Durin’s Folk

Durin’s Folk, otherwise known as the “Longbeards”, were from a tribe of dwarves [1] that had initially lived in the Khazad-Dum with Durin I “the Great” as their leader. Durin I was succeeded by several other kings, among whom six shared the name Durin with him, and were believed to be his reincarnations that carried memories from their past lives.

The story of the Durin’s Folk goes back to the Second Age when camaraderie had started between them and the Noldor of Celebrimbor in Eregion. By the middle of the Third Age, however, they were evicted from their habitat by the Balrog, who came to be known as “Durin’s Bane”. The then king of the Durins, Durin VI, died at the hands of Balrog in TA 1980. The very next year, Balrog also killed Nain I, the son of Durin VI. This caused Thrain I, the son of Nain I to flee, along with his people, to the Lonely Mountain, where he established a new kingdom, appropriately known as the Kingdom of the Lonely Mountain.

Thrain’s son, Thorin I, took over the reins of the kingdom from his father, and during his rule, rumors were afoot about the abundant treasures lying in the Grey Mountains. These rumors prompted Thrain to start an exodus of his people towards the north, where they proceeded after abandoning Erebor. All went well for this tribe in their new abode where they lived in tranquillity until the reign of Nain II, Thrain’s grandson when the dragons began attacking them.

Cold-Drake, one of the dragons, stormed the kingdom and murdered Nain II and his second child. Nain’s eldest son Fror Thror, now the king, managed to escape along with Borin and some of his people and returned to Lonely Mountain. Gror, the younger brother of Fror, went towards the east and established a new kingdom of his own in the Iron Hills. This move was followed by several years of peace during which Thror ruled without disturbance in the Lonely Mountain. This tranquillity came to an end when Smaug, a Fire Drake that was among the last of the great dragons, came down and drove them away, taking over the Lonely Mountain. Having thus been banished from their abode, the Durin’s Folk became a wandering tribe, living away from their native lands.

Most of them returned to Iron Hills, where they settled down. Their king Thror, however, lost his sanity and while attempting to retrieve Khazed-Dum single-handedly, was killed by Azog. The War of the Dwarves and Orcs ensued as a result of this and was brought to a close with the Battle of Azanulbizar, in which Azog lost his life at the hands of Dain Ironfoot, the lord of the Iron Hills. After this war, several dwarves repaired westwards to the Blue Mountains, where they settled down. After sixty years had passed in this manner, Thrain’s son Thorin II, also known as “Thorin Oakenshield”, allowed himself to be persuaded by Gandalf, the wizard, to go on a quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain with the help of 13 Dwarves [2] and one Hobbit.

This adventure resulted in the killing of Smaug by Bard the Bowman and ushered in the Battle of Five Armies against the armies of the Orcs. Thorin, along with two of his nephews, Kili and Fili, lost his life in this battle. Thorin’s sacrifice had not been in vain and led to the reinstatement of the Lonely Mountain’s Kingdom under his cousin Dain II’s rule, Iron Hills’ Lord. Dain II was then hailed as King, in TA 2941, Under the Mountain. He continued until he was killed, towards the end of the Third Age, in the Battle of Dale when the Easterlings swarmed his kingdom. Following his death, his people were surrounded and captured. The Easterlings were finally defeated by Thorin III Stonehelm, the son of Dain II and Bard II, the new king of Dale, following the vanquishing of Sauron. After this, Durin VII, the last of the Durin’s, who was appropriately called “Durin the Last” took over the reins of Khazad-Dum.

Durin’s Folk were ruled by the scions of Durin I, who succeeded him through a long family lineage. The successors of Durin I was compelled by circumstances to be constantly on the move, over the years, throughout the Middle Region. Consequently, it has become necessary to record not only the names of the kings and their lives but also the regions in which they resided and ruled. The long lineage also makes it incumbent to record details of only those kings who were saved and about whose regimes the details are available.

