[Alcuin]

In FotR, “The Ring Goes South”, Gimli tells the Company of the Ring that he has never before been to Moria.

“I need no map,” said Gimli… “There is the land where our fathers worked of old, and we have wrought the image of those mountains into many works …, and into many songs and tales. …

“Only once before have I seen them from afar in waking life, but … under them lies Khazad-dûm…”

At “The Council of Elrond”, Glóin described that

...For a while we had news [from Balin], and it seemed good: messages reported that Moria had been entered and a great work begun there. Then there was silence, and no word has ever come from Moria since.

Then about a year ago a messenger came…, but not from Moria – from Mordor...

It does not sound as if there was successful traffic between Erebor and Moria during these 30 years: no messengers arrived from Balin’s colony, and no messengers sent to Balin returned. Where they failed is unclear, but it is quite possible that they were permitted to enter the Gates and then seized: on their way out, the Company of the Ring found guards at the alert just inside the doors.

Originally Posted by Inziladun

When the Moria lot didn't make a rendezvous 2 or 3 times in a row, that could have given Dáin a hint that they'd run into Durin's Bane and were beyond help or hope.

I think that Erebor probably sent messengers who did not return, but it’s basically the same idea.


Inziladun, Rumil, and skip spence have all noted Glóin’s complaints about the high tolls of the Beornings, indicating that they had regular traffic together.

But the most compelling evidence is that the Great East Road ran from the Blue Mountains through the Shire (whose inhabitants Thorin & Co held in such contempt) across the High Pass (Cirith Forn en Andrath), thence across the Dwarf-bridge south of the Carrock that Isildur planned to use on his return to Imladris (it was ruined by Bilbo’s day, leaving behind a “deep ford” (TH, “Queer Lodgings”)), through Mirkwood south of the Woodelves’ path that Thorin & Co used (remember that “Beorn … warned them that … the forest-road … was overgrown and disused at the eastern end…” (ibid.)), and from there north and northeast to Erebor and the Iron Hills. This ancient way had formerly extended into Beleriand: it was the Men-i-Naugrim, the Road of the Dwarves, and had been in use since the First Age. Tolkien makes several references in TH and in FotR to Dwarves travelling along the road in Eriador, staying in Bree, and passing through the Shire going back and forth to their old mines in the Blue Mountains.

A better question might be whether Glóin and Gimli passed through Mirkwood or went around, as did Beorn, Gandalf and Bilbo on their homeward journey, or if they passed through the forest itself? And if they passed through Mirkwood, did they use the Old Forest Road that had been the old Dwarf Road, or did they use the Woodelves path that would bring them closer to the land of the Beornings and so subject them to the presumably outrageous tolls?

Sauron was probably interested in disrupting traffic along the old Forest Road, which was part of the Men-i-Naugrim: it frightened people, injured commerce, and denied his enemies use of an important transportation route that might have been used against Dol Guldur in time of war.

With that in mind, I think they passed through Esgaroth, traversed the Woodelves road, crossed Anduin at The Carrock, and then passed over the Misty Mountains at the High Pass.


I do not believe it was common knowledge that the Rangers were the remnants of the Northern Dúnedain. Certainly Wizards, the Elves, and the Rangers knew it; the Stewards of Gondor seem to have been aware of it; and it is possible that Sauron was aware of them. But Bree-folk did not know, and Hobbits had no clue. Dwarves must have encountered them from time to time (in the Inn at Bree, for instance, and along the Road), but they do not seem to have been aware of their identity.

Originally Posted by Inziladun

I can't see Dwarves passing important messages meant for other Dwarves in the hands of one of an alien race.

I concur.