Thráin II

Lineage

Thráin was born at Erebor in T.A. 2644, the son of Thrór, King under the Mountain, in the years of the Mountain's greatest wealth. His own children were Thorin, born in 2746, Frerin, born in 2751, and Dís, born in 2760, the mother of Fíli and Kíli. His wife is not named.

Exile

When Smaug took Erebor in 2770 Thráin escaped with his father by the secret door, and the family wandered south, labouring as smiths and even as coal-miners in Dunland and the lands of Men. In 2790 Thrór, restless under the influence of the Ring of Durin's house, gave the Ring, the map of Erebor and the key of the secret door to Thráin, and went away to Moria. When Nár returned with the news of Thrór's murder and the name of Azog branded on his brow, Thráin wept and tore his beard, and then sat silent for seven days before he sent messengers to every house of the Dwarves.

The War of the Dwarves and Orcs

All seven houses answered. From 2793 the Dwarves hunted the Orcs through every hold of the Misty Mountains, from Gundabad to the Gladden, and Thráin led the war. It ended in 2799 at the Battle of Azanulbizar before the East-gate of Moria, fought in the Dimrill Dale. The Dwarves came down the valley in the morning, the Orcs held the slopes, and the first assault was thrown back. Thráin was in the thick of it; he was wounded and lost an eye, and his son Frerin was killed, with Fundin the father of Balin and many others. Thorin, his shield broken, defended himself with an oak-branch and won his name. The battle turned when Náin of the Iron Hills arrived with fresh troops, and though Náin was killed by Azog, his son Dáin slew the Orc and the Dwarves won the field.

Thráin wished to enter Moria at once and reclaim it, but Dáin, who had looked through the gate, told him that the Balrog was still there and that Durin's Folk could not pass. The Dwarves burned their dead, since there was no time to build tombs, and went home.

The Blue Mountains

Thráin took his diminished people west, and in 2802 settled in the Blue Mountains, where they made halls and prospered modestly by their iron-work. There Thorin grew to be his father's heir.

The Ring and Dol Guldur

The Ring gave Thráin no rest. He thought of Erebor and the hoard and of Smaug, and in 2841 he set out with a few companions, among them Balin and Dwalin, to see the Mountain again. The journey was dogged by ill fortune, wolves, Orcs and dark birds, for Sauron, who wanted the last of the Seven, had his servants track them. In 2845, in the eaves of Mirkwood, Thráin vanished from the camp one stormy night and his companions searched for him in vain. He had been taken to Dol Guldur. There the Ring was taken from him and he was kept in the dungeons and tormented.

The meeting with Gandalf

In 2850 Gandalf entered Dol Guldur in secret to learn whether its master was indeed Sauron. In the pits he found a dying Dwarf, no longer in his right mind, who did not know his own name or his son's, but who gave the wizard a map and a key and begged him to give them to his son. Only long afterwards did Gandalf understand that the wanderer had been Thráin, and that the map and key were those of Erebor. Thráin died there. In 2941 Gandalf handed them to Thorin at Bag End, and the quest of Erebor began.

Legacy

Thráin's life was ruled by the Ring of Durin's house and by the murder of his father. He led the greatest muster of Dwarves in the Third Age, founded the western home of his house, and, by keeping the map and key to the end, made possible the recovery of Erebor. The Ring he lost was the last of the Seven that Sauron recovered, and Gandalf later listed it among the Rings that were accounted for. Thorin bore his memory bitterly, and his name was often coupled with Thrór's in the Dwarves' grievance against Moria and Dol Guldur.

Captured by Sauron's servants in 2845, robbed of the Ring, and died in the dungeons of Dol Guldur in 2850 after giving the map and key to Gandalf.