In thefantasy ofJ. R. R. Tolkien, theDwarves are a race inhabitingMiddle-earth, the central continent ofArda in an imagined mythological past. They are based on thedwarfs of Germanic myths who were small humanoids that lived in mountains, practisingmining,metallurgy,blacksmithing andjewellery. Tolkien described them as tough, warlike, and lovers of stone and craftsmanship.
The origins of Tolkien's Dwarves can be traced to Norse mythology; Tolkien also mentioned a connection with Jewish history and language.Dwarves appear in his booksThe Hobbit (1937),The Lord of the Rings (1954–55), and the posthumously publishedThe Silmarillion (1977),Unfinished Tales (1980), andThe History of Middle-earth series (1983–96), the last three edited by his sonChristopher Tolkien.
ThemedievalistCharles Moseley described the dwarves of Tolkien's legendarium as "Old Norse" in their names, their feuds, and their revenges.[2] In the appendix on "Durin's Folk" inThe Lord of the Rings, Tolkien describes dwarves as:
a tough, thrawn race for the most part, secretive, laborious, retentive of the memory of injuries (and of benefits), lovers of stone, of gems, of things that take shape under the hands of the craftsmen rather than things that live by their own life. But they are not evil by nature, and few ever servedthe Enemy of free will, whatever the tales ofMen alleged. For Men of old lusted after their wealth and the work of their hands, and there has been enmity between the races.[T 1]
The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia considers Tolkien's use of the adjective "thrawn", noting its similarity withÞráinn, a noun meaning "obstinate person", and a name found in theNorse list of Dwarf-names, theDvergatal in theVöluspá. Tolkien took it for the name, Thráin, of two ofThorin Oakenshield's ancestors. It suggests this may have been aphilological joke on Tolkien's part.[1]
Dwarves were long-lived, with a lifespan of some 250 years.[T 1] They breed slowly, for no more than a third of them are female, not all marry, and they have children only late in life. Tolkien names only one female, Dís, Thorin's sister.[T 2] They are still considered children in their 20s, as Thorin was at age 24;[T 3] and as "striplings" in their 30s. Despite his young age,Dáin Ironfoot was 32 when he killedAzog, theorc chieftain ofMoria.[T 1] They had children starting in their 90s.[T 1]
Durin's Folk, showing the Dwarvish tendency to have few children (and fewer daughters)[T 1][a] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Dwarves are described as "the most redoubtable warriors of all the Speaking Peoples"[T 4] – a warlike race who fought fiercely against their enemies, including other Dwarves.[T 5] Highly skilled in the making ofweapons and armour, their main weapon was thebattle axe, but they also usedbows,swords,shields andmattocks, and wore armour.[T 6]
Sauron gaveseven Rings of Power to Dwarf lords. The Rings caused them to be wrathful and greedy for gold, but they were not brought under Sauron's domination,[T 7] nor did they gain longer life.[T 1] Eventually all seven Rings were destroyed or reclaimed by Sauron.[T 7] One of the rings was given to Durin III, and passed down toThrór, who gave it to his son Thráin II, father ofThorin Oakenshield. Sauron captured Thráin and took the ring from him in the dungeons ofDol Guldur.[T 1]
The Dwarves are portrayed inThe Silmarillion as an ancient people who awake during theYears of the Trees, after theElves at the start of theFirst Age, but beforeMen when the Sun and Moon are created. TheValaAulë, impatient for the arising of theChildren of Ilúvatar, creates the sevenFathers of the Dwarves in secret, intending them to be his children to whom he could teach his crafts. He teaches themKhuzdul, a language he had devised for them.Ilúvatar, creator ofArda, is aware of the Dwarves' creation and sanctifies them. Because they had been made by a Vala, Dwarves lacked souls until granted them by Ilúvatar.[3] Aulë sealed the seven Fathers of the Dwarves in stone chambers in far-flung regions of Middle-earth to await their awakening.[1][T 8]
