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Originally Posted by Alfirin
There is also the fact that at no point are we told that sucession amoung the dwarves is stricly primogeneric, that is that the oldest son of the current (or most recent) ruler is ipso facto the heir to the throne. Given Tolkein's love of Nordic tradtions, I think it is possible he imagined Dwarven sucession more along Nordic lines, where (if I understand correctly) often any male member of the ruling family was considered a viable candidate for next kind, and getting the throne relied as much on whether or not the court and people wanted you as who your father was and when in the line of his kids you were born. Being the heir of Durin's bloodline may help Thorin's claim, but it may not be enough to make him Dwarf heir apparent on it's own.
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That is an interesting point. It seems very reasonable, particularly regarding the Nordic link.
However, to the best of my knowledge we know of no case where the eldest surviving son didn't follow his father...of course our knowledge is limited.
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Looks to me as if Thorin was just too poor to be taken seriously as a king in the Ered Luin.
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That sounds likely to be true.