Girion

Lord of Dale

Girion ruled the town of Dale, which lay in the valley below the Front Gate of Erebor and prospered on the trade and craft of the Dwarves of King Thrór. It was a wealthy place, famous for its markets, its toy-makers and its bells, and its lords had close dealings with the Mountain. Girion himself had paid the Dwarves for a coat of mail for his eldest son with a necklace of five hundred emeralds as green as grass, which was still in the hoard under the Mountain long after his death.

The coming of Smaug

In T.A. 2770 Smaug came out of the north and fell on the Mountain. The Dwarves who were outside the halls were destroyed or fled, and the dragon then turned on Dale. The warriors of the town went out against him and were burned, and Girion was killed with most of his people. His wife and a young child escaped by boat down the River Running to the Long Lake, and from them the family of Bard descended in Lake-town, where the memory of the lordship of Dale was kept. Girion's line also preserved the great Black Arrow forged under the Mountain, which Bard used to kill Smaug in 2941, and the emeralds of Girion were returned by Dáin Ironfoot to Bard after the Battle of Five Armies. When Bard rebuilt Dale in 2944 and was crowned its king, Girion's house came again into its own.

Slain by Smaug in the destruction of Dale in T.A. 2770.