Aule formed the Dwarves’ Seven Fathers in the First Age, and Durin the Great was the oldest. He gained the epithet Great as a result of the fact that he was long-lived and survived to a ripe old age that was far in advance of those any other dwarf had reached at the time, making him the eldest in the race and hence highly esteemed. The Seven Fathers founded seven separate houses, of which the one called Longbeards was the house to which Durin belonged. The people of his house came to be known as the Durin’s Folk. Tradition has it that Durin I was induced to slumber beneath the Mount Gundabad that lies towards the Misty Mountains in the North. This site is venerated as a sacred place by the dwarves. [3] He was aroused from his slumber following the arising of the elves in the Age of Trees during 1050. According to old myths, he journeyed far in search of families of other dwarves and was soon emulated and supported by other dwarves. He was responsible for establishing Khazad-Dum, which subsequently developed into the wealthiest and most ancient Mansion of the dwarves. There is some divergence of views regarding the life span of Durin I. According to the issued version, Durin had met his death by the First Age’s conclusion. In some older versions, he is portrayed as spearheading the quest of the dwarves from the devastated kingdom of Beleriand in discovering Erebor, which was when the Second Age began. This view has been rejected by Tolkien. After the passing away of Durin I, many generations of his descendants ruled over Khazad-Dum, but only very few took on the name of Durin. These were few and far between because rarely was there a successor who resembled his original ancestor to merit the use of the name. Both Tolkien and other authorities make this clear. These descendants ruled for a long period, but their dynasty ended with the appearance of Balrog, popularly known as Durin’s Bane.

No official information is available about his rule. There is some evidence to suggest that the dwarves from Khazad-Dum had arrived at an understanding with the first men of the Vales of Anduin, under which the dwarves traded their weapons in exchange for food from the latter. This resulted in the two groups working together on wider issues culminating into joint warfare against the Orcs that combined the infantry strength of the dwarves and the prowess of the vale’s mounted archers.

Durin III reigned in the Second Age around 1600 and is reputed to have received one of the Seven Rings, being the first dwarf king to have attained this honor. However, few people were aware of this fact until the Third Age. It is also believed that, despite participating in the forging, he received the rings not from Sauron but from Celebrimbor. According to Hammond and Skull, it is highly probable that it was during the reign of Durin III as the king that Khazad-u west Gate was constructed. While this appears to be a reasonable conclusion, there is no authority to back such a claim with Tolkien being silent on this subject.

This king must have reigned within the end-Second Age or beginning-Third Age. There is, however, no authoritative statement about his rule from Tolkien.

He is likely to have ruled during the Third Age in comparative peace as the Balrog that was sleeping beneath their kingdom was yet unaware of their existence. He was the last Durin to enjoy such a peaceful rule, which was interrupted in the reign of the next king.

He reigned in Khazad-Dum in the Third Age. It was during his rule that the Balrog, in slumber deep within the ground, was awakened by the dwarves who were engaged in mining activity in their quest for Mithril. The creature acquired the sobriquet “Durin’s Bane” after killing Durin VI in TA 1980. The killing made Durin VI, the first reincarnation of Durin the Great to have died of causes other than natural ones. Nain I, the son of Durin VI, who succeeded him as king of the dwarves met with a similar fate within a year, at the hands of Balrog, the same creature that killed his father, This triggered an exodus of the dwarves from the ancient city of Khazad-Dum.

The rule of Nain I was short-lived and lasted just for a year before he was killed by Balrog. With his people deserting the city after his death, he became the last dwarf king to have ruled from this ancient city. His son took over the reins of the kingdom after his death and ruled in exile.

Thrain I was forced to flee Khazad-DUM along with his people in fear of further attacks. He ruled for a long period spanning a total of 209 years. Although he started his kingdom in exile, he went on to establish the mighty Kingdom of the Lonely Mountain in TA 1999. This kingdom lay close to the town of Dale and Long Lake’s Lake-Town. His son succeeded him.

Attracted by the lure of great wealth that supposedly lay hidden in the Grey Mountains, Thorin I, who had succeeded his father as king of the Lonely Mountain, left it with a large number of his citizens and Arkenstone, the treasure of the dwarves. This would leave the Lonely Mountain in an abandoned condition for the next 300 years.

