of hostility from the Silvan Elves who live there. It would be wrong to conclude, however, that such animosity was the key note in all the relationships between the Elves and the Dwarves. The Company were warmly received, for example, in Elrond’s house in Rivendell. In that case, what was the source of the Silvan Elves’ ill feelings? We have to look deep into the past to find the answer, for these tensions can be traced back several millennia from the time of Bilbo Baggins’s adventures in 2941 T.A. to the sack of the kingdom of Doriath in 503 F.A.
Doriath was a kingdom of Sindar Elves situated in the forests of Neldoreth, in the Beleriand region. It was crossed by various rivers (particularly the Esgalduin), which all flowed into the River Sirion. Its capital was an underground palace called Menegroth, or the Thousand Caves, and it was ruled by King Thingol, who was married to Melian, a Maia. She protected the kingdom through a magic frontier that could not be breached without the king’s authorization. This protection enabled the kingdom of Doriath to prosper and keep its distance from the numerous wars of the First Age. In 501 F.A., Húrin, a Man who had been cursed by Morgoth, discovered some treasure in the ruins of Nargothrond, another great Elven kingdom of the First Age that had been devastated a short time before. Húrin took the treasure to Doriath and gave it to Thingol. The Elf king then decided to call on the expertise of the Dwarves to make a necklace, the Nauglamir, which would serve as a setting for the Silmaril, which he had received as a gift from his son-in-law, Beren. This jewel was considered the most beautiful of all the masterpieces produced by the Dwarves.
The Dragon Glaurung, who was responsible for the fall of Nargothrond, hoarded the gold that had provided the source of the necklace, and which had now been contaminated by Glaurung’s wicked intentions. The Nauglamír was the root cause of the dispute between the Dwarves and the Elves: the Dwarf blacksmiths were so spellbound by the Silmaril that they wanted to keep it for themselves, thus provoking the wrath of Thingol, who proceeded to expel them from his kingdom. In 503 F.A., Thingol was killed by the Dwarves and Doriath was subsequently sacked. The Elves of Doriath never forgave the Dwarves for this assassination, or indeed the kingdom’s subsequent decline after the departure of Melian and the elimination of the magic frontier, which resulted in its total destruction three years later. Oropher, Thranduil’s father, was an exile from the kingdom of Doriath, and so the old antagonisms festered in the Silvan Kingdom in Mirkwood (immortal Elves had long memories!).
It would be wrong to conclude, however, that such animosity was the key note in all the relationships between the Elves and the Dwarves. The Company were warmly received, for example, in Elrond’s house in Rivendell.
In his early drafts of The Hobbit, Tolkien envisaged a more limited chronology than that of the three ages of Middle-earth that we know about from the appendices of The Lord of the Rings. He had imagined that the Quest of Erebor would take place a few hundred years after the major events of the First Age, at most. In those initial outlines, the king of the Silvan Elves seemed to have been Thingol himself (as he was not killed by the Dwarves), just as the Arkenstone was supposed to be a Silmaril. This version of the story therefore provides a better explanation of the animosity of the Silvan Elves towards Thorin and Company. It would have required substantial rewrites of the history of the First Age, however, and this seems to have been one of the reasons that led Tolkien to abandon these narrative elements.
The Sack of Erebor
‘By that time all the bells were ringing in Dale and the warriors were arming. The dwarves rushed out of their great gate; but there was the dragon waiting for them. None escaped that way.’(The Hobbit, Ch. 1).
