Next to Frodo on his right sat a dwarf of important appearance, richly dressed. His beard, very long and forked, was white, nearly as white as the snow-white cloth of his garments. He wore a silver belt, and round his neck hung a chain of silver and diamonds. Frodo stopped eating to look at him.

"Welcome and well met!" said the dwarf, turning towards him. Then he actually rose from his seat and bowed. "Gloin at your service," he said, and bowed still lower.

"Frodo Baggins at your service and your family's," said Frodo correctly, rising in surprise and scattering his cushions. "Am I right in guessing that you are the Gloin, one of the twelve companions of the great Thorin Oakenshield?"

"Quite right," answered the dwarf, gathering up the cushions and courteously assisting Frodo back into his seat. "And I do not ask, for I have already been told that you are the kinsman and adopted heir of our friend Bilbo the renowned. Alow me to congratuate you on your recovery."

"Thank you very much," said Frodo.

"You have had some very strange adventures, I hear," said Gloin. "I wonder greatly what brings four hobbits on so long a journey. Nothing like it has happened since Bilbo came with us. But perhaps I should not inquire too closely, since Elrond and Gandalf do not seem disposed to talk of this?"

"I think we will not speak of it, at least not yet," said Frodo politely. He guessed that even in Elrond's house the matter of the Ring was not one for casual talk; and in any case he wished to forget his troubles for a time. "But I am equally curious," he added, to learn what brings so important a dwarf so far from the Lonely Mountain."

Gloin looked at him. "If you have not heard, I think we will not speak yet of that either. Master Elrond will summon us all ere long, I believe, and then we shall all hear many things. But there is much else that may be told."

Throughout the rest of the meal they talked together, but Frodo listened more than he spoke; for the news of the Shire, apart from the Ring, seemed small and far-away and unimportant, while Gloin had much to tell of events in the northern regions of Wilderland. Frodo learned that Grimbeorn the Old, son of Beorn, was now the lord of many sturdy men, and to their land between the Mountains and Mirkwood neither orc nor wolf dared to go.

"Indeed," said Gloin, "if it were not for the Beornings, the passage from Dale to Rivindell would long ago have become impossible. They are valiant men and keep open the High Pass and the Ford of Carrock. But their tolls are high," he added with a shake of his head; "and like Beorn of old they are not over fond of dwarves. Still, they are trusty, and that is much in these days. Nowhere are there any men so friendly to us as the Men of Dale. They are good folk, the Bardings. The grandson of Bard the Bowman rules them, Brand son of Bain son of Bard. He is a strong king, and his realm now reaches far south and east of Esgaroth."