Thorin's Heir

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

How then might we reconcile these two points? It's interesting that despite the fact that the Dwarves "assailed and sacked one by one all the strongholds of the Orcs that they could find from Gundabad to the Gladden" they apparently made no effort to resettle any part of the Misty Mountains, even their ancient holy site at Gundabad. I suppose at the end of the war they lacked the numbers to do so in any event.

I have wondered about that myself. I am afraid the only answer I have is this is an inconsistency generated by Tolkien having written and published The Hobbit before writing LOTR. Since Tolkien had already written that the dwarves had gone back to Erebor in the end it limited his ability to write something that placed the dwarves in a new home before then, even if it would have made more sense.