hobbit

"Halt!" cried Gandalf, who appeared suddenly, and stood alone, with arms uplifted,
between the advancing dwarves and the ranks awaiting them. "Halt!" he called in a voice
like thunder, and his staff blazed forth with a flash like the lightning. "Dread has come
upon you all! Alas! it has come more swiftly than I guessed. The Goblins are upon you!
Bolg of the North is coming.
O Dain! whose father you slew in Moria. Behold! the bats are above his army like a sea
of locusts. They ride upon wolves and Wargs are in their train!"
Amazement and confusion fell upon them all. Even as Gandalf had been speaking the
darkness grew. The dwarves halted and gazed at the sky. The elves cried out with many
voices.
"Come!" called Gandalf. "There is yet time for council. Let Dain son of Nain come swiftly
to us!"
So began a battle that none had expected; and it was called the Battle of Five Armies,
and it was very terrible. Upon one side were the Goblins and the wild Wolves, and upon
the other were Elves and Men and Dwarves. This is how it fell out. Ever since the fall of
the Great Goblin of the Misty Mountains the hatred of their race for the dwarves had
been rekindled to fury. Messengers had passed to and fro between all their cities,
colonies and strongholds; for they resolved now to win the dominion of the North.
Tidings they had gathered in secret ways; and in all the mountains there was a forging
and an arming.
Then they marched and gathered by hill and valley, going ever by tunnel or under dark,
until around and beneath the great mountain Gundabad of the North, where was their
capital, a vast host was assembled ready to sweep down in time of storm unawares
upon the South. Then they learned of the death of Smaug, and joy was in their hearts:
and they hastened night after night through the mountains, and came thus at last on a
sudden from the North hard on the heels of Dain. Not even the ravens knew of their
coming until they came out in the broken lands which divided the Lonely Mountain from
the hills behind. How much Gandalf knew cannot be said, but it is plain that he had not
expected this sudden assault.
This is the plan that he made in council with the Elvenking and with Bard; and with Dain,
for the dwarf-lord now joined them: the Goblins were the foes of all, and at their coming
all other quarrels were forgotten. Their only hope was to lure the goblins into the valley
between the arms of the Mountain; and themselves to man the great spurs that struck
south and east. Yet this would be perilous, if the goblins were in sufficient numbers to
overrun the Mountain itself, and so attack them also from behind and above; but there
was no time for make any other plan, or to summon any help.
Soon the thunder passed, rolling away to the South-East; but the batcloud came, flying
lower, over the shoulder of the Mountain, and whirled above them shutting out the light
and filling them with dread.
"To the Mountain!" called Bard. "To the Mountain! Let us take our places while there is
yet time!"
On the Southern spur, in its lower slopes and in the rocks at its feet, the Elves were set;
on the Eastern spur were men and dwarves. But Bard and some of the nimblest of men
and elves climbed to the height of the Eastern shoulder to gain a view to the North. Soon
they could see the lands before the Mountain's feet black with a hurrying multitude. Ere
long the vanguard swirled round the spur's end and came rushing into Dale. These were
the swiftest wolfriders, and already their cries and howls rent the air afar. A few brave
men were strung before them to make a feint of resistance, and many there fell before
the rest drew back and fled to either side. As Gandalf had hoped, the goblin army had
gathered behind the resisted vanguard, and poured now in rage into the valley, driving