Thrór

Thrór (TA 2542 - TA 2790) was a King of Durin's Folk, the son of Dáin I and the father of Thráin II, and brother to Frór and Grór. In his early life, he and his family lived in the dragon-plagued Grey Mountains. In 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. Afterwards 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. He flew south and destroyed the kingdom, killing many Dwarves and driving away Thrór and the royal 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 kith and 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 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 a heir who had a returned. But he would not come back.

Nár stayed and hid nearby for many days. Finally 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 found to be the body of Thrór as Nár had feared. Then the voice that would be revealed to be that of Azog the Goblin, 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 to deliver a warning that 'beggars' who would not wait at the doors but instead entered to attempt thieving, they would meet a smiliar fate. Nár was told to bring this message back to his people. But that was not all: Azog proclaimed that he now ruled Moria, and that he had killed Thrór. Thrór's head lay severed next to his body. Nár turned over the head and found branded across the forehead written in Dwarven runes was the name AZOG. The name would be branded in the hearts of all Dwarves. He was barred from retrieving the head of Thrór because he was struck with a pouch containing a few coins of little worth, in 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 crows. Thrór's death came in 2790.

This was the tale that Nár brought back to Thráin II when he returned to Dunland weeks later. After seven days of siitting 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.

External link

 * Encyclopedia of Arda: Thrór
 * Thrór at Tolkien Gateway

Thrór