Esgaroth

Esgaroth upon the Long Lake, also known as Lake-town, is a fictional comunity of Men in The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. The town is constructed entirely of wood and stands upon wooden pillars sunk into the bed of the Long Lake, south of the Lonely Mountain and west of Mirkwood. It seems that the town's prosperity is built on trade between the Men, Elves and Dwarves of northern Middle-earth.

In the year 2941 of the Third Age the town was attacked by the dragon Smaug, but Bard the Bowman, who had indirectly learned of a weakness in Smaug's armour that had first been noticed by Bilbo Baggins, slew the dragon. Although the town was wrecked by the dragon's fall, it was rebuilt using some of the treasure that Smaug had stolen, but not before the town's Master had gone mad and run off into the wild with some of the gold. Bard subsequently became the King of Dale and Esgaroth.