Resurrecting Dale, City of A Thousand Untold Stories - Page 4
© Michael Martinez
The arrival of the Longbeard Dwarves at Erebor in 1999 doesn't seem to have heralded any significant rise in Dale's history. The Dwarves probably settled in Erebor because the town (or some community of men) was already there. But most of Durin's Folk were gathering in the northern mountains. Even though their kings lived at Erebor, they had too little economic impact on the region to survive. Thorin I left the Lonely Mountain in 2210, barely more than 200 years after his people had settled there. The Dwarves probably had not yet recovered enough of their former numbers to drive a boom economy.
But 380 years later, when Thror brought his people back to Erebor, matters were different. Now there were many more Dwarves than before. So many hungry mouths to feed would have required many farms. The Men of Dale may therefore have benefitted from an influx of neighboring peoples who hoped to trade with the Dwarves.
So, it is quite reasonable to suggest that Northmen had always lived in the region, even in the valley, but they would have been too few in number for the most part to establish a city. And yet, when Thror arrived with a great following of Dwarves, the local chieftains probably saw an opportunity unfolding before them, and inviting their friends and relatives from all over the region to join them, they built the city that became Dale.
From 2590 to 2758 should therefore have been a period of great growth and expansion for the Northmen. In Appendix A to The Lord of the Rings Tolkien writes: "To the Great Hall of Thrain, Thror brought back the Arkenstone, and he and his folk prospered and became rich, and they had the friendship of all Men that dwelt near. For they made not only things of wonder and beauty but weapons and armour of great worth; and there was great traffic of ore between them and their kin in the Iron Hills. Thus the Northmen who lived between the Celduin...and Carnen...became strong and drove back all enemies from the East; and the Dwarves lived in plenty, and there was feasting and song in the Halls of Erebor."
These enemies were undoubtedly Easterlings related to the Wainriders and Balchoth. There was a new migration of Easterlings into the western lands after Sauron returned to Dol Guldur in 2460. By the time Cirion became Steward of Gondor in 2489 the Balchoth were "slaying or driving north up the River Running and into the Forest the remnant of the Northmen...." Over the course of the next 100 years, the Northmen of the Long Lake must have become weakened, but when Thror decided to leave the northern mountains he apparently felt there were enough Northmen left in the region to make the recolonization of Erebor worthwhile.
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