Durin III

Lineage

Durin III was the third king of Durin's Folk to bear the name of the founder, Durin the Deathless, and was held by his people to be Durin returned. Nothing is recorded of his birth or parentage beyond his place in the line of kings of Khazad-dûm.

Friendship with Eregion

His reign fell in the great days of the Second Age, when the Noldor of Eregion under Celebrimbor settled beside the West-gate and the friendship between Elves and Dwarves was closer than at any other time. Traffic passed freely through the Doors that Narvi had made, and the wealth of Khazad-dûm, swollen by the refugees of Nogrod and Belegost and by the mithril that only Moria yielded, was at its height.

The Ring

Out of that friendship came the Rings of Power. According to the tradition of the Dwarves, recorded in Appendix A, Celebrimbor gave a Ring directly to Durin III, and the Dwarves therefore denied that their Ring came from Sauron's hand. The account in The Silmarillion is that Sauron took the Seven and the Nine when he seized the Rings from Eregion and distributed them; the two versions can be reconciled if Durin's Ring was given before that seizure, as the Dwarves claimed. It became the greatest heirloom of the house, passing down the line of kings to Thrór and Thráin II, and it did what all the Seven did: it bred gold and a hunger for gold, but it could not make its bearer a wraith or a slave.

The fall of Eregion

In S.A. 1697 Sauron's armies overran Eregion and slew Celebrimbor. The Dwarves of Khazad-dûm sallied out and attacked Sauron's rear, aiding the retreat of Elrond's force, and then shut the Doors of Durin. From that time Moria was closed to the world, and the friendship of Elves and Dwarves was over. Durin III, if he still reigned, was the king who closed the gates.

Legacy

His name is attached to the Ring and to the moment when the Dwarves turned inward. The Ring of Durin's house was the last of the Seven that Sauron recovered, taken from Thráin II in Dol Guldur in T.A. 2845.

Died in Khazad-dûm in the Second Age; the Ring passed down his line.