![]() The Front Gate’s ruined bridge rights itself, as “most of its stones were now only boulders in the shallow noisy stream but forded the water without much difficulty” ( The Hobbit, “Not At Home”). Its secluded eastern passage is completely untouched, and Smaug’s avarice preserves Erebor’s wealth. Even in its sacked and demolished state in The Hobbit, Erebor has a functioning (abandoned) infrastructure. Middle-earth’s landscapes are a surrealistic space of signifiers and communities where epochs and theodicies slowly fight to the death in spaces perfectly designed for them. It’s an anti-realist landmark Tolkien’s geography has little quarter for geologic reality, a recurring aspect of his mythology that Alex Acks has analyzed in depth. “Smaug flies round the Mountain” (Tolkien)Įrebor is one of the most haunting places in Tolkien’s mythology and a corridor to many of its crucial themes. The shaking of windows or rattling of walls has little sway on the Mountain’s power people may only submit to it. Some of Tolkien’s most memorable characters are seismically changed and affected by Erebor. Guy Debord says that psychogeography is “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographic environment, whether consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behaviors of individuals” (“Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography”). Smaug scorches the earth around Erebor, the Lonely Mountain, strengthening its mighty power over Wilderland. The Kingdom under the Mountain is not the Lonely Mountain itself it’s an occupying force that the Mountain permits to dwell in its guts. The Lonely Mountain changes hands and talons many times, and yet its six spurs, summit, and cavernous interiors belong to no person. Now it arrives at another one, also solitary, hospitable yet apocalyptic when it chooses to be. “I see the mountain/That is all I see.” Carter, “The Mountain.” Location in Peter Jackson’s films: Wanaka, Otago, South Island. Thorin III Stonehelm is crowned King under the Mountain, and establishes a relationship with Gondor’s King Aragorn II Elessar, after which Erebor comes under Gondor’s protection. In 3019’s Battle of Dale, Easterlings besiege Erebor and kill Dáin. His successor as King is his cousin Dáin II Ironfoot. ![]() They triumph, though Oakenshield is killed. The dwarves and their Iron Hills cousins fight in the Battle of the Five Armies. In the wake of Smaug’s demise, the Maia Sauron sends orc forces to conquer Erebor. In retaliation, Smaug destroys Lake-town, a local settlement of Men, where Bard the bowman kills him. He occupies the Mountain until 2941, when Erebor’s exiled king Thorin Oakenshield arrives at the Mountain with a small party. In 2770, the dragon Smaug sacks Erebor, killing and dispersing the dwarves. The Kingdom under the Mountain prospers King Thrór, as the dwarves of Erebor arm the Iron Hill Dwarves and Wilderland’s Men against Easterlings. Dwarves begin mining Erebor, and collect gems and gold, including the Arkenstone (the Heart of the Mountain). 1999, Thráin I, a dwarf refugee from Khazad-dûm, arrives at Erebor and establishes the Kingdom under the Mountain. Home to the Longbeard Dwarves’ Kingdom under the Mountain, Erebor encompasses formidable mines, cellars, and throne rooms. The Lonely Mountain has six spurs, between the southern and southeastern of which originates the River Running, which flows through Dale, a city of Men. ![]() Karen Wynn Fonstad estimates Erebor’s summit as 3500 ft (1066.8 m.) while at its broadest spurs its furthest reaches are about 9 mi. Names: Erebor (Sindarin: “ereb”: lonely, isolated, “-or”: rise, mount), glossed as “the Lonely Mountain”ĭescription: A solitary mountain in northern Wilderland.
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