The Sack of Erebor is the term used to denote the attack on the Lonely Mountain by Smaug the Dragon, in the year 2770 T.A. The relationship between the Dwarves of Erebor and the Dragons of the Grey Mountains had always been very bad. During the reign of Thorin I, the forefather of Thorin II Oakenshield, the Dwarf people left the Lonely Mountain to settle in the Grey Mountains, where they increased their already considerable wealth by opening up new mines. This region was also home, however, to a growing population of Dragons, who had an insatiable lust for gold. They began to pillage the fruits of the Dwarves’ labour, and in 2590 T.A., Thrór, Thorin Oakenshield’s grandfather, decided to flee the Grey Mountains and leave them to the Dragons. The Dwarves returned to Erebor and reformed the Kingdom under the Mountain, thereby ushering in the country’s Golden Age (in every sense of the term). Erebor and its region enjoyed prosperity for a long time by taking advantage of the resources they discovered in the Mountain (including the Arkenstone), as well as establishing commercial links with the neighbouring cities and regions. The Dwarves dug mines and tunnels in the heart of the Mountain to extract minerals and gemstones, including gold, silver and mithril, while also establishing highly profitable forges. In return both for these talents and for the instruction that the Dwarves imparted to their children, the Men provided food and other raw materials that the Dwarves did not produce for themselves. Dale, the town founded around 2600 T.A. at a bend in the River Running, in a valley at the foot of the Mountain, also thrived and basked in the reflected glory of the Dwarf kingdom. Dale’s famous toy market was a major attraction for travellers. Word about the achievements of the Dwarf kingdom soon spread to the north of Middle-earth, before reaching the Grey Mountains and the ears of the big dragons that lived there – and, most notably, the most powerful of them all: Smaug the Golden.
One day in 2770, when Thorin Oakenshield was away with some other Dwarves, Smaug came down to Erebor from the North, in search of treasure. The first signal of his advance came in the form of a thunderous wind that split trees in two, soon followed by the sight of the Dragon himself standing on a mountain top. Smaug then set about burning the vegetation on the slopes of Erebor. While the Dwarves tried to escape from the Mountain by the Great Gate, the Men from Dale took up arms – but the Dragon managed to trap them. He shrouded Dale in fog by breathing fire on the River, allowing him to take the town by surprise and kill almost all the warriors (probably including the king of Dale, Girion). He then headed to the Great Gate and penetrated the heart of the Mountain. Once inside, he chased out all the surviving Dwarves and then gathered together all the gold and jewels into one big pile in the depths of the Mountain and settled in for the next 171 years.
This region was also home, however, to a growing population of Dragons, who had an insatiable lust for gold. They began to pillage the fruits of the Dwarves’ labour.
Thorin, for his part, could only look on, powerless, at the loss of his kingdom – but, to his astonishment, his grandfather and his father, Thráin, reappeared, having both escaped from the attack unharmed via a secret door that only they knew about. Thorin told them that the Men had still put up resistance even after the Dragon’s intrusion, but his sorties to capture and devour young girls had finally led the Men to abandon the town and settle to the south of the Long Lake. The lands that had once been controlled by the Dwarves and the Men and subsequently fell under the yoke of the Dragon became known as the Desolation of Smaug.
The surviving members of Durin’s Folk divided into several groups: some went back to the Iron Hills, but most followed Thrór to the far southwest of the Misty Mountains. A few years later, Thrór tried to explore Moria, which had fallen into the hands of the Goblins, but he was killed by Azog, a Goblin who had proclaimed himself master of Moria. Thráin was consumed by a desire for revenge. He gathered together all the Dwarf clans and initiated the long War of the Dwarves and the Orcs. Azog was eventually defeated by Dáin II Ironfoot at the Battle of Azanulbizar. After the war, Thráin and Thorin settled in the Blue Mountains, in the west of Middle-earth.
The War of the Ring
‘We might now hope to return from the victory here only to ruin and ash. But that has been averted – because I met Thorin Oakenshield one evening on the edge of spring in Bree.’(The Annotated Hobbit, Appendix A).
During the Quest of Erebor, Bilbo Baggins found the One Ring that Sauron had previously lost, and he secretly took it with him to the Shire in 2942 of the Third Age. This action was the key to what would prove to be the last conflict in this Age: the War of the Ring.
Gandalf came up with a solution that Sauron was unable even to imagine: to destroy the Ring in the place where it was forged, in the heart of the land of Mordor.
