Dwarves in Middle-earth: Difference between revisions

The Dwarves (Khuzdul: Khazâd, Quenya: Kasári, Sindarin: Hadhodrim) are a race created by the Vala Aulë (and therefore not counted among Children of Ilúvatar) inhabiting the fictional world of Arda in the Legendarium of J. R. R. Tolkien. Other common terms used to refer to the Dwarves (by the Elves) are Naugrim ('Stunted People') are Gonnhirrim ('Stone-lords'), and Dornhoth ('Thrawn Folk').

Tolkien's Dwarves are inspired by his own selective reading of medieval texts regarding the Jewish people^[1] - being bearded, dispossessed of their homeland and living among other groups whilst retaining their own culture, being warlike and having a propensity for making well-crafted and beautiful things and also the popular dwarves of fairy-tales (such as those the Brothers Grimm), from whom they take their characteristic mining. Almost all of Tolkien's Dwarves are given names of those from Norse myths.

In the earliest version of the Silmarillion, The Book of Lost Tales, Dwarves are portrayed as evil beings, often in conflict with the Elves - who are the imagined 'authors' of the myths, and are therefore biased against Dwarves.^[2] This representation changed dramatically with The Hobbit and was carried into The Lord of the Rings - whose imagined authors were the more neutral Hobbits. Here the Dwarves became occasionally comedic and bumbling (most notably in The Hobbit), but largely as honorable and firmly aligned against the powers of the Shadow but still portraying some negative characteristics such as being gold-hungry and overly proud and occasionally officious. In The Hobbit all the names but one are taken from the single Old Norse poem "Voluspa" from the Elder Edda^[3], however more than just supplying names, the Tally of the Dwarves in the Voluspa appears to have inspired Tolkien to the idea of supplying meaning and context to the list of names - that they traveled together, and this in turn became the quest told of in The Hobbit.^[4]

The original editor of The Lord of the Rings "corrected" Tolkien's plural dwarves to dwarfs ^[5]. According to Tolkien, the "real 'historical'" plural of dwarf is dwarrows or dwerrows. He referred to dwarves as "a piece of private bad grammar" ^[6] and . In Appendix F of The Lord of the Rings it is explained that if we still spoke of dwarves regularly, English might have retained a special plural for the word dwarf as with goose - geese, despite Tolkiens fondness for it, the form dwarrow only appears in his writing as Dwarrowdelf, a name for Moria.

Tolkien used Dwarves, instead, which corresponds with Elf and Elves. In this matter, one has to consider the fact that the etymological development of the term dwarf differs from the similar-sounding word scarf (plural scarves). The emendation dwarrow is probably Tolkien's own construction. The English word is related to old Norse dvergr, which, in the other case, would have had the form dvorgr. But this word was never recorded, and the f/g-emendation (English/Norse) dates further back in language history.

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The Dwarves are described as having been created to withstand both heat and cold. Though they are mortal, Dwarves have an average lifespan of 250 years. Shorter than men, they have beards and were both stubborn and prideful. Fierce in battle, their main weapons were axes and mattocks of various types. They are inveriably by profession involved in the working of stone and metal, and they forged the greatest weaponry and armour in the world. Only one Dwarf female, Dís, was ever named in the legendarium, and Tolkien claimed that they did not make up more than 30% of the total Dwarven population.

Throughout the First Age and most of the Second Age, the Dwarves maintained mostly friendly trading relationships with Men and Elves (the Dwarves of Norgod's treachery of Thingol being an exception). However, in the Third Age, particularly after the closure of Moria, they grew mistrustful of Elves, though in later times cordial relations were established with the Elves of Mirkwood and the Men of Dale. They also maintained somewhat ambivilent relations with Hobbits for most of the Third Age, although after the mission to retake the Lonely Mountian Bilbo Baggins was held in great esteem there.

From their creation, the Dwarves spoke Khuzdul, a constructed language made for them by Aluë. Because it was a constructed (though living) language, it was not related to any form of Elvish, as most of the languages of Men were, although it is suggested that the language may have had influence on the early languages of Men^[7]. Khuzdul was for the most part a closely gaurded tongue (one of the few recoreded outsiders to have a knowledge of it was Eöl), however, and the Dwarves never revealed their Khuzdul names to outsiders, going so far as to omit them from even their tombs. Khuzdul was written in Cirth, a runic alphabet developed by the Elves. It was percived as an analouge of a Semetic language by Tolkien, and was influinced by Hebrew phonology. There is no extant corpus for the Khuzdul language, whether in Tolkien's novels or in his private works, other than the battle cry: Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu! (meaning "Axes of the Dwarves! The Dwarves are upon you!") and the inscription on Balin's tombstone, reading: BALIN FUNDINUL UZBAD KHAZAD-DÛMU, or Balin son of Fundin Lord of Moria. The remainder of the Khuzdul lexicon is composed of single words.

