The Old Thrush

A bird of Dale

The thrushes of the Lonely Mountain were a long-lived breed, and the Men of Dale in the old days had understood their speech and used them as messengers to the Dwarves of Erebor. The old thrush of the tale was very large, nearly black, with a pale speckled breast, and it was old enough to remember those days. It had a habit of knocking snails on the grey stone of the doorstep outside the secret door on the western side of the Mountain.

Durin's Day

On the last day of autumn in T.A. 2941, when Thorin's company had all but given up hope of finding the door, the thrush was at its work on the step. Bilbo noticed the sound and then, in the last light of the setting sun, saw the ray strike the rock and a flake of stone fall away to show the keyhole. The thrush's presence, and its knocking, had the effect that Elrond's moon-letters had foretold: it was the sign that the hour had come.

The message to Bard

After Bilbo's second visit to Smaug, when he came out and told the Dwarves of the bare patch on the dragon's left breast, the thrush was sitting on a stone nearby and heard every word. That night it flew to Lake-town and, while the town burned, came to Bard as he stood with his last arrow. Bard, of the line of Girion of Dale, could understand it, and it told him of the hollow of the left breast. He shot the Black Arrow there and Smaug fell.

Afterwards, unable to make the Dwarves understand its own tongue, the thrush fetched the raven Roäc to bring them the news. It is not mentioned again.

Not told.