Once upon a time in Middle-Earth there was a dwarf named Runar. He had a good friend named Halvdan who was in fact also a dwarf. Then there were lots of more dwarfs, elves, orcs and all other creatures one would expect to find in this kind of fantastic realm, but none of them were of such significant importance for the story as to warrant a presentation in the opening sentences. The named dwarfs in question lived in the unquestionably mountainous, but questionably lonely, Lonely Mountain where king Dain ruled wisely.

Runar was a scholarly dwarf and often borrowed books from the great archive of Erebor, to the delight of Libri, the chief librarian.

One afternoon he sat down in the local feast hall and read. He had come across some interesting but unclear passage telling about a place called "Midgard". It was said that the realm were home to dwarfs just like Middle-Earth and that they could craft fantastic and wondrous things. A mechanical golden boar, unbreakable fetters and chains, an entire ship made of the fingernails of the dead. That last thing was perhaps more creepy than wondrous. Some of them were apparently very strong. Four dwarves called Norr, Söder, Öster and Väster held up the sky itself. Runar could not really understand that particular passage since the sky had never seemed like a solid object to him. But they were without doubt very strong.

He sat and read until the sun set and no longer cast any light through the high and thick windows of the hall. What if one could find the way to Midgard and meet those dwarfs? Runar had studied to become a diplomat and dreamed of travelling to foreign lands and sign trade agreements and alliances with everyone. He had already signed some trade agreements, but they were relatively trivial. Once, for example, he agreed to trade some sausages for a keg of beer. Very useful of course, since the spicy sausages made you very thirsty, but not so interesting. He had also allied with his best friend Halvdan in preparation for the annual snowball battle during the midwinter festivities, but that alliance had come rather naturally by itself. Not really a test of his diplomatic abilities.

Halvdan was less diplomatic than Runar, but also interested in finding new lands. He was a bit shy, so he mostly let Runar do the talking, and this had led him to become interested in the noble profession of espionage. Halvdan was an expert at hiding and moving unnoticed. He was especially intrigued by the prospect of a mechanical boar. If the dwarfs of Midgard knew more about boars than those of Middle-earth, maybe they could teach some tricks to the latter? Both Runar and Halvdan held boars in high regard and usually picked mushrooms instead of the salted pork at dinners, sometimes to the amusement of their company. Their joking was generally short-lived though, as each jest was met by even wittier retorts from Runars sharp tongue and Halvdans cunning pranks.

Like most dwarfs in these dangerous times, both Runar and Halvdan had trained a lot with axes and hammers to be able to defend Erebor or the Southern allies in Dale, should the need arise. Both were convinced that the dwarfs were without peers as infantry. Yet their armies were always restricted by their lack of cavalry. Horses were too large, except for ponies which were not so good for the melee combat favoured by the dwarfs. However, one could only dream of the possibilities that would arise if the dwarfs could acquire the aid of wild boars, perhaps mechanical ones. Boars armoured in dwarf chainmail or plate, charging with a dwarf on it back and ramming into orc and warg alike!

And so it was that the two dwarfs decided to seek out the strange realm of Midgard and try to establish contacts with whoever they could find there. They started with seeking out Libri and ask if he could tell more about the subject.