Gloin took over from his father and ruled for 96 years until TA 2385 in the Grey Mountains

Oin succeeded his father Gloin and ruled for 103 years until TA 2488 in the Grey Mountains. Towards the end of his rule, Orcs began to increase in strength and the Shadow reverted to Mirkwood in Dol Guldur. The Orcs went on to invade the abandoned Khazak-Dum and occupied it. The marked just the beginning of a series of calamities that were to follow and affect the original home of the Durins over an extended period spanning centuries. Oin died at the age of 250 years, after ruling the dwarves in the Grey Mountains for 103 years. His son, Nain, succeeded him.

Nain II, son of Oin, ruled for 97 years until TE 2585. During his rule, the dragons started to attack the prosperous dwarves from the North. Oin had two sons, Dain and Borin. By the prevailing custom, he was succeeded by his elder son Dain.

Dain, I ruled for a short period of just four years with his end coming abruptly from being killed in TE 2589 by a Cold-Drake. This happened at the very doorstep of his kingdom.

Thror was the eldest son of Dain I and took over the reins of the kingdom on the death of his father in TE 2589. His rule lasted 201 years. By the time he came to power, the Northern region had become infested with dragons, causing Thror to move back to the Lonely Mountain. His younger brother, meanwhile, led some of the people towards the east and settled in Iron Hills. Thror ruled as king in the Lonely Mountain for 180 years. This rule was interrupted when the dragon Smaug came down upon them and attacked Lonely Mountain. He could escape along with his son and grandson and roamed about in the wilderness for some time when he lost his sanity. This edged him to attempt a single-handed rescue of Khazad-Dum, the home of his ancestors, from the hands of the Orcs, who had occupied it by then. In this attempt, he was killed by Azog, but the incident triggered a fresh wave of war between the Dwarves and the Orcs.

Thrain II ruled for 151 years until TA 2941. He defeated Azog, who had killed his father, and the army of the Orcs at Azanulbizar, thus avenging the death of his father. Half his life was spent in Eriador, but he decided to shift west to the Blue Mountains in his later life, where he spent the rest of his life. Although he finally decided to return to Eriador again, he failed to make it as he was captured and killed in the dungeons of Necromancer in Dol Guldur by evil creatures.

Thorin II ruled for just a few days in TA 2941. He reclaimed the Lonely Mountain from Smaug in a most unexpected manner when he traveled eastwards in the company of Gandalf and twelve more dwarves. Bilbo Baggins also accompanied him in this mission. Thorin became king legally by his success in recovering Erebor without having been crowned as King of the Mountain. Thorin was, however, killed at the Battle of Five Armies that ensued at Erebor. Along with him, his two young nephews, Fili and Kili also lost their lives, leaving the Dorin lineage without a successor. Dain Ironfoot, the grandson of Thror’s younger brother Gror, became the king.

Dain was the Lord of the Iron Hills, having succeeded his father to the position. The death of Thorin II, along with his nephews, left the kingship vacant and, in the absence of another Duurin, Dain succeeded to the kingship. He ruled for several years but lost his life at the Battle of Dale, during the War of the Ring. He was the first person outside the unbroken line of father-to-son succession that had marked the kingship until then. Notwithstanding his advancing years, he had put up a valiant fight against the Easterlings, who had attacked Erebor and Dale acting under the orders of Sauron, before losing his life.

Having succeeded his father, Thorin III, was briefly under siege from the Easterlings, who were vanquished by Thorin along with the men of the Dale under the leadership of Bard II, following the news of Sauron’s defeat. He was instrumental in rebuilding the Lonely Mountain and Dale and established close alliances with King Elessar and his Reunited Kingdom of Arnor and Gondor. Thorin III was succeeded by his heir, who was widely believed to be Durin the Great’s re-birth himself.

The last of the Durin dynasty, Durin VII was a descendant of Thorin III, and according to some, his son. Under his rule, the dwarves of Durin’s Folk reclaimed the Khazad-Dum, where they lived in peace for several years in the Fourth Age, until the world became old. This marked the end of the race of the Durins. The last Durin’s birth had seemingly been foretold during the rise of Dain II after the Battle of Five Armies. The Durins, from Durin I to Durin the Last, ruled for a total of 6,500 years. This period should have seen at least about 500 kings, and hence the above list is an incomplete one that excludes many of these kings.

1. ^The seven founders of the race of Dwarves.
2. ^The Hobbit’s 13 Dwarves.
3. ^Durin I the Deathless - Eldest of Dwarves.