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Them Dwarves, Them Dwarves, Part II - Page 4

© Michael Martinez

When mithril was discovered by the Longbeards the Noldor of Lindon took an interest in their resources, and many Noldor settled in the lands west of Khazad-dum, establishing the realm of Eregion. Their chief city was Ost-in-Edhil and they entered into a close friendship and alliance with the Longbeards that lasted a thousand years. At the end of that time the Longbeards were drawn into the War of the Elves and Sauron. They sought to help the beleaguered Eldar of Eregion, and many Elves (including Pengolod) escaped through Khazad-dum to the eastern realm of Lothlorien, but Durin IV's army was driven back to the mountains by Sauron and the West-gate was closed against possible invasion. Matters did not go well in the east, either. Sauron sent armies of Orcs from Mordor and enticed eastern tribes of Men to invade Wilderland. The Edainic peoples were overrun and pushed back to the mountains or deep into the woods (and this is probably when the Woodmen of Greenwood the Great first appeared). The Longbeards themselves lost control of Gundabad again, the Grey Mountains were infested with Orcs, and communication with the Iron Hills was cut off for a time. When Sauron was finally defeated Khazad-dum was largely an island amid an empty sea, its only friendly neighbor apparently Lothlorien. Elrond had established the refuge of Imladris in northern Eriador but though he was friendly to Dwarves in the Third Age there is no indication that he interacted with them much in the Second Age. The Longbeards did not forsake their old friendship with the Elves, but as Tolkien says, it waned. By the end of the Second Age Durin V was willing and able to join the Host of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, so his people marched against Mordor. But afterward they seem not to have participated much in the great affairs of Middle-earth. For nearly two thousand years Khazad-dum continued to enjoy great prosperity. The Misty Mountains and Grey Mountains were undoubtedly untroubled by Orcs, Trolls, and Dragons for many centuries, and communication between Khazad-dum and other Dwarven communities was assured. But when Sauron began to stir again after a thousand years had passed in the Third Age he seems to have pursued a policy of estranging his old enemies from one another. Wherever an opportunity presented itself he destroyed a nation, or took advantage of the downfall of an enemy. The Longbeard Dwarves entered a period of decline when they accidentally awoke a Balrog, apparently the last of Morgoth's great demons of fire and shadow. The Balrog destroyed the civilization in Khazad-dum, killing two of its kings and many of its people. The survivors fled north and east but they never fully recovered their strength. Soon afterward Amroth, king of Lorien, led a migration of Elves south, and the awakening of a great (though unidentified) evil in the mountains as well as the departure of many of their folk seem to have inspired the Elves of Lorien to pass a law forbidding the entry of any Dwarf into their land.

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