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In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, the Lonely Mountain (Sindarin Erebor) is a mountain in the northeast of Rhovanion. It is also the source of the Celduin river.
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Origins of the Kingdom Under the Mountain
Erebor became the home of the Folk of Durin, the Longbeards, after they were driven from their ancestral home of Khazad-dûm. In the latter days of the Third Age, this Kingdom Under the Mountain held one of the largest dwarven treasure hoards in Middle-earth.
The mountain was aptly named, as it stood hundreds of miles from the nearest mountain range. Tolkien's map shown in The Hobbit depicts the mountain as having six ridges stretching out from a central peak that was snowcapped well into Spring. The Front Gate, from which Celduin flowed. The whole mountain was perhaps ten miles in diameter, with Dale, a town of Men, built between the two southern spurs[1].
Erebor was founded by Thráin I the Old, who discovered the Arkenstone there. His son, Thorin I, left the mountain with much of the Folk of Durin to live in the Ered Mithrin (Grey Mountains) for the great riches to be found in that range.
Adaptations
The Lonely Mountain: Lair of Smaug the Dragon is a board game produced in 1985 by Iron Crown Enterprises,[2], designed by Coleman Charlton which features groups of adventurers, either Dwarves, Elves, Orcs or Men entering Smaug's Lair to capture his treasure before he awakens.
Each group is represented by a number of tokens, placed upon a hex-grid depicting the cavern network, and each token represents a number of characters. Characters are of different classes (derived from ICE's Middle-earth Role Playing, such as a Bard, Wizard, Fighter, Scout and Animist) and are represented by cards. These parties then move through the caverns expending movement points. Upon arriving at a treasure site, the player will turn over a corresponding set of treasure and creature cards, typically a troll, kraken, wight, fell-beast or Smaug himself. Smaug can also be awoken by a random event which increases in possibility with each turn.
Creatures are fought with both missile and melee combat, by rolling a dice and consulting a combat matrix, and magic is cast and uses the same mechanic. Random-effect traps and helpful items can also be found hidden in amongst treasure.
The winner of the game is the player that escapes with the largest amount or greatest value of treasure (for example, the Arkenstone is worth more victory points to the Dwarven player than the other 4 groups) or in the case of solo play beats his own high score.
"Erebor", specifically the southern spurs of the Mountain and Dale, is a playable map in The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II. It has three gates, including the one Tolkien described and two which can not be closed, to allow those playing as invading forces to easily enter the stronghold.
References/Notes
- ^ Fonstad, Karen Wynn. The Atlas of Middle-earth (Revised Edition) . Houghton Mifflin Company. New York. 1991. pp. 110-1
- ^ Newsboard, Fellowship Follows, White Dwarf (magazine) #57, September, 1984 p45
Works cited
- Harper, Amelia (2006). "Lonely Mountain (Erebor)". in Drout, Michael D. C.. J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. Routledge. pp. 384–385. ISBN 0-415-96942-5.
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