The Dwarves are portrayed as a very ancient people, who awoke, like the Elves, at the start of the First Age, before the rising of the Sun or Moon.

In Tolkien's works, the Dwarves (in the form of their seven patriarchs) were created even before the Elves--during the Years of the Trees (also known as the Ages of Darkness), when all of Middle Earth was controlled by the forces of Melkor. They were shaped by the Vala Aulë in secret from the other Valar, although Ilúvatar knew of their creation, despite Aluë's efforts. He decided that their creation was not an evil deed and sanctified them, though he did not allow them to "awake" before the Elves (whom he had designated as "Firstborn"), and sealed the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves in a stone chamber until after the Elves had awoken.

After the Elves had awoken at Cuiviénen, the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves were released from their stone chamber. These seven patriarchs founded seven clans. The three who enter Tolkien's histories are:

• Longbeards (Durin's folk) Durin originally awoke at Mount Gundabad in the Misty Mountains and wandered alone, but eventually founded the city of Khazad-dûm.
• Firebeards, who founded Nogrod.
• Broadbeams, who founded Belegost.

The histories of the other for clans are not revealed by Tolkien. They are:

• Ironfists.
• Stiffbeards.
• Blacklocks.
• Stonefoots.

After the end of the First Age, the Dwarves spoken of are almost exclusively of Durin's line.

The great dwarven cities of Belegost and Nogrod were founded in Ered Luin (The Blue Mountains) during the first age, before the arrival of the Elves in Beleriand. During this time they began their great works in stoge carving and forgery. The Dwarves of Belegost were the first to forge chain mail, and they also traded weaponry with the Sindar and carved the Thousand Caves of Menegroth for the Elf king Thingol. In Nogrod, the smith Telchar forged Narsil and Angrist, two of the most fatefull weapons in the history of Arda.

It was also during this time that, for a reason never revealed by Tolkien, the ancestors of the Petty Dwarves were exiled into the area of the River Narog and Amon Rûdh. They were smaller than their eastern relatives. When the Sindar elves first arrived in Beleriand, they did not know what sort of creatures the Petty Dwarves, whom they called Noegyth Nibin, and hunted them for sport^[8]. When they learned that they were a Dwarf race they halted this practice, but the Petty Dwarves had already been reduced greatly in number and continued to wane as a people. By the 6th century of the first age only three remained: Mîm, their king, and his two sons, Ibun and Khîm. They gave shelter to the Edain Túrin Turambar and his band at their home of Amon Rûdh. Mîm was later captured by a band of orcs and saved his own life by betraying Túrin, though his sons were killed. Mîm later became the posessor of a dragon horde abandoned by Glaurug, but was later killed by Húrin, Túrin's father.

The dwarves of Beleriand fought against the forces of Melkor during the first age, and the dwarves of Belegost were the only able to withstand the dragonfire in the Battle of Unumbered Tears, when King Azaghâl, who died in the battle, stabbed Glaurug, the Father of the Dragons.

The dwarves of Nogor fought against Melkor as well. However, they slew Thingol out of greed and stole the Silmaril they had been charged to set into the necklace called Nauglamír. A number of retalitory actions ensued, and the Nogorod army was destroyed by a force of Laiquendi and Ents. Both dwarf kingdoms would eventually be destroyed, along with nearly all of Beleriand, after the War of Wrath, with the dwarven refugees mainly resettling in Khazad-dûm.

After his awakening, the dwarf called Durin, eldest of the Dwarf fathers,wandered until he founded the city of Khazad-dûm in the natural caves beneath the three peaks under which Khazad-dûm was later situated: Caradhras, Celebdil, and Fanuidhol (known in Khuzdul as Baranzinbar, Zirakzigil, and Bundushathûr, respectively). The city, populated by the Longbeards or Durin's folk, grew and prospered continiously through Durin's life (which was so long that he was called Durin the Deathless, also a reference to the belief by his people that he would be reincarnated seven times). It was the only of the Dwarf mansions to survive the first age.

