Thráin I

Lineage

Thráin was born in Khazad-dûm in T.A. 1934, the son of Náin I and grandson of Durin VI. He was forty-seven, young for a Dwarf, when the Balrog killed his father in 1981 and the kingship of a lost realm fell to him.

The exodus

Thráin's first act as king was to lead his people out of Moria. Most of Durin's Folk followed him; others scattered to the Iron Hills and elsewhere, and the mansion was left to the Balrog and, soon, the Orcs. For eighteen years the exiles wandered, and the histories say nothing of where they went.

The Kingdom under the Mountain

In 1999 Thráin came to Erebor, the Lonely Mountain, a solitary peak east of Mirkwood above the River Running, and there he founded the Kingdom under the Mountain, taking the title of King under the Mountain that his descendants bore. The Dwarves delved the Mountain and found it rich in gold and gems, and in its depths Thráin found the Arkenstone, the Heart of the Mountain, a great white jewel that shone with its own inner light and became the chief heirloom of his house. The Men of the North gathered in the vale below, where the town of Dale later grew, and the Dwarves of Erebor prospered by their trade.

Death and legacy

Thráin reigned at Erebor for nearly two centuries and died in 2190 at the age of 256. His son Thorin I succeeded him. Erebor was abandoned in the next generation for the Grey Mountains, but the Dwarves returned to it under Thrór, and Thráin's foundation became the enduring home of Durin's line. He is the first of two Thráins; the second, Thráin II, father of Thorin Oakenshield, is the one who died in Dol Guldur.

Died at Erebor in T.A. 2190 and was succeeded by his son Thorin I.