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Originally Posted by Kuruharan

This is a topic that becomes increasingly awkward the more one investigates it.

You should have known that it would have been exposed by a much too curious wizard with an overfull bag of questions.

Virtually all the information we possess about the Dwarf-rings contradicts some other information we possess about the Dwarf-rings. Keeping this in the context of the story, I suppose this is attributable to the secretive nature of the Dwarves.

I can accept that the information contains both intentional and inadvertent noise. The secretive Dwarves, like Thorin, may have run a dis-information campaign to put off both the curious and malevolent. Dragons, though not able to make use of a Great Ring, possibly would know that where one existed, a gold horde lay hidden as well. Also, though secretive, surely there was at least one Dwarf of the Ioreth make who spoke without knowing all of the details.

Michael Martinez in his essay “Them Dwarves, Them Dwarves, Part II” said that it was by no means certain that all seven Dwarf-rings were given to kings, and Tolkien never explicitly said that in his capacity as author. However, the implication is thick in the air…Seven Rings and Seven Houses with Seven Kings. Who else would have gotten the rings except for the kings? As alatar noted above, Gandalf believed that the Dwarf-rings had gone to the kings. Of course, it could be argued that Gandalf would not be as knowledgeable about dwarf matters as he would be about, say, elves. However, Thrain, who would probably be expected to know, was positive that his ring was the last, and everybody we ever come across holds the same opinion.

Are there, in Middle Earth in the Third Age, three Houses of Elves? Regardless, it does seem convenient that there are Rings for each House of Dwarf. This makes some sense as how big could two piles of gold be? Wouldn't one of the two bearers want there to be only one? So if the Rings weren't in the hands of the Seven Kings, then to me at least the Seven would not be in the same places - no two would be in the same kingdom or city. Note that the Three were dispersed, and only came into close proximity in the end, and that because one roamed and had no home.

And the Nine were forced together.

So, taking this as a starting point, anybody who knew about the Rings would probably have a pretty good idea who had them. The mystery, as far as the Longbeards are concerned, didn’t start until they abandoned Khazad-dum and then was aggravated when Thror went batty and ran off and nobody except Thrain knew that Thror had given him the ring.

All this indicates one of two things, either after the rings were lost the dwarves didn’t have a problem telling outsiders about their loss or that knowledge about who had the rings was pretty common among people in the know about such things.

There may have been a time when the information was more freely or less freely given. Initially the receivers sent thank you's; after they realized (or not) that the Rings were somewhat cursed, then either consciously or subconsciously, they started hiding them.

This gets us into difficulties because there were never any dragons in the area of the Blue Mountains. This leads to a division of the three western Houses had their rings repossessed and the four eastern houses had their rings eaten…which seems a little arbitrary. However, if a dragon had gone to the Blue Mountains and eaten a dwarf-king I think we would know about it because the dragon would probably have remained in the area and caused all the usual problems in the neighborhood. Orc raids, on the other hand, could have come down from the far north into the Blue Mountains and not have been known to any of our chroniclers or at least not have excited any attention until after it was known that a king had been killed and a ring taken.

Could a dragon have killed an entire Dwarven community and, having received a mortal wound, died in the process, therefore leaving no witnesses? Could another strain of dwarves destroyed the Ring bearing ones, then, before using the Ring, fall into the hot maw of a Worm? Were the Rings fed to dragons as the dwarves knew that the Rings did no one any good, and thought that the Ring may slake the worm's thirst for treasure, if consumed?

And what about the petty dwarves?

(Please don’t mention that it is quite likely that a bunch of the dwarves probably lived south of the Gulf of Lune).

Surfing dwarves? Dude...

This leaves wondering why the eastern dwarf rings were eaten by dragons. For that, we have that reliable old standby of an explanation, “we don’t know what went on in eastern middle earth.” For those among you who exhibited excellent taste in reading my third arcane topic, you know that I think the eastern dwarves fell into evil of a kind, but were not necessarily subjugated to Sauron. Sauron might at some point have used dragons to try to bring the more independent minded in line. I personally think that the dragons were largely free actors outside of Sauron’s direct control and that they went rampaging about eating what they wanted. On the whole, I suspect the dragons ate the rings not realizing what they were, and not necessarily noticing that they’d eaten a ring at all.

The dragons, after more thought, would have to be free agents. What benefit would it be to Sauron to have the Rings destroyed? Also, if they were destroyed, the Rings either weren't important or visible to the dragon. Smaug was able to rout the Lonely Mountain dwarves yet was able to preserve their halls and treasure, and so it seems that if a dragon wanted not to destroy something, it had the capacity for restraint.

Excellent post, Kuruharan, and thanks for your very informative input.

Not that you answered the question...