Welly-moot Theme - Dwarvish History

For our theme for the Welly-moot 1.1, we asked the question how Gandalf ended up with the Map and the Key that he gives to Thorin Oakenshield.

The upcoming Hobbit movie will in all likelihood start from that meeting, so it might be good background information for everyone.


For our Welly-moot, Kris had prepared some readings from Tolkien's Letters, as well as from the Unfinished Tales, and from the Appendices from ROTK. I'd also prepared some notes to help put it all into perspective.


To tie everything together, Mark Bednarowski from the Tolkien Society (UK) has very kindly given us permission to reprint two articles relating to this era of Middle-earth.

I will publish these here as separate entries so they can be linked to more easily.



The Timeline - Dwarvish History (1981-2941, 3rd Age)
Article 1 - Plight Of The Dwarves, by Mark Bednarowski
Article 2 - A Wizard For All Seasons, by Mark Bednarowski


What might also be quite useful is a map to Middle-earth. I found a nice one online that I used at the meeting. It's not the official Tolkien one but a good one to use anyway.

Click for larger map