The Hobbit

blows.”
    But he reckoned without the dwarves. The knowledge that the Arkenstone was in the hands of the besiegers burned in their thoughts;
     also they guessed the hesitation of Bard and his friends, and resolved to strike while they debated.
    Suddenly without a signal they sprang silently forward to attack. Bows twanged and arrows whistled; battle was about to be
     joined.
    Still more suddenly a darkness came on with dreadful swiftness! A black cloud hurried over the sky. Winter thunder on a wild
     wind rolled roaring up and rumbled in the Mountain, and lightning lit its peak. And beneath the thunder another blackness
     could be seen whirling forward; but it did not come with the wind, it came from the North, like a vast cloud of birds, so
     dense that no light could be seen between their wings.
    “Halt!” cried Gandalf, who appeared suddenly, and stood alone, with arms uplifted, between the advancing dwarves and the ranks
     awaiting them. “Halt!” he called in a voice like thunder, and his staff blazed forth with a flash like the lightning. “Dread has come upon you all! Alas! it has come more swiftly than I guessed.
     The Goblins are upon you! Bolg * of the North is coming, O Dain! whose father you slew in Moria. Behold! the bats are above
     his army like a sea of locusts. They ride upon wolves and Wargs are in their train!”
    Amazement and confusion fell upon them all. Even as Gandalf had been speaking the darkness grew. The dwarves halted and gazed
     at the sky. The elves cried out with many voices.
    “Come!” called Gandalf. “There is yet time for council. Let Dain son of Nain come swiftly to us!”
    So began a battle that none had expected; and it was called the Battle of Five Armies, and it was very terrible. Upon one
     side were the Goblins and the Wild Wolves, and upon the other were Elves and Men and Dwarves. This is how it fell out. Ever
     since the fall of the Great Goblin of the Misty Mountains the hatred of their race for the dwarves had been rekindled to fury.
     Messengers had passed to and fro between all their cities, colonies and strongholds; for they resolved now to win the dominion
     of the North. Tidings they had gathered in secret ways; and in all the mountains there was a forging and an arming. Then they
     marched and gathered by hill and valley, going ever by tunnel or under dark, until around and beneath the great mountain Gundabad
     of the North, where was their capital, a vast host was assembled ready to sweep down in time of storm unawares
    upon the South. Then they learned of the death of Smaug, and joy was in their hearts; and they hastened night after night
     through the mountains, and came thus at last on a sudden from the North hard on the heels of Dain. Not even the ravens knew
     of their coming until they came out in the broken lands which divided the Lonely Mountain from the hills behind. How much
     Gandalf knew cannot be said, but it is plain that he had not expected this sudden assault.
    This is the plan that he made in council with the Elven-king and with Bard; and with Dain, for the dwarf-lord now joined them:
     the Goblins were the foes of all, and at their coming all other quarrels were forgotten. Their only hope was to lure the goblins
     into the valley between the arms of the Mountain; and themselves to man the great spurs that struck south and east. Yet this
     would be perilous, if the goblins were in sufficient numbers to overrun the Mountain itself, and so attack them also from
     behind and above; but there was no time to make any other plan, or to summon any help.
    Soon the thunder passed, rolling away to the South-East; but the bat-cloud came, flying lower, over the shoulder of the Mountain,
     and whirled above them shutting out the light and filling them with dread.
    “To the Mountain!” called Bard. “To the Mountain! Let us take our places while there is yet time!”
    On the Southern spur, in its lower slopes and in the rocks at its feet, the Elves were set; on the Eastern spur were men and
     dwarves. But Bard and some of the nimblest of men and elves climbed to the height of the Eastern shoulder to gain a view to the North. Soon they could see the lands before the Mountain’s feet black
     with a hurrying multitude. Ere long the vanguard swirled round the spur’s end and came rushing into Dale. These were the swiftest
     wolf-riders, and already their cries and howls rent the air afar. A few brave men were strung before them to make a feint
     of