Each of the Seven Fathers founds one of the seven Dwarf clans. Durin I is the eldest, and the first of his kind to awake in Middle-earth. He awakens inMount Gundabad, in the northernMisty Mountains, and founds the clan of Longbeards (Durin's Folk); they found the city ofKhazad-dûm below the Misty Mountains, and later realms in theGrey Mountains andErebor (the Lonely Mountain). Two others lie in sleep in the north of theEred Luin or Blue Mountains, and they found the lines of the Broadbeams and the Firebeards. The remaining four clans, the Ironfists, Stiffbeards, Blacklocks, and Stonefoots come from the East.[T 4] After the end of the First Age, the Dwarves spoken of are almost exclusively of Durin's line.[T 9]
A further division, the even shorterPetty-dwarves, appears inThe Silmarillion[T 10][4] andThe Children of Húrin.[T 11] Moseley likensMîm, the last known Petty-dwarf, to the similarly namedMime from theNibelungenlied.[2]
As creations of Aulë, they are attracted to the substances of Arda. They mine and work precious metals throughout the mountains of Middle-earth. They are unrivalled in smithing, crafting, metalworking, and masonry, even among theElves. The Dwarf-smith Telchar is the greatest in renown.[T 12] They build immense halls under mountains for their cities. They build many famed halls including theMenegroth,Khazad-dûm, andErebor.[T 5] Among the many treasures they forge are thenamed weaponsNarsil, the sword ofElendil, theDragon-helm of Dor-lómin and the necklace Nauglamír, the most prized treasure inNargothrond and the most famed Dwarven work of the Elder Days.[T 13] InThe Hobbit, Thorin gives Bilbo aMithril coat of linked rings ofmail.[T 14]
In Grey-elvish orSindarin the Dwarves are calledNaugrim ("Stunted People"),Gonnhirrim ("Stone-lords"), andDornhoth ("Thrawn Folk"), andHadhodrim. InQuenya they are theCasári. The Dwarves call themselvesKhazâd in their own language,Khuzdul.[T 16]Khuzdul is created for them by Aulë, rather than being descended from an Elvish language, as most of the languages ofMen are. They write it usingCirthrunes, a writing system originally created by Elves in Beleriand to write Sindarin, and later more fully developed by Daeron, an Elf of Doriath. The Cirth runes are adapted by Dwarves for writing Khuzdul.[6] The Dwarves keep their language secret and do not normally teach it to others, so they learn bothQuenya andSindarin to communicate with the Elves, especially theNoldor andSindar. By theThird Age the Dwarves are estranged from the Elves and no longer routinely learn their language. Instead, they mostly use theWestron or Common Speech, a Mannish tongue, in communicating with other races.[T 5][T 17]
Each Dwarf has two personal names, a secret or "inner" name in Khuzdul, which is used only among other Dwarves and is never revealed to outsiders, and a public "outer" name for use with other races, taken from the language of the people amongst whom the Dwarf lives. For example, the Dwarves of Moria and the Lonely Mountain use outer names taken from the language of the Men of the north where they lived.[T 16]
In reality, Tolkien took the names of 12 of the 13 dwarves – excludingBalin – that he used inThe Hobbit from the Old NorseVöluspá, long before the idea of Khuzdul arose.[1][7] When he came to writeThe Lord of the Rings, in order to explain why the Dwarves had Norse names, he created an elaborate fiction that many of the languages used in the book were "translated" into real-life languages for the benefit of the reader, roughly retaining the relationships of the languages among themselves. Thus, Westron was translated into English, the related but more archaic language of the Rohirrim was translated into Anglo-Saxon (Old English), and the even more distantly related language of Dale was translated into Norse. It is possible that the problem of explaining the Dwarves' Norse names was the origin of the entire structure of the Mannish languages in Middle-earth along with the fiction of "translation".[8]
