Q: Why Weren’t Bladorthin’s Thrice-forged Spears Delivered?
ANSWER: In The Hobbit when Bilbo and the Dwarves are hiding from Smaug in the secret passageway, they talk about the various treasures that the dragon has been guarding for 200 years.
From that the talk turned to the great hoard itself and to the things that Thorin and Balin remembered. They wondered if they were still lying there, unharmed in the hall below: the spears that were made for the armies of the great King Bladorthin (long since dead), each had a thrice-forged head and their shafts were inlaid with cunning gold, but they were never delivered or paid for; shields made for warriors long dead; the great golden cup of Thror, two-handed, hammered and carven with birds and flowers whose eyes and petals were of jewels; coats of mail gilded and silvered and impenetrable; the necklace of Girion, Lord of Dale, made of five hundred emeralds green as grass, which he gave for the arming of his eldest son in a coat of dwarf-linked rings the like of which had never been made before, for it was wrought of pure silver to the power and strength of triple steel. But fairest of all was the great white gem, which the dwarves had found beneath the roots of the Mountain, the Heart of the Mountain, the Arkenstone of Thrain.
Many readers ask who was King Bladorthin but oftentimes they also ask why the spears were never paid for or delivered. Tolkien never explained what happened to Bladorthin or why his spears were not purchased, but we can certainly propose a few plausible explanations.
For example, many people assume that Bladorthin died before he could pay for the spears. That is certainly possible and plausible. Perhaps he died of old age, illness, or in battle. Perhaps he was on his way to pick up the spears and Smaug attacked him.
Another possibility is that Bladorthin simply stopped accepting delivery of weapons from Erebor. Perhaps he had already purchased other spears, received them, and then his needs changed. He may have conquered the last of his enemies, or made peace with them, or driven them off. Or he may have lost a great part of his wealth and so could not complete the purchase.
Perhaps Thror’s people never had a chance to notify Bladorthin that the spears were finished, due to Smaug’s attack. Thus, Bladorthin would have been prevented from completing the transaction.
It could also be that Bladorthin had every intention of paying and accepting the spears but that Smaug seized control of the Lonely Mountain before the king could finish his business with the Dwarves.
Conclusion
One cannot help but wonder if the shields mentioned in the same paragraph were not also intended for Bladorthin’s armies. We will never know anything more about him as his name appears to just be a casual mention, a holdover of a name that was previously used in the story for the wizard before he became Gandalf.
And while it’s possible that J.R.R. Tolkien hastily sketched a note about Bladorthin and his spears on some scrap of paper, such a scrap has never been reported by any of the researchers who had access to his papers, including Christopher Tolkien himself. Such a note, if one ever existed, most probably has been lost forever. That said, we will always have our imaginations to draw upon for filling in the details of Bladorthin’s story, and of such stuff were great legends always made.
See also
Who Was King Bladorthin in The Hobbit?
When Was the Kingdom of Dale Founded?
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