The Quest of
Lonely Mountain
In the year 2941 of the Third Age of the Sun a Company of Adventurers entered the quiet lands of the Shire and disturbed the peace of that place. This Dwarf company of Thorin Oakenshield and Gandalf the Wizard were set on the Quest of Lonely Mountain. They had come to compel the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins to join them on their Quest. Thus the Hobbits of the Shire first became enmeshed in the affairs of greater nations in the world. For though the Shire was a peaceful land, it was like an oasis in a desert of war and strife. In the land of Mordor an evil power was growing that sought to crush all the good forces of the world.
Of the affairs of the world, the Hobbits knew very little, nor did they suspect the great part they were destined to play in the histories of Middle-earth. But all had its beginning in the coming of the Adventurers to the Shire and the desire of Thorin Oakenshield to wrest the inheritance of his people from Smaug, Dragon of Lonely Mountain.
Among the first great challenges in Bilbo Baggins’ quest was his descent into the Goblin caves wherein he escaped a Goblin attack, only to discover an even greater danger in the form of the cannibalistic creature known as Sméagol, or Gollum. In the deepest cavern by a dismal lake, Bilbo became entangled in a deadly riddle game, but also discovered a mysterious gold ring that had the power to make its wearer invisible. This ring eventually proved to be the long lost One Ring of Power that was once forged by Sauron the Ring Lord. It was a ring that carried with it a great curse of corruption, and as the Wizard Gandalf would learn many years later, it would be the spur to an even greater adventure and quest.
The largest forest in Middle-earth was Greenwood the Great, where Thranduil made the Woodland Realm of the Silvan Elves. In the year 1050 of the Third Age a dark power had entered Greenwood. Great Spiders, Orcs, Wolves and evil spirits had haunted the forest and, though the Silvan Elves had not been driven from their realm, they had not been able to halt the spreading darkness. Thereafter Greenwood was called Mirkwood and few dared to travel along its dark paths.
Mirkwood was among the greatest obstacles standing before the company of Thorin Oakenshield on the road to Lonely Mountain.
When Bilbo Baggins and the Company of Dwarves finally reached Lonely Mountain of Erebor, they discovered the treasure of the King under the Mountain in the possession of the greatest dragon of the Third Age. Known as Smaug the Golden, this huge golden-red fire drake had bat-like wings and a coat of impenetrable iron scales. However, his one vulnerable part, his belly, was protected by a waistcoat of gems that had become embedded there from centuries of lying on jewelled treasure hoards. Although his beginnings are obscure, in the year 2770 of the Third Age, Smaug burned and sacked the city of Dale before entering the Dwarf Kingdom under the Mountain, where he slaughtered or drove out the Dwarves. For two centuries he lay on his hoard within Erebor. Then in 2941, his slumbers were disturbed by the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins and Thorin and Company.
The Lake Men of Esgaroth became complacent as they dwelt in peace in their town that stood above the water on stilts. It had been so long since Smaug had left Lonely Mountain that many people scoffed at the idea that he would ever return to attack them. However, Bilbo’s theft of a cup from his hoard aroused the dragon to fury. He smashed the hiding place of the Dwarves high on the flank of Lonely Mountain, then sped above the ruins of Dale, towards Lake-town. Many of the townspeople believed the dragon’s fire was the King under the Mountain forging gold. But it was not so, and their wooden town could muster little defence against the fires of an enraged dragon.
The death of Smaug, the Dragon of Lonely Mountain, freed the treasures of the dragon’s hoard from its guardian. The Dwarves of Thorin Oakenshield were soon joined by an army of Men from Lake-town, the army of the Elf-king of Mirkwood and an army of Dwarves from the Iron Hills. Yet another army, greater in number than the other four together, spilled into the valley under Lonely Mountain. It was led by a vast number of heinous Orcs from the Misty Mountains and they, too, came to claim the dragon’s wealth. Orcs by the thousand, wolves and Wolf-riders, and clouds of bloodsucking bats fell on the gathered armies.
The Great Eagles of the Misty Mountains joined in against the legions of Orcs in the Battle of the Five Armies. These Eagles were of such size that they were capable of carrying Men, Dwarves and Hobbits aloft in their flight. They were the noble descendants of the Eagles of Beleriand, who in the First Age fought in the War of Wrath against the winged fire dragons of Morgoth. During the Quest of Lonely Mountain, Great Eagles inhabited the eastern slopes of the Misty Mountains, near the High Pass leading from Rivendell and not far from Goblin-town. There, they harried the Goblins and their allies, and rescued the Dwarves of the Company of Adventurers from a band of Goblins and Wargs. Later they would become allies and rescuers of members of the Fellowship of the Ring at critical moments of the quest.