Dáin II

Biography

War of the Dwarves and Orcs

Dáin followed his grandfather, Grór, in lordship after Náin was killed by the great Orc chieftain Azog during the Battle of Azanulbizar, the final conflict in the War of the Dwarves and Orcs, before he could inherit the lordship. Almost immediately after the death of Náin, Dáin rushed up the steps and slew Azog himself with a single blow of his axe, thus avenging his father's death. He was a very young Dwarf at the time, being only thirty-two years of age: by the Dwarves reckoning, he was still a stripling. Dáin's feat was heralded as a magnificent and glorious triumph for one so young. Dáin alone looked past the gate into Moria, and had the wisdom to know that it was impossible for the Dwarves to return while Durin's Bane yet lived.

The Battle of Five Armies

Dáin was the friend and cousin of Thorin II Oakenshield, and responded to Thorin's call for help during the quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain. Dáin marched with five hundred Dwarven soldiers, exceptionally strong even by Dwarven standards, clad in heavy chainmail and iron boots, and armed with mattocks, shields, and swords. He arrived just in time for the Battle of Five Armies. With Thorin's death in the battle, Dáin became King of Durin's Folk and King under the Mountain, the first not of the main line. After the battle, Dáin thanked the Great Eagles for their timely intervention, crowning their chief with gold and swearing the Dwarves to everlasting friendship with them. He also honored Thorin's commitments to Bard the Bowman and Bilbo Baggins, giving a fourteenth share of the Mountain's treasure to the people of Lake-town, and promising an even greater share to Bilbo, who politely declined to take more than two small chests, filled with silver and gold. Dáin also granted the emeralds of Girion to King Thranduil, who prized them greatly.

The War of the Ring

Dáin was a wise and just leader, and brought much wealth to the mountain realm and was on good terms with the Men of Dale to the south and the Elven king of Northern Mirkwood as well, which ensured peace for many years to come. When Balin and other Dwarves decided to reclaim Moria, Dáin initially refused, but Balin insisted on going.

A few months before the Council of Elrond, a messenger from Mordor appeared at the entrance of the Lonely Mountain and offered the Dwarves an alliance with Sauron, asking only in return that the Dwarves share what they knew "concerning Hobbits", and help to track down the One Ring, which the messenger described as "least of rings... a trifle that Sauron fancies."  The messenger said that, if the Dwarves could deliver the Ring itself, then Sauron would return three of the Rings of Power that originally belonged to the Dwarf-Lords, and Moria would be theirs to possess forever.  On the other hand, the messenger warned that "things will not seem so well" if the Dwarves did not help.

Knowing from long and bitter experience that Sauron could not be trusted, Dáin refused to be bribed or blackmailed, and sent the messenger away without an answer by claiming that he needed time to think over the proposal. He instead sent Glóin to Rivendell to consult with Elrond, while Dáin prepared the Lonely Mountain for war.

Death

Dáin participated in the War of the Ring's northern campaign but was killed during the Battle of Dale in TA 3019, defending the body of King Brand of Dale before the gates of the Lonely Mountain. He was, by then, an extremely old Dwarf, at the age of two-hundred and fifty-two, but still strong for his age. He was still among the greatest of the Dwarven warriors, a direct descendant of Durin I and his prowess in battle was nearly unmatched.

After news of his death reached Minas Tirith, Gandalf remarked that, as saddened as they must be at Dáin's death, they should be glad that he died in battle, defending his friend's body, as well as amazed that he was still as formidable a warrior as he had been when he was a young dwarf:

After his death during the war, his son, Thorin III Stonehelm, succeeded him.

Line of Kings of Durin's Folk

In adaptations

Rankin/Bass

In the animated film The Hobbit, Dáin is referenced by Thorin as the leader of the dwarf reinforcements arriving at Erebor from the Iron Hills, but is not seen in the film.

The Hobbitfilm trilogy

In the third installment of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit film trilogy, Dáin is portrayed by Scottish actor and comedian Billy Connolly. The character's history undergoes some drastic alteration, as the battle between him and Azog is instead combined with the account of how Thorin gained his surname, and results in Azog losing an arm below the elbow rather than perishing.

While the Lonely Mountain is under siege by a combined force of Mirkwood Elves and Men from the recently-destroyed Lake-town, Dáin arrives at the head of an army of Dwarves from the Iron Hills. Gandalf explains to Bilbo Baggins that Dáin and Thorin Oakinshield are cousins -and that Thorin is "The reasonable One"! Initially bent on attacking the elves, Dáin wheels half of his army to fight against Azog's army when it appears on the field. The Dwarves quickly formed a phalanx, in which fight he is reluctantly joined by the elves.

As the Orcs force the tired Dwarves back towards the gate of Erebor, Thorin and his company charge out, prompting Dáin to call for the Dwarves to rally to their King. The two cousins exchange hearty greetings on the battlefield, though Dáin is not seen for the rest of the film.

In battle, he rides a wild boar and wields a war hammer. After he is thrown off of his boar and loses his helmet, he is shown to have bright red hair, worn in a Mohawk (similar to Dwalin's at the time of the Battle of Azanulbizar).

In the extended edition for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies his role is slightly expanded, with his army briefly engaging the Elves until the arrival of the Orcs. Unlike the book, Dáin's army contained more than just heavily-armed infantry. In addition to having more than five hundred heavy infantry armed with spears, swords, axes, and shields, Dáin's army contained a force of two hundred fifty Dwarves mounted on armored goats, five war chariots manned by four Dwarves each and pulled by teams of six rams, and nine heavy ballistae manned by crews of five Dwarves that fired javelins with spinning tails behind them (called "twirly-whirlies" by Dáin). After the battle, he is crowned King under the Mountain. Although the extended edition of the third film does not reveal what happened afterwards, it is possible that he made good the promise his cousin Thorin made to the people of Esgaroth by giving them the gold that was owed to them. He may also have restored to Thranduil the necklace of white gems that Thror allegedly stole from the Elven-king years ago.

Voice dubbing actors

Video games

• Dáin appears in the real time strategy game The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II, fighting on the Dwarven faction as King Dáin. His great axe in the game is called Barazanthual, which was one of the finest weapons ever made by Dwarfdom and was rightly feared by all his enemies.
• In The Lord of the Rings Online, Dáin, along with King Brand of Dale, makes a brief appearance in the raid "Flight to the Lonely Mountain", where they brief the player before the assault of the Easterlings begin. After the conclusion of the Siege of Erebor, his tomb can be found in Mazal Akrâz, the "Chamber of Glory", nearby those of Fíli, Kili, and his cousin Thorin Oakenshield. The fates of Kings Dáin and Brand are somewhat of an oddity in the game. In the "Flight to the Lonely Mountain" raid, which is not part of the main storyline, King Brand stands alone at the water-crossing and is felled by enemy arrows, while Dáin escapes to the safety of Erebor where he dies alone before the gates. Later, during the main storyline of the game, the player hears this version of events from a dwarf and has the opportunity to correct him, noting that it is widely known that both Kings died together before the gates.

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