Refugees from Belegost and Norgod added to the population of Khazad-dûm, and its wealth was also enriched with the discovery of mithril, a magical and extremely valuable metal found only in its mines. During this time the Dwarves continued to trade with neighboring Men and the Elves of Eregion. When the Elven-Smiths forged the Rings of Power, seven were made as gifts to the heads of the seven Dwarf clans. The Dwarves of Moria at first fought in the War of Sauron and the Elves, but in the year 1697 of the Second Age, the doors of Khazad-dûm were shut and its inhabitants no longer ventured forth into the world. Thereafter it was known by the elven name of Moria, meaning "dark chasm".

During the Third Age the Dwarves of Moria continuied to prosper until the year 1980, when, in pursuing a vein of mithril, they broke open a chamber containing the last balrog known in the histories of Middle Earth, called Durin's Bane. They battled against the demon for one year, and after the death of two kings, the Dwarves who had not been killed fled from the Misty Mountains. For more than a century they had no kingdom, but in the year 1999, Thrain I founded a kingdom at the Lonely Mountain. This kingdom prospered for a time, and the great jewel known as the Arkenstone was discovered.

In 2210 Thorin I founded a kingdom in the Grey Mountains to the north of Mirkwood. Both of these realms would eventually be consumed by dragons--the Grey Mountians in 2590 by a horde and The Lonely Mountain in 2770 by the dragon Smaug. The refugees from the Grey Mountains who did not return to The Lonely Mountain colonized the Iron Hills, one of the only Dwarf kingdoms never to be abandoned or taken. The main body of the Dwarves became a wandering people, and Thrór, who had been king of the Lonely Mountain when it was captured, was slain by Orcs in the year 2790 and his body mutilated. This led to the War of the Dwarves and Orcs, in which nearly all of the Orc hoardes of the Misty Mountains were exterminated but half of all Dwarf warriors (at least 35% of the total Dwarven population) was killed, a blow from which their population would never recover.

For a time an exile kingdom was founed in the Blue Mountains, but Thráin II was soon captured by Sauron during his time in Dol Goldur, tortured, killed, and his Ring of Power, the last of the Dwarf rings not yet taken or consumed by dragons, was taken. In 2491, Thorin II Okenshield, grandson of Thrór, recolonized the Lonely Mountain after Smaug the dragon was slain by Bard, the futre King of Dale. After the ensuing Battle of the Five Armies, in which the Eagles, the Elves of Mirkwood, the Men of Dale, and the Dwarves of the Iron hills (as well as Thorin's band) defeated an invading hoarde of Orcs and in which Thorin was killed, his cousin Dáin II Ironfoot, already King of the Iron Hills, became King Under the Mountain, and the Lonely Mountain was not abandoned again.

Dwarves did not figure prominently in the major battles of the War of the Ring although the Lonely Mountain was besiged for a time and Dáin killed in the Battle of Dale. One dwarf, however, Gimli, joined the Fellowship of the Ring and was a companion of the Ringbearer for a great part of his journey, and also fought at the Battle of Hornburg, the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, and the Battle of the Morannon.

At the start of the Fourth Age, Gimli lead a group of colonists from the Lonely Mountain to the Glittering Caves, beneath Hornburg in Rohan, where he established another Dwarf kingdom and ruled there for more than a century, until the death of Aragorn in the year 120 of the Fourth Age, when he sailed into the Undying Lands. From that point on, Tolkien does not write of the fate of the Dwarves, though it stands to reason that they continued to dwindle.

• Belegost (Elvish for "mighty fortress" and called Gabilgathol in Khuzdul), destroyed in the sinking of Beleriand
• Nogrod (called Tumunzahar in Khuzdul),destroyed in the sinking of Beleriand
• Khazad-dûm (later called Moria), lasted until 1980 of the Third Age, briefly recolonized from 2989 until 2994

• The Lonely Mountain (called Erebor in Sindarin), colonized in the year 1999 by Thráin I, captured and held by Smaug from 2770 until 2941
• The Grey Mountains, founded as a Kingdom (it had previously been a colony of Moria refugees) in 2210 by Thorin I and lasted until 2590, when it was overtaken by dragons
• Iron Hills, colonized around the year 2590 by Grór
• Blue Mountains, where an exile kingdom was founded by Thráin I 2799 and inhabited until the return to The Lonely Mountain

• The Glittering Caves, founded by Gimli after the War of the Ring

• List of Middle-earth Dwarves

• The Ardalambion study of Khuzdul

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