The whereabouts of the Ring were actively investigated during the Third Age by both Gollum and Sauron (who had consolidated his armed forces). Saruman was also looking for the Ring; he was the White Council’s specialist in the tradition of the Rings of Power but he ended up coveting their power himself. In the 2851 Council, Saruman started to suspect the Shire and Gandalf of being mixed up with the One Ring. He refused to attack Dol Guldur, the home of the Necromancer, who was now known to be Sauron, but he changed his mind in 2941, fearing that Sauron would get his hands on the Ring first. Sauron escaped, however, and even Gandalf still did not know the entire truth about Bilbo’s ring. In 3001 T.A., Bilbo organized a party to celebrate his 111th birthday, before leaving the Shire and passing on both Bag End and the Ring to his heir, Frodo Baggins.
Gollum was also anxious to find the Ring, so he left the Misty Mountains and headed to Mordor. Once there, he was captured by Sauron, who tried to make him talk, but Gollum saw Sauron as a rival and was unwilling to divulge any important information. In 3017, Sauron released Gollum, who quickly fell into the hands of Aragorn and was then led to the Elf King Thranduil in Mirkwood. On 13 April 3018, Gandalf told Frodo of his great discovery: the ring that Bilbo had taken on his journey was no vulgar magic bauble – it was the One Ring forged by Sauron thousands of years previously. If Sauron found it, he would regain all his power to enslave the peoples of Middle-earth. Gandalf decided to seek the advice of Saruman, while Frodo planned to take the Ring to Rivendell under cover of taking up residence in the Eastern Neighbourhood of the Shire. By June 3018, Sauron had grown sufficiently concerned about the Free Peoples’ investigations to simultaneously attack the Men in Gondor and Thranduil’s Elves. Gollum took advantage of this commotion to escape. Boromir left Gondor to ask for help in Rivendell. Saruman, who also coveted the Ring, imprisoned Gandalf, who only succeeded in breaking free in September – at the same time as Sauron’s Nine Black Riders arrived in the Shire. Frodo and his friends went ahead of the Nine, receiving help from, first, Tom Bombadil and then Aragorn, who guided the Hobbits from Bree to Rivendell to ensure that the Ring remained out of Sauron’s reach. Frodo also received treatment for the injury that he had sustained in the chase, before meeting the Elf Glorfindel, who had come from Rivendell to look for him.
In Rivendell, Elrond assembled a council to decide what to do with the Ring, whose power was so great that nobody could use it without being dominated by it. Moreover, the Ring was difficult to destroy and hiding it, however astutely, would never stop Sauron winning the war. The resistance against Sauron lay in the hands of the Men from Gondor and Rohan, but they were depleted and divided. The Dwarves and the Elves were already under threat from the enemy. Gandalf came up with a solution that Sauron was unable even to imagine: to destroy the Ring in the place where it was forged, in the heart of the land of Mordor. This task was entrusted to the Hobbit Frodo Baggins, Bilbo’s cousin and heir, accompanied by Peregrin Took, Meriadoc Brandybuck and Samwise Gamgee, the Wizard Gandalf, the two Men Aragorn and Boromir, the Elf Legolas (Thranduil’s son) and the Dwarf Gimli (Glóin’s son). This Fellowship of Nine Walkers had to take the Ring to Mordor and throw it into the depths of Mount Doom, while foiling the efforts of Saruman, Sauron and Gollum to seize it for themselves.
They set off from Rivendell in late December of 3018 and passed through the mines of Moria, the former Dwarf kingdom that Balin had tried to recapture. The Fellowship was forced to flee the mountains, however, due to the presence of Goblins and a Balrog, although they had to leave Gandalf behind because he fell into an abyss along with the Balrog. After travelling through the Elf kingdom of Lórien, ruled by Galadriel and Celeborn, the bearer of the Ring and his companions followed the course of the Anduin towards the South. The power of the Ring exerted its influence on Boromir, who tried to grab it by force but later repented. Frodo and Sam headed to Mordor alone, as their companions were under attack from Saruman’s servants. Boromir was killed and the other two Hobbits were captured by Saruman’s Uruk-hai. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli left to look for them, while Frodo and Sam met Gollum, who guided them towards Mordor (although he intended to betray them in order to steal the Ring).
Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas met up with Gandalf again and confronted Saruman’s troops in Helm’s Deep with the Men from Rohan, while Peregrin and Meriadoc led the attack on the Wizard’s fortress with the Ents, the Tree-hosts. They then set off to assist Gondor, which was under siege from soldiers from Mordor. In mid-March 3019, Sauron simultaneously attacked Minas Tirith, the capital of Gondor, and the kingdoms of Thranduil, Galadriel, Dale and Erebor. Dáin II Ironfoot and Brand, Bard’s grandson, fought to the death at the foot of the Lonely Mountain, while Gandalf and his companions succeed in repulsing the enemy in Gondor and won the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, thanks to the arrival of horsemen from Rohan and armies from South Gondor led by Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli. The latter trio had defeated the Corsairs of Umbar, doing so along with the Oathbreakers, whom Aragorn redeemed from their oath before using pirate ships to surprise the enemy from the rear. The chiefs of the Free Peoples attacked Mordor in order to distract Sauron and enable Frodo to advance unnoticed. On 25 March 3019, while the army of the Free Peoples (with Gandalf, Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas and Peregrin in its ranks) was encircled in front of the Black Gate, Frodo and Samwise reached the Cracks of Doom (Sammath Naur). The power of the Ring prevented Frodo from destroying it, but Gollum leaped towards him and snatched it away, only to fall into the fiery depths of the mountain. The destruction of the Ring sent tremors throughout the kingdom, particularly amongst Sauron’s servants, as well as rekindling the fire of Mount Doom. It was at this point that the Eagles came to the rescue of the fighters and Gandalf told them to bring back the two Hobbits.
The fall of Sauron’s kingdom marked the end of the fighting in both the South and the North. Brand’s son became the King of Dale (as Bard II), Thorin III Stonehelm, the son of Dáin, became the King under the Mountain and the Fellowship of the Ring went their separate ways after Aragorn’s marriage to Arwen Undómiel, Elrond’s daughter. On 28 August, Gandalf and the Hobbits encountered Saruman wandering along the South Road leading to Bree. On 21 September, he reached the Shire, while Gandalf and his friends were in Rivendell. Frodo and his companions arrived in the Shire in their turn on 30 October and discovered that Saruman had wreaked havoc in their land, along with the Men in his pay. The Hobbits revolted and Saruman was killed by his last servant. That day, 3 November 3019, marked the end of the War of the Ring.
The War of the Dwarves and the Orcs
‘That was the beginning of the War of the Dwarves and the Orcs, which was long and deadly, and fought for the most part in deep places beneath the earth.’(The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, III).
The War of the Dwarves and Orcs was an armed conflict in the Third Age that lasted for less than six years (between 2793 and 2799). The war was sparked off three years prior to its start, however, by the murder and decapitation of Thrór, the chief of Durin’s Folk, by Azog the Goblin, at the Eastern Gate of Moria. It was the culmination of a long period of misfortunes and exiles borne by the Dwarf people since their expulsion in 1980, in the middle of the Third Age, from Khazad-dûm. This historic kingdom had been founded in the heart of the Misty Mountains in the First Age by Durin I, the Eldest of the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves. The Dwarves’ obsession with extracting precious mithril from the mountain led them to awaken a Balrog, Durin’s Bane, who chased them out of their home. Although Thráin I the Old, son of Náin I, founded the kingdom of Erebor under the Lonely Mountain (where he discovered the Arkenstone and became King under the Mountain), many exiles ended up settling in the Grey Mountains, the northeastern prolongation of the Misty Mountains, to the north of Mirkwood. The Dwarves’ mining activities in these mountains eventually led them to further disaster because, after several centuries of prosperity, they stirred the greed of the Dragons, who wrecked the Dwarves’ houses and forced them to evacuate the Grey Mountains.
