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Them Dwarves, Them Dwarves! - Page 5

© Michael Martinez

The first "missing" range would be the Misty Mountains, located eastward of the Ered Luin and probably extending north from the sea of Helcar. The second "missing" range (unnamed) could be about midway between the Misty Mountains and the Orocarni, the Mountains of the East. These mountains need not be as extensive as the Misty Mountains, which Melkor supposedly raised to bar Orome's path as he hunted the Dark Lord's evil creatures in Middle-earth. Alternatively, the Ironfists and Stiffbeards may simply have been placed in the far northern mountains, and somehow preserved through the War of the Powers which resulted in the destruction of Melkor's fortress of Utumno. Wherever they awoke, if the Dwarves at first sought for each other, the tradition that they held conclaves at Gundabad begins to make better sense. Durin woke alone and he wandered through the Misty Mountains for a long time, apparently for years. He must eventually have wandered back into the north and there, perhaps, found his people. Gundabad may therefore be the oldest Dwarf city in Middle-earth, and as the Dwarven populations grew they eventually returned to their homelands to build new cities. Durin would have stayed in the central lands where he awoke, but in time he led some Dwarves south to found the city of Khazad-dum. Hence, we may guess the Dwarves dispersed sometime around Valian Year 1250, and they would have been awake no more than 100-122 Valian Years (the Teleri crossed Ered Luin in VY 1128). These Valian Years were equivalent to approximately 9.58 years of the Sun (Tolkien, "Morgoth's Ring", p. 58). Let us assume, for convenience' sake, the Dwarves awoke no earlier than VY 1130. The next 120 Valian Years would have been equivalent to 1149.6 years of the Sun. Durin probably lived all through this time, and that is why he was called Durin the Deathless. The average lifespan for a Dwarf, based on the genealogy provided in The Lord of the Rings, appears to have been around 250 years. The Dwarves appeared to marry around their 100th year, so they could have been into their 12th generation by VY 1250. If the other fathers of the Dwarves lived only 250 years (of the Sun), the kings who led the dispersal could have been the 10th of each of their respective lines. The Dwarves of Belegost and Nogrod therefore lived as close neighbors to the Sindar for nearly 2400 years before the rising of the Sun and Moon (in terms of years of the sun). At the very least, there must have been 23-24 kings in both Belegost and Nogrod during those long years under the stars. During that time the Dwarves established a close friendship with Thingol's realm (but they did not venture near the Sea nor visit Cirdan's people in western Beleriand).

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