return

1414 the return of the king
None the less it may well be, as the Dwarves now believe,
that Sauron by his arts had discovered who had this Ring, the
last to remain free, and that the singular misfortunes of the heirs
of Durin were largely due to his malice. For the Dwarves had
proved untameable by this means. The only power over them
that the Rings wielded was to inflame their hearts with a greed
of gold and precious things, so that if they lacked them all other
good things seemed profitless, and they were filled with wrath
and desire for vengeance on all who deprived them. But they
were made from their beginning of a kind to resist most steadfastly
any domination. Though they could be slain or broken,
they could not be reduced to shadows enslaved to another
will; and for the same reason their lives were not affected by
any Ring, to live either longer or shorter because of it. All the
more did Sauron hate the possessors and desire to dispossess
them.
It was therefore perhaps partly by the malice of the Ring that
Thráin after some years became restless and discontented. The
lust for gold was ever in his mind. At last, when he could endure
it no longer, he turned his thoughts to Erebor, and resolved to
go back there. He said nothing to Thorin of what was in his
heart; but with Balin and Dwalin and a few others, he arose and
said farewell and departed.
Little is known of what happened to him afterwards. It would
now seem that as soon as he was abroad with few companions
he was hunted by the emissaries of Sauron. Wolves pursued
him, Orcs waylaid him, evil birds shadowed his path, and the
more he strove to go north the more misfortunes opposed him.
There came a dark night when he and his companions were
wandering in the land beyond Anduin, and they were driven by
a black rain to take shelter under the eaves of Mirkwood. In the
morning he was gone from the camp, and his companions called
him in vain. They searched for him many days, until at last
giving up hope they departed and came at length back to Thorin.
Only long after was it learned that Thráin had been taken alive
and brought to the pits of Dol Guldur. There he was tormented
and the Ring taken from him, and there at last he died.
So Thorin Oakenshield became the Heir of Durin, but an heir