Tolkien's only mention of the Dwarves' calendar is inThe Hobbit, regarding the "dwarves' New Year" orDurin's Day, which occurs on the day of the last new moon of autumn.[T 18] However, in his first drafts of the book, Durin's Day was thefirst new moon of autumn. After he had finished writing the book, Tolkien went back and changed all occurrences of the date to the last new moon, more in keeping with the real-worldCeltic calendar, but overlooked one mention in Chapter IV, which still named the date as the first new moon.[T 19] Tolkien never noticed this inconsistency, and it was not corrected until the 1995 edition of the book.[9] The astronomerBradley E. Schaefer has analysed the astronomical determinants of Durin's Day. He concluded that – as with many real-worldlunar calendars – the date of Durin's Day is observational, dependent on the first visible crescent moon.[10]
In Tolkien'sThe Book of Lost Tales, the very few Dwarves who appear are portrayed as evil beings, employers ofOrc mercenaries and in conflict with theElves—who are the imagined "authors" of the myths, and are therefore biased against Dwarves.[1][T 20][T 21] Tolkien was inspired by thedwarves of Norse myths[11][12] and of later Germanic folklore (such as that of theBrothers Grimm), from whom his Dwarves take their characteristic affinity with mining, metalworking, and crafting.[13][14]
InThe Hobbit, Dwarves are portrayed as occasionally comedic and bumbling, but largely as honourable, serious-minded, and proud. Tolkien was influenced by his own selective reading of medieval texts regardingJewish people and their history.[15] The dwarves' characteristics of being dispossessed of their homeland inErebor, and living among other groups but retaining their own culture, are derived from the medieval image of Jews,[15] while, according to the Tolkien scholarJohn D. Rateliff, their warlike nature stems from accounts in theHebrew Bible.[15][16] Medieval views of Jews also saw them as having a propensity for making well-crafted and beautiful things,[15] a trait shared with Norse dwarves.[12][17] The Dwarf calendar invented forThe Hobbit reflects theJewish calendar'sRosh Hashanah in beginning in late autumn.[15][18]
Aspect | Historical element | Application to Dwarves |
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Dispossession of homeland | Jewish diaspora | Living in exile fromMoria andErebor, retaining own culture |
Warlike nature | Medieval image of Jews | Warlike Dwarves |
Skill | Medieval image of Jews | Propensity for making well-crafted, beautiful things (like Norse Dwarves, too) |
Jewish calendar | Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year (September/October) | Dwarves' new year is in late autumn |
Private language | Medieval Jews spokeHebrew-derived language alongside local languages | Dwarves spoke "Semitic"[19]Khuzdul amongst themselves, shared language (Westron) to others[T 22] |
InThe Lord of the Rings, Tolkien continued the themes ofThe Hobbit. When giving Dwarves their own language,Khuzdul, Tolkien decided to create an analogue of aSemitic language influenced byHebrewphonology. Like medieval Jewish groups, the Dwarves used their own language only among themselves, and adopted the languages of those they live amongst for the most part, for example taking public names from the cultures they lived within, whilst keeping their "true-names" and true language a secret.[15] Tolkien further underlined thediaspora of the Dwarves with the lost stronghold of the Mines ofMoria. Tolkien elaborated on Jewish influence on his Dwarves in a letter: "I do think of the 'Dwarves' like Jews: at once native and alien in their habitations, speaking the languages of the country, but with an accent due to their own private tongue..."[T 22][16] In the last interview before his death, Tolkien said "The dwarves of course are quite obviously, wouldn't you say, that in many ways they remind you of the Jews? Their words are Semitic, obviously, constructed to be Semitic."[19] This raises the question, examined by Rebecca Brackmann inMythlore, of whether there was anelement of antisemitism, however deeply buried, in Tolkien's account of the Dwarves, inherited from English attitudes of his time. Brackman notes that Tolkien himself attempted to work through the issue in his Middle-earth writings.[20] It has been suggested that the formation of the deep friendship between the dwarfGimli and elfLegolas in theLord of the Rings overcoming longtime mutual suspicion can be seen as Tolkien's reply toward "Gentile anti-Semitism and Jewish exclusiveness".[21]
