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What it says on the tin — is the dwarf-mask Túrin got from the treasuries of Nargothrond the same as the masks the Naugrim wore in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad?

NB: this isn’t a dupe of this question since the answer doesn’t address whether they’re the same, it just says ‘the only other masks spoken of are the Helm of Hador and Túrin’s unnamed dwarf-mask’; it doesn’t identify them as the same.

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  • Surely the mask being identified as one of the dwarf-masks used in battle by default identifies it as one and the same?
    – Edlothiad
    Apr 13, 2020 at 7:45
  • @Edlothiad It isn’t identified as such, and we have no detail on whether the specific dwarf-mask used by Túrin was ever used by the Naugrim... I’m not sure what you mean; have I misunderstood your question? Apr 13, 2020 at 7:47
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    You ask if the dwarf-mask Turin uses is a mask made by dwarves. That seems like a rather obvious question given it’s called a dwarf-mask. In the linked question it asks whether any other masks made by dwarves were used in the battle and Isanae says “yes the dwarf-mask used by Turin” making it, as this question asks the same as the dwarf-masks of the dwarves
    – Edlothiad
    Apr 13, 2020 at 7:51
  • @Edlothiad I don’t ask if it’s made by dwarves, but rather if their ‘great masks’ used in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad are the same as the‘dwarf-mask’ used by Túrin. Conceivably, the masks could be different. And the dwarf-mask used by Túrin wasn’t (as far as we know) used in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, and Isanae hasn’t provided proof of his assertion — as my answer has. Apr 13, 2020 at 7:59
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    @Edlothiad Yes, but is Túrin’s very specific dwarf-mask the same kind of mask as the ‘great masks’ of the Naugrim? That isn’t a given, and it isn’t immediately obvious, especially since they’re talked about by different names in the Silmarillion (great masks vs dwarf-masks), scarcely 30 pages apart. Apr 13, 2020 at 8:40

1 Answer 1

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Yes, they are.

So this is probable for several reasons.

First, obviously the Naugrim are the dwarves — in this case the Dwarves of Belegost — and it’s called a dwarf-mask to signify that it’s made and used by dwarves. When used by the Naugrim it doesn’t need that signifier because it’s dwarves using them. So the different names make sense, and even support the idea of their being the same. Also, the Dwarves of Belegost were better friends of Elves than those of Nogrod — and delved Nargothrond, too — and so the idea of it being their masks that ended up in Nargothrond’s treasury makes more sense.

Secondly, both are identified as being awful and terrifying; the Valaquenta says of the Dwarves of Belegost that ‘it was their custom moreover to wear great masks in battle hideous to look upon’. Of Túrin it says that ‘he put it [the dwarf-mask] on before battle, and his enemies fled before his face’. So that fits.

Lastly, it says of both that it helped them against dragons: of the attack on Nargothrond by Glaurung and the orc-hordes it says that ‘none but Túrin defended by his dwarf-mask could withstand the approach of Glaurung’, and of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad it says that the Naugrim’s ‘great masks’ ‘stood them in good stead against the dragons’. Whether this was against their fire or their gaze, we don’t know, but presumably it was against their fire, since of the Naugrim it says that they ‘withstood fire more hardily than either Elves or Men, and it was their custom moreover to wear great masks in battle ... and those stood them in good stead against the dragons’, perhaps implying that the masks aided how they ‘withstood fire’.

But either way, the masks of the Dwarves of Belegost are probably of the same ‘make’ (if you will) of the dwarf-mask of Túrin.

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  • @Lexible I’m not sure how else to tell you why I rolled back your edits, but I did it because all of the changes you’re making are British English -> American English, and according to this meta answer (meta.stackexchange.com/questions/23869/…) bodies don’t have an accepted form (BrE vs AmE). Apr 14, 2020 at 5:30
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    Eh… your cited source is about spelling (which I changed none of). Most British style guides set the em dash closed, and the en dash open. (But kudos to you for not simply [shudder] typing a hyphen.) Today I learned that older British style guides set commas periods and the like outside the quote, although Hart and Oxford set inside, and that British style varies about single and double quotes. Carry on!
    – Lexible
    Apr 14, 2020 at 17:21

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