Thrór

Thrór was a King of Durin's Folk, the son of Dáin I and the father of Thráin II, the brother of Frór, and Grór, the grandfather of Thorin II Oakenshield, Frerin, and Dis, and the great-grandfather of Fíli and Kíli.

Biography
In early life, Thrór and his family lived in the dragon-plagued Grey Mountains. In TA 2589, when their halls came under attack by Cold-Drakes, his father Dáin I and younger brother Frór were both slain at their gates by a great Cold-Drake. Thrór inherited the kingship. He and his youngest brother Grór resolved to divide their folk: Thrór led a small portion of the House of Durin to recolonize Erebor where they rediscovered the Arkenstone. Grór led the greater portion of Durin's Folk further east to the Iron Hills where he founded his own kingdom. Under Thrór's leadership, Erebor prospered for over a century. Eventually the wealth of the kingdom attracted the attention of the dragon known as Smaug, who flew south and destroyed the kingdom, killing many Dwarves and driving away Thrór and his family, and other surviving dwarves. The majority of the survivors migrated to the Iron Hills; however, King Thrór, his son Thráin II, and grandson Thorin Oakenshield along with a minority of their kin and faithful followers who survived Smaug's devastating conquest of Erebor, went into a long and homeless wandering. For reasons not clear, they eventually settled in the hills of Dunland where they tried to make a living.

Twenty years later, in TA 2790, Thrór was now old, poor, and desperate. He gave to his son Thráin II the last of the Seven Rings and a map of Erebor. He then left his people and journeyed away north with a single companion only called Nár. They crossed over the Misty Mountains through the Redhorn Pass and then came south again, crossing the Silverlode into the valley of Azanulbizar beneath the East Gate of Moria. When they arrived, the gate was open. Nár begged Thrór to beware but Thrór disregarded his pleas and he went and proudly entered Moria as an heir had returned, but he did not come back.



Nár waited and hid nearby for many days. One day he heard a great shout, followed by the blast of a horn, and a body was flung out onto the steps. It was indeed the body of Thrór, as Nár had feared. Then a voice called out to him from just inside the gate. Rather than being killed as well, Nár was instead made use of as a messenger. He was told to deliver a warning that 'beggars' who would not wait at the doors but instead entered to attempt thieving, would meet a similar fate. Nár was told to bring this message back to his people. But that was not all: the voice proclaimed that he now ruled Moria, and if any wanted to know who was king, he had written his name on the beggar's face. Thrór's head lay severed next to his body. Nár turned it over and found branded across the forehead, written in Dwarven runes, a name that would be branded in the hearts of all Dwarves: AZOG. He was barred from retrieving the head of Thrór and was struck with a pouch containing a few coins of little worth, which Azog referred to as a 'fee', but it was meant as a final insulting gesture. Nár took the pouch and fled down the Silverlode. When he looked back, Orcs had emerged from the gate and were hacking apart Thrór's body and flinging the pieces to the black crows.

This was the tale that Nár brought back to Thráin II when he returned to Dunland weeks later. After seven days of sitting in silent grief, Thráin at last stood up and declared that this atrocity would be answered to. This was the beginning of the War of the Dwarves and Orcs, though, until the dwarves gather all their forces, had gone up three years.

Peter Jackson's The Hobbit films
In the 2012 live-action film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Thrór is portrayed by Welsh actor Jeffrey Thomas.

In that film's storyline, as recounted by Balin, Thrór leads the Dwarves forces at the Battle of Azanulbizar, where the displaced dwarves of Erebor attempt to reclaim Moria and meet an army of Orcs led by Azog. However, Thrór is killed and beheaded in hand-to-hand combat with Azog, resulting in his son, Thráin II, going insane with grief and disappears, while Thorin II Oakenshield is enraged enough to heroicly challenge the Defiler. With nothing but his blade and using a small piece of oaktree as his shield, he succeeds in partially avenging his grandfather's death by cutting off Azog's hand and turning the tide of the battle.