Folk of the Mountain

After the awakening of a Balrog in Moria, the Dwarves of Durin's Folk fled their ancient home. Their King, Thráin I, led them to a new home, a mountain standing alone amid the plains far to the north and east of old Khazad-dûm. This Lonely Mountain, or Erebor, was at first only briefly home to the Dwarves, because Thráin's son Thorin I moved his people again, leaving Erebor for the Grey Mountains where many of his people were settling at that time.

The Dwarves lived in the Grey Mountains for generations, but the depredations of the northern Dragons eventually forced them to move once again, and they returned to Erebor under Thrór. For a time they prospered, but they had not left the danger of the Dragons behind them. After nearly two centuries of peace, the Dragon Smaug sacked Erebor. Many of the Folk of the Mountain were slain, and the survivors fled into the wild.

It fell to Thrór's grandson Thorin to avenge the Folk of the Mountain. After wandering Middle-earth for many years, Thorin's people had found a home in the Blue Mountains, but he gathered a small band in his halls and set out to seek his revenge against Smaug. Taking the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins to infiltrate Smaug's lair, Thorin and Company endured a difficult journey across Middle-earth to come to Erebor and see it freed from Smaug. After the Dragon's death, Durin's Folk became Folk of the Mountain once again, prospering in the years at the close of the Third Age and beyond.