The philologistHelge Fauskanger analyses Khuzdul, finding in it features ofSemitic languages.[22]
Element | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
Word stems | Not pronounceable words, onlyconsonants | R-Kh-S "Orc-" |
Parts of speech | Nouns, verbs etc formed by insertingvowels into word stems; sometimes with doubling of a consonant | Rukhs "Orc";Rakhâs "Orcs" |
Construct state | Word before noun taken asgenitival, i.e. X Y = "The X of Y", "Y's X" | Baruk Khazâd! "Axes of the Dwarves!" |
Nominal sentence | Verb "to be" can be implicit | Khazâd ai-mênu! "The Dwarves [are] upon you!" |
The original editor ofThe Hobbit "corrected" Tolkien's plural "dwarves" to "dwarfs", as did the editor of thePuffin paperback edition.[T 23] According to Tolkien, the "real 'historical' plural" of "dwarf" is "dwarrows" or "dwerrows".[23] He described the word "dwarves" as "a piece of private bad grammar".[T 24] In Appendix F ofThe Lord of the Rings, Tolkien explained that if people still spoke of "dwarves" regularly, English might have retained a special plural for the word "dwarf", as with the irregular plural of "goose", "geese".[T 16] Despite his fondness for it,[T 16] the form "dwarrow" only appears in his writing as "Dwarrowdelf" ("Dwarf-digging"), a name for Moria. He used "Dwarves", instead, corresponding to his "Elves" as a plural for "Elf". Tolkien used "dwarvish"[T 25] and "dwarf(-)" (e.g. "Dwarf-lords", "Old Dwarf Road") as adjectives for the people he created.[T 16]
InRankin-Bass'1977 animated film adaptation ofThe Hobbit, Thorin was voiced byHans Conreid, withDon Messick voicingBalin,John Stephenson voicingDori,Jack DeLeon voicingDwalin,Fíli,Kíli,Óin,Glóin,Ori,Nori,Bifur, andBofur, andPaul Frees voicingBombur.[24]
InRalph Bakshi's 1978 animated filmThe Lord of the Rings, the part of the DwarfGimli was voiced byDavid Buck.[25]
InPeter Jackson'slive action adaptation ofThe Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Gimli's character is from time to time used as comic relief, whether with jokes about his height or his rivalry with the elfLegolas.[26][27] Gimli is played byJohn Rhys-Davies, who gave the character a "Welsh-derived" accent.[28]
In Jackson'sthree-film adaptation ofThe Hobbit, Thorin is portrayed byRichard Armitage, withKen Stott as Balin,Graham McTavish as Dwalin,Aidan Turner as Kíli,Dean O'Gorman as Fíli,Mark Hadlow as Dori,Jed Brophy as Nori,Adam Brown as Ori,John Callen as Óin,Peter Hambleton as Glóin,William Kircher as Bifur,James Nesbitt as Bofur, andStephen Hunter as Bombur. Jackson's films introduce a story arc not found in the original novel, in which Kili and the ElfTauriel (a character also invented for the films) fall in love.[29]
InIron Crown Enterprises'Middle-earth Role Playing (1986), Dwarf player-characters receive statistical bonuses to Strength and Constitution, and subtractions from Presence, Agility and Intelligence. Seven "Dwarven Kindreds", named after each of the founding fathers—Durin, Bávor, Dwálin, Thrár, Druin, Thelór and Bárin—are given inThe Lords of Middle-earth—Volume III (1989).[30]
InDecipher Inc.'sThe Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game (2001), based on the Jackson films, Dwarf player-characters get bonuses to Vitality and Strength attributes and must be given craft skills.[31]
In the real-time strategy gameThe Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II, and itsexpansion, both based on the Jackson films, Dwarves are heavily influenced by classical military practice, and use throwing axes, war hammers, spears, and circular or Roman-style shields. One dwarf unit is the"Phalanx", similar to itsGreek counterpart.[32]
Tolkien spoke about the Jewish-dwarvish connection during a BBC interview. 'I didn't intend it, but when you've got these people on your hands, you've got to make them different, haven't you?' said Tolkien during the 1971 interview. 'The dwarves of course are quite obviously, wouldn't you say that in many ways they remind you of the Jews? Their words are Semitic, obviously, constructed to be Semitic.'
John Rhys-Davies' distinctive Welsh-derived accent for Gimli was adopted by New Zealanders John Callen and Peter Hambleton in portraying characters who are Gimli's father [Gloin] and uncle [Oin].