The Dwarf Thrór, a descendant of Thráin the Old, fled from the Grey Mountains with his people and decided to settle under Erebor, which had once been colonized by his ancestor. The Dwarves enjoyed a new period of wealth and fortune, enhanced by a close trading relationship with the Men from Dale. The splendour of this kingdom once again inflamed the greed of a Dragon from the Grey Mountains. This one was called Smaug, and he went on to ravage the Lonely Mountain and seize its riches. A period of wandering followed for Thrór, his son Thráin and their relatives. Thrór eventually grew tired of this nomadic life and, after passing on to his son a ring – one of the Dwarves’ Seven Rings still in his possession – he set off with a companion named Nár with the intention of exploring Khazad-dûm. He was eventually killed and beheaded at the East Gate of Moria by the Goblin Azog, who spared Nár’s life so that he could report this act of aggression to the heir of the Line of Durin, Thráin. After a long period of silent mourning, Thráin swore to avenge his father’s death. The recruitment and training of soldiers from all the dispersed Dwarf houses lasted for three years. The Dwarves then attacked the various Goblin strongholds under the Misty Mountains, from Mount Gundabad in the north to the Gladden River in the south, and their superior numbers and weaponry forced the Goblins on to the defensive. The conflict came to a head at the Battle of Azanulbizar, which took place in the valley of the same name, which was also called Dimrill Dale or, according to the Elves, Nanduhirion. Azanulbizar was situated to the east of the three peaks of Caradhras, Celebdil and Fanuidhol, which loomed over Moria and could be reached by the Dimrill Stair, which led down from the Redhorn Pass.
The valley also contained Kheled-zâram, a lake that was considered sacred by the Dwarves. A series of Dwarf attacks on the Misty Mountains obliged the Goblins to regroup in Azanulbizar. The Dwarves were highly motivated by the sight of their former homeland but they were at a disadvantage in the first clash because the Goblins occupied the upper reaches of the valley. The Dwarves were forced to retreat into the woods around Kheled-zâram. Thráin’s son, Thorin, had his shield split during this retreat and was obliged to defend himself with an oak branch, thus earning himself the nickname of Oakenshield. Many Dwarves lost their lives in the woods, including Frerin, Thorin’s brother, and Fundin, the father of Balin and Dwalin. The survivors were saved by the late arrival of Dwarves from the Iron Hills, led by Náin, who tilted the balance of the battle and brought Azog out into the open. Although Azog killed Náin in a hand-to-hand fight, his forces were routed. Furthermore, Náin’s son, Dáin, was quick to take revenge on his father’s killer – this was considered quite a feat, since Dáin was barely 32 years old. He cut off Azog’s head and the surviving Dwarves put it on a pole, thus marking not only the end of the Battle of Azanulbizar but also the war itself.
The War of the Dwarves and Orcs was an armed conflict in the Third Age that lasted for less than six years (between 2793 and 2799).
The Goblins were dispersed and fled to the White Mountains to the south of Rohan. Although the Dwarves emerged victorious, they had lost over half their numbers and were in no condition to challenge the Balrog and reconquer Khazad-dûm. As the excessive number of Dwarf corpses made it impossible for them to practice their traditional funeral rite of burying their dead in stone, the Dwarves carefully skinned the dead bodies and made a huge fire that could be seen even in Lórien. Their descendants thus referred to the victims of this battle as ‘Burnt Dwarves’, which became an honorific title. After the dispersal of the Dwarf army, Dáin went back to the Iron Hills, while Thorin and Thráin settled in the Blue Mountains. Their companions included Balin and Glóin, who would team up with Thorin and Company for the Quest of Erebor.
The Battle of the Five Armies over the ownership of the treasure of Erebor was a direct consequence of the War of the Dwarves and Orcs, as it brought together, at the foot of the Lonely Mountain, an army of Goblins led by Bolg, Azog’s son, who was determined to avenge the death of his father. Bolg was eventually killed by Beorn in this battle, which brought victory to the Free Peoples.
