Bladorthin

A king fleetingly mentioned in The Hobbit as having ordered spears of superior quality for his soldiers from the Dwarves of Erebor. Bladorthin never received his weapons, presumably because of the descent of Smaug on the Lonely Mountain, though like much else about this character, it has hard to be completely certain why the spears were never delivered.

Almost no concrete information about Bladorthin exists. His name seems to come from Elvish, probably deriving from blador 'wide plain' and thin 'grey'. 'Grey' here betrays a curious connection with Gandalf the Grey: in the early drafts of The Hobbit, it seems that the Wizard's name was to have been 'Bladorthin'. Despite this, in the published version the name survives in just the single sentence quoted above. Questions about whether Bladorthin was a Man or an Elf, for instance, or precisely where his kingdom lay, must remain in the realm of speculation.