Roäc

The ravens of the Mountain

The ravens of Erebor were a long-lived and wise breed that had been friends of the Dwarves of Erebor in the days of Thrór. Balin remembered an old pair named Carc and his mate who had nested above the guard-chamber on Ravenhill. Roäc was Carc's son. In T.A. 2941 he was a hundred and fifty-three years old, the chief of the great ravens of the Mountain, and decrepit: nearly blind, going bald, and barely able to fly.

The messenger

On the day after Smaug fell, the old thrush brought Roäc to the Dwarves on Ravenhill, since the thrush could not make Thorin's people understand its own speech. Roäc spoke to them in the Common Tongue. He told them that the dragon was dead, that Bard had killed him, that Lake-town was destroyed, and that the Men of the Lake and the Elves of Mirkwood were already on their way to the Mountain for the treasure. He counselled Thorin plainly: not to trust the Master of Lake-town, but to deal with Bard, and to buy peace with a share of the gold rather than let winter and war come to the Mountain.

Thorin did not take the advice, but he used the messenger. He sent Roäc to summon Dáin from the Iron Hills, and the old raven despatched his people to carry the word, and through the siege that followed the ravens brought Thorin news of every movement in the valley. Roäc told him, unasked, that the ravens hoped for peace.

Afterwards

Roäc is not mentioned after the Battle of Five Armies. His chief importance in the tale is as the voice of good sense that Thorin refuses to hear: everything he warned of came about.

Not told; alive at the time of the Battle of Five Armies, aged 153.