Dhurenfal

Early annals speak of the first seven Fathers and the route that each of the Great Houses took. It was the Fifth House under the rule of Thabor that soon followed the others wandering east, to settle themselves in the mountains called Eorstan south of Rhun. There the tribe prospered for many centuries and during this time the descendants of clan Dhurenfal were to emerge. The Kingdom produced a fine array of metalwork from their smithies, including a legendary hammer called Guurnikar that became the symbol of their House. This clan saw their power grow as successive generations held the post of Stone Warder to the King and bore the great hammer in his defence. The honored tradition was passed down until sometime in the late Second Age when a tragic event overtook this House. Internal strife seemed to strike at the heart of this House more than any of the others, for they suffered as much from internal conflict as the others did from external threats. The dark deed, whatever it was, is not known or committed to any text and if the clan elders of Dhurenfal today still know of it, they do not tell. So great was the fissure that this event caused that more than half of Thabor's folk including the King to break from their ancestral home and venture far to the south where they established new halls and remained unheard from for more than three thousand years, taking with them the Guurnikar.

The Dhurenfal also stayed with the other remaining clans and took its place as chief among equals, for their elder Hurrnin of Dhurenfal was now the Lord Stone Warder and, though he did not bear the legendary hammer still, he was their greatest warrior. About this time, Mannish settlements began to intrude on the vast plains around Rhun, most of them potentially hostile to the Dwarven folk. The tribesmen were much less skilled though in the ways of war and smithcraft and were quickly taught to respect the folk in Eorstan. However, one relationship would prosper as a Mannish folk known as the Dorwinrhim settled in the upper vales west of the Rhun Sea. As the centuries passed the trade relationship brought wealth to both peoples, but the remaining clans including the Dhurenfal began to grow fearful of dying out, as for some inexplicable reason the female population accounted for less than one-quarter of their folk and had done so now for a few generations. Word had already come centuries before of Durin's folk resettling in Erebor, though little contact had been maintained. Around Third Age 2600, a new rumor of another Dwarven settlement far north in the Iron Hills was passed on from the folk of Dorwinion who were themselves just beginning to trade with this branch of the First House.

As the clans' numbers waned, heated talk began to rage of searching out the King and Thabor's folk, yet the Dhurenfal would not hear of it. Unrest continued to spread when a messenger from King Thrain II of Erebor arrived in 2793 requesting the aid of all Dwarven folk against the murderous orcs and their King Azog in Moria. The Dhurenfal like many others heeded that call and spent the better part of five years hunting down all uruk where they could be found, culminating in the great Battle of Azanulbizar. Shortly before the battle, however, there was a reunion with the army sent from Thabor's folk. Again the terms of the discussion were kept secret, but following the victory over the orcs the remaining Eorstan clans returned with Thabor's survivors to rejoin their ancestral House, that is except clan Dhurenfal. They would not go and when word of this came to Nain's son Dain Ironfoot, he approached Dhurenfal's elders to return with his folk as honored kinsmen and equals within his halls in Emyn-Engrin. Recognizing that their fate was now linked to the First House, the elders accepted and Dhurenfal became one of the four prominent clans under the Steward's rule.