Thorin's Heir
Hello everyone,
Last night after some of our discussion about The Hobbit I was thinking about the Line of the Durin's Folk, and it occurred to me that Thorin II Oakenshield was the first King of Durin's Folk since at least the reign of Durin VI to not have a son of his own to inherit the kingship. It seems that his oldest nephew, Fíli, was his natural heir to succeed him upon his death. Along with lacking children, Thorin was unmarried. So why was Thorin the first in his line in about a thousand years to have neither wife nor progeny of his own? Here are a couple of suggestions which occur: "As for the men, very many also do not desire marriage, being engrossed in their crafts." Regarding Thorin: "a great anger without hope burned him as he smote the red iron on the anvil." Thorin was "an heir without hope." Did his desire for vengeance on Smaug, one which apparently also occupied his thoughts while he was "engrossed in his crafts" preclude him from having an heir? Was he too focused on his stolen birthright to take an interest in marriage? Fíli was born in 2859, when Thorin was 113 years old. Christopher Tolkien observes (although frustratingly without a direct quote) his father writing in draft material for Appendix A that "Dwarves marry late, seldom before they are ninety or more." When Thorin was of marrying age, he now had a male nephew to be his heir - would this have made him feel less obliged to have a son of his own, as his fathers had done before him? If the odds of Dwarves reproducing are as low as they are purported to be (only one-third of the population women, and neither all women nor all men willing to marry), would the birth of a nephew have been fortuitous for a Dwarf King like Thorin, brooding on the wrongs done to his House? What are your thoughts on this rather unique situation for an otherwise unbroken line of descent for ten generations of the House of Durin? Was, perhaps, the loss of Erebor, followed by the inglorious murder of Thrór and his father's disappearance too much for Thorin, at which time he abandoned much hope for the future of his people, only to be rekindled upon meeting Gandalf at Bree significantly later in his life? |
One possible explanation is pride (always a good explanation for anything Thorin did)- Thorin was determined that when he married, it would be to take a Queen of his restored realm. Thorin after all was unique also among Durin's line in being the first to be homeless.
|
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
One thing about Tolkien's conception of the dwarves that I have always found...not entirely well thought out, is their lackadaisical attitude toward their own continued existence. If females are rare, and consequently marriage and child raising as well, one would think that marriage and family would be something culturally valued and encouraged rather than being seemingly viewed as incidental. |
I agree that Thorin was probably so bound up in thoughts of revenge on Smaug that marriage probably didn't seem to him to be very important. He also might have counted on the idea of Fili or Kili surviving to carry on the line.
Quote:
|
Looking at it further, tunnel-vision focus on lineage rather than the well-being of the whole race might seem to be a sin common to both Dwarves and the Númenóreans. Both Arnor and Gondor had serious problems with the issue of who the rightful king was.
|
Quote:
I think that is a fairly natural reaction. Quote:
|
It must be said in Thrain's defence that the whole point of the war, really, was to clear the Orcs out of the Hithaeglir entirely, from Khazad-dum to Moria, and to complete the reclamation of the ancient mansions Thror had been killed rather foolhardily trying to achieve. Marshal Zhukov could be forgiven for saying something like "Good. Berlin is ours."
The Balrog, however, rather nullified that last bit. But of course Thrain wasn't even aware of it; only Dain had seen it (if he 'saw' rather than felt it) |
Quote:
|
Quote:
As an example, the Fellowship didn't have a similar reaction until they were near or in the Balrog's presence. |
Quote:
Quote:
|
Did I really write "from Khazad-dum to Moria?" Oops. Read "from Gundabad to Moria."
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Between the sack of Erebor and the war culminating in Azanulbizar, I can't imagine the House of Durin having much of a population left.
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
Yes, their population was undoubtedly down but was it really down to the point that they couldn't have settled in an unoccupied spot they had recently liberated somewhere in the Misty Mountains? The implication of that would be that there were so few of them left they didn't have the ability to have a home anywhere. That would be nearly to the point of extinction, and even then you can still set up shop somewhere to wait for the end. |
Quote:
One factor in that decision to avoid the Misty Mountains might have been the proximity of Dol Guldur. Oddly enough, Dol Guldur was indeed the final resting place of Thráin. |
Well, Thrain led some of his people West. Another considerable number went with Dain to the Iron Hills.
|
Quote:
I still think this issue was generated by the fact that Tolkien was having to write backwards. :p |
Thorin just doesn't seem much like a cuddly guy :)
|
All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:11 PM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9 Beta 4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.