Hobbit2 - Chapter 02 - Roast Mutton

[jallanite]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

First of all, even if Thorin had considerable wealth for exile standarts, it was still meager in comparison to the former wealth of the Dwarves:

"Call them [halls] so, if you will," said Thorin. "They are only poor lodgings in exile." (Appendix A, III, Durin's Folk)

I fully agree.

The point I was apparently failing to make was that the coalmining and scavaging days of Thorin and his folk belonged to an earlier period than the point at which The Hobbit begins.

Firstly, because the Dwarves abandoned the Grey Mountains after Dain's (the first one) death, due to the constant threat of dragons. Secondly, for sentimental reasons. No mountain can be as good as home, and no success can really replace revenge in a Dwarve's heart.

I meant to type the Iron Hills not the Grey Mountains. Good catch!

To expand on this: if the Iron Hills settlement was going strong at the time, why would most refugees from Erebor not go there rather than to Dunland in the south? I have no trouble inventing several reasons why Thrór and his descendants did not do so, but Tolkien doesn’t indicate which of my reasons were correct ones or whether reasons I have not thought of might (also?) have a bearing on the matter.

The party who followed Thrór and his descendants would doubtless have longed for a return to the Lonely Mountain and their own land regardless of where they went.