Kíli

Lineage

Kíli was born in T.A. 2864 in the exiled halls of Durin's Folk in the Blue Mountains, the younger son of Dís, daughter of Thráin II, and the nephew of Thorin Oakenshield. His brother Fíli was five years older. Dís, the only Dwarf-woman named in the histories, had been born at Erebor before the dragon and had shared the wanderings of her father and brother; her sons grew up on the stories of the lost Mountain.

The quest of Erebor

When Thorin set out for Erebor in 2941 he took both nephews, though Kíli was only seventy-seven and by Dwarvish standards barely of age. He and Fíli came to Bag End together, with fiddles in their packs, and they were the pair the older Dwarves sent ahead whenever eyes and legs were needed. They scouted the trolls' fire, they crossed the enchanted stream in Mirkwood with the first party, they were bundled up by the spiders and freed by Bilbo, and they sat in the cells of Thranduil until Bilbo packed them into barrels. At the Mountain the brothers were the company's climbers and messengers; they searched the western spurs and found the narrow path to the ledge where the secret door was hidden, and when the dragon came out they kept watch from the shelf above.

Death

Kíli fell with Fíli in the Battle of Five Armies. When Thorin charged out of the gate and was cut off, the two brothers held their ground over their wounded uncle and were killed shielding him. They were laid to rest in the Mountain, and Bilbo, who had grown fond of them, mourned them with Thorin. With their deaths the direct line of Thráin II ended, and the crown went to Dáin Ironfoot.

Legacy

Kíli is remembered as the youngest of the company and as one half of a pair that the story never separates. His courage at the end, alongside his brother, is the deed by which the Dwarves of Erebor remembered the sister-sons of Thorin.

Slain in the Battle of Five Armies in T.A. 2941, defending the wounded Thorin beside his brother, and buried under the Mountain.