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Originally Posted by Mithadan
How did the Trolls end up with the swords? This question can be resolved only via speculation. Elrond suggests that the Trolls plundered "other plunderers" or found a hidden cache of valuables. Where this may have taken place is unknown. Spoils buried in Angmar? A cache in Moria? My hesitation regarding the last is that the trolls in The Hobbit were northern hill trolls, not the cave-trolls present in Moria.
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Moria is the only answer that doesn't involve a long
chain of plunderers plundering plunderers.
Someone had to carry the swords (and knife!) out of Beleriand before its fall, and it had to be someone with either hands or minions. I've suggested Sauron elsewhere (and that he handed them to the proto-Nazgul, accounting for their presence in the Angmar region), but I think I like the Balrog more. Perhaps it, or Azog, summoned the hill trolls down specifically for the battle with the dwarves?
A new question: what actually is Durin's Day?
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Originally Posted by A Short Rest
"The first day of the dwarves' New Year," said Thorin, "is as all should know the first day of the last moon of Autumn on the threshold of Winter. We still call it Durin's Day when the last moon of Autumn and the sun are in the sky together."
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I've seen a lot of people take this to mean that Durin's Day is ideal to New Year, and laugh at the idea that the dwarves can't predict their own calendar. But I think that's wrong. Bilbo specifically describes *seeing* the new moon, so I think Durin's Day is based on *observation*. If you actually see the new moon up there with the sun on Dwarven New Year (which will be based on the exact phase of the moon, its horizontal distance from the sun in the sky, and the weather!) then it's Durin's Day. If you don't lay eyes on the moon - then it's just New Year.
hS