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Azanulbizar. They took the head of Azog and thrust into its mouth the purse of
small money, and then they set it on a stake. But no feast nor song was there
that night; for their dead were beyond the count of grief.
Barely half of their number, it is said, could still stand or had hope of
healing.
None the less in the morning Thráin stood before them. He bad one eye blinded
beyond cure, and he was halt with a leg-wound; but he said: 'Good! We have the
victory. Khazad-dûm is ours! '
But they answered: 'Durin's Heir you may be, but even with one eye you should
see clearer. We fought this war for vengeance, and vengeance we have taken.
But it is not sweet. If this is victory, then our hands are too small to hold
it.'
And those who were not of Durin's Folk said also: 'Khazad-dûm was not our
Fathers' house.
What is it to us, unless a hope of treasure? But now, if we must go without
the rewards and the weregilds that are owed to us, the sooner we return to our
own lands the better pleased we shall be.'
Then Thráin turned to Dáin, and said: 'But surely my own kin will not desert
me?' 'No,' said
Dáin. 'You are the father of our Folk, and we have bled for you, and will
again. But we will not enter Khazad-dûm. You will not enter Khazad-dûm. Only I
have looked through the shadow of the
Gate. Beyond the shadow it waits for you still: Durin's Bane. The world must
change and some other power than ours must come before Durin's Folk walk again
in Moria.'
So it was that after Azanulbizar the Dwarves dispersed again. But first with
great labour they stripped all their dead, so that Orcs should not come and
win there a store of weapons and mail. It is said that every Dwarf that went
from that battlefield was bowed under a heavy burden.
Then they built many pyres and burned all the bodies of their kin. There was a
great felling of trees in the valley, which remained bare ever after, and the
reek of the burning was seen in
Lórien.
When the dreadful fires were in ashes the allies went away to their own
countries, and Dáin
Ironfoot led his father's people back to the Iron Hills. Then standing by the
great stake, Thráin said to Thorin Oakenshield: 'Some would think this head
dearly bought! At least we have given our kingdom for it. Will you come with
me back to the anvil? Or will you beg your bread at proud doors?'
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'To the anvil,' answered Thorin. 'The hammer will at least keep the arms
strong, until they can wield sharper tools again.'
So Thráin and Thorin with what remained of their following (among whom were
Balin and Glóin)
returned to Dunland, and soon afterwards they removed and wandered in Eriador,
until at last they made a home in exile in the east of the Ered Luin beyond
the Lune. Of iron were most of the things that they forged in those days, but
they prospered after a fashion, and their numbers slowly increased. But, as
Thrór had said, the Ring needed gold to breed gold, and of that or any other
precious metal they had little or none.
Of this Ring something may be said here. It was believed by the Dwarves of
Durin's Folk to be the first of the Seven that was forged; and they say that
it was given to the King of Khazad-dûm, Durin III, by the Elven-smiths
themselves and not by Sauron, though doubtless his evil power was on it, since
he had aided in the forging of all the Seven. But the possessors of the Ring
did not display it or speak of it, and they seldom surrendered it until near
death, so that others did not know for certain where it was bestowed. Some
thought that it had remained in Khazad-dûm, in the secret tombs of the kings,
if they had not been discovered and plundered; but among the kindred of
Durin's Heir it was believed (wrongly) that Thrór had worn it when he rashly
returned there. What then had become of it they did not know. It was not found
on the body of Azog.
None the less it may well be, as the Dwarves now believe, that Sauron by his
arts had discovered who had this Ring, the last to remain free, and that the
singular misfortunes of the heirs of Durin were largely due to his malice. For
the Dwarves had proved untameable by this means. The only power over them that
the Rings wielded was to inflame their hearts with a greed of
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ices%20And%20Index.txt gold and precious things, so that if they lacked them
all other good things seemed profitless, and they were filled with wrath and
desire for vengeance on all who deprived them. But they were made from their
beginning of a kind to resist most steadfastly any domination. Though they
could be slain or broken, they could not be reduced to shadows enslaved to
another will; and for the same reason their lives were not affected by any
Ring, to live either longer or shorter because of it.
All the more did Sauron hate the possessors and desire to dispossess them.
It was therefore perhaps partly by the malice of the Ring that Thráin after
same years became restless and discontented. The lust for gold was ever in his
mind. At last, when he could endure it no longer, he turned his thoughts to
Erebor, and resolved to go back there. He said nothing to
Thorin of what was in his heart; but with Balin and Dwalin and a few others,
he arose and said farewell and departed.
Little is known of what happened to him afterwards. It would now seem that as
soon as he was abroad with few companions he was hunted by the emissaries of
Sauron. Wolves pursued him, Orcs waylaid him, evil birds shadowed his path,
and the more he strove to go north the more misfortunes opposed him. There
came a dark night when he and his companions were wandering in the land beyond
Anduin, and they were driven by a black rain to take shelter under the eaves
of Mirkwood. In the morning he was gone from the camp, and his companions
called him in vain. They searched for him many days, until at last giving up
hope they departed and came at length back to Thorin. Only long after was it
learned that Thráin had been taken alive and brought to the pits of Dol
Guldur. There he was tormented and the Ring taken from him, and them at last
he died.
So Thorin Oakenshield became the Heir of Durin, but an heir without hope. When
Thráin was lost he was ninety-five, a great dwarf of proud bearing; but he
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seemed content to remain in
Eriador. There he laboured long, and trafficked, and gained such wealth as he
could; and his people were increased by many of the wandering Folk of Durin
who heard of his dwelling in the west and came to him. Now they had fair halls
in the mountains, and store of goods, and their days did not seem so hard,
though in their songs they spoke ever of the Lonely Mountain far away.
The years lengthened. The embers in the heart of Thorin grew hot again, as he
brooded on the wrongs of his House and the vengeance upon the Dragon the he
had inherited. He thought of weapons and armies and alliances, as his great
hammer rang in his forge; but the armies were dispersed and the alliances
broken and the axes of his people were few; and a great anger without hope
burned him as he smote the red iron on the anvil.
But at last there came about by chance a meeting between Gandalf and Thorin
that changed all the fortunes of the House of Durin, and led to other and
greater ends beside. On a time Thorin, returning west from a journey, stayed
at Bree for the night. There Gandalf was also. He was on his way to the Shire, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]