Questions tagged [dwarves]
Mythological creatures typically described as short in stature, but making up for a lack of height with a strong torso, muscular arms and immense work ethic. Often depicted with an aptitude for smithing, mining, construction and metalwork, they are described as clanish and prefer to live and work beneath ground.
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Are the Dwarfs meant to represent Jews in The Last Battle?
In The Last Battle, the Dwarfs reject Aslan so much that they remain stuck in the stable even when it has been transformed into paradise around them.
C.S. Lewis wrote Aslan to represent Jesus, so does ...
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Why couldn't the dwarves beat/kill the Balrog? #2 [duplicate]
Follow-up question to Why couldn't the dwarves beat/kill the Balrog?
From the answers to that question, the dwarves apparently couldn't kill the Balrog because the Balrog is very powerful, so powerful ...
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Why couldn't the dwarves beat/kill the Balrog?
We read that the dwarves fled Moria after the Balrog killed Durin, their king.
My question is: was it beyond the power of the dwarves to kill the Balrog? If so, how come elves were able to kill them? ...
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What is the first fantasy work to feature both dwarves and dwarfs?
A staple trope in fantasy and indeed European folklore is a race of short humans, usually fond of mining; these mythical creatures are usually spelt dwarves after Tolkien. They do not exist in real ...
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Does Mary Stone have a beard?
I've not gotten a hold of Rune Service: Dwarf for Hire yet, but I have noticed the two covers have a conflicting depiction for Mary Stone, the main character.
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Obviously the production value between ...
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Do dwarf women have beards?
In light of Amazon's recent depiction of a non-bearded dwarf woman, and some of the recent controversy around this, the question is what exactly did Tolkien say about bearded dwarf women?
Popular ...
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What did Tolkien write about the beard style of male dwarves other than of Thorin and Co (and Gimli)?
In The Hobbit, the Dwarves' beards are described quite explicitly. The convoluted history of how Tolkien thought about Dwarf women and their facial hair over is not something I want to raise here, but ...
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Possible Dwarvish Orc?
I've read many posts and discussions on the origin of the Tolkien orc, yet in everything I've read, not once has this idea I've wondered about been answered with any wisdom, or references to add ...
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Was the Crown of Durin real?
According to the myth of the settlement of Khazad-Dum, Durin saw the crown in Mirrormere and took it as a sign:
A group of seven stars mysteriously reflected from the surface of the lake of Kheled-...
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Is the facial hair of Tolkien's dwarves unshaveable?
By which I mean that they could not be shaven, due to some sort of magic on them. Or are they simply omnipresent, but not magically protected?
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Who were the seven dwarves Sauron gave the Rings of Power to?
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men, doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of ...
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What is the earliest example of enmity between dwarfs and elves? [duplicate]
Throughout fantasy literature there exists enmity between dwarfs and elves, depending on the author it can range from distrust, through to outright racial hatred and war.
Where have these historic ...
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Animated movie with dwarves who don't have hearts
I watched this animated movie when I was a kid, between 1998 and 2015.
In the movie there was a race of dwarves and it was known that they didn't have hearts. When emptiness started to take over and ...
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Are there any female dwarves, and if not, how do they reproduce? [duplicate]
In the The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings series, there are many descriptions of dwarves. But there isn't any mention of female dwarves. Are there any in-universe mentions of female dwarves? If ...
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Page reference for information on Durin II
I found a note on Tolkien Gateway that Durin II began a cooperation with the Men of the Vales of Anduin, but this simply cites The Peoples of Middle-earth (the section titled 'Of Dwarves and Men') and ...
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Aren't dwarves supposed to be short?
Single and minor spoiler in this post, but not really.
In Avengers: Infinity War, we see the Dwarf King of Nidavellir -- Eitri.
When looking up the Dwarves of Nidavellir, (and Eitri), the ...
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What's the physical difference between Hobbits and Dwarves?
Yesterday (by now, after editing the question, a few days ago) I saw the wonderful third movie of "The Hobbit". I wasn't bored for a moment. Afterwards, while still thinking about the film, I was ...
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Do the dwarves grow weary of Middle-earth
This answer suggests that, like the Eldar, the Dwarves grow weary of Middle-earth. I had never considered that notion before. The passage is:
Also, the Noldor's purpose was to prevent the decay of ...
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Where do the Dwarves put all the stone from the Mines of Moria?
In Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Ring heads into the Mines of Moria to escape from the Watcher in the Water after attempting to cross over the Misty Mountains.
Inside the Mines of Moria ...
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Why or how did Durin the Deathless live so long?
Do we have any indication on why Durin I (the Deathless) was able to live such a long life? Sources [1,2] seem to indicate that he lived to be at least 2,395 years old.
Given that that is around ten ...
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Where did the Dwarves go? [duplicate]
In Tolkien's stories, we know that the Elves went into the West, but where did the Dwarves go? Did they just die off like the petty Dwarves (Mim and his kin)?
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Are there half-dwarves in Middle Earth? [duplicate]
Inspired by this question/answer
According to the answer, The Lord of the Rings has both half-elves and half-orcs, but no half-dwarves or half-hobbits.
Is there any example in LOTR of half-dwarves? ...
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What dwarves live in the Grey Mountains?
In The Hobbit chapter 15, while Thorin is talking to Roäc, he says
Also I would beg of you, if any of you are still young and strong of wing, that you would send messengers to our kin in the ...
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How did dwarves living underground handle trash and sewage?
Sure, nobody really poops anyways, but maybe some dwarf somewhere did once need to poop or pee and the rest of the dwarves made some accommodation for such a contingency.
Is there any info about this ...
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Is there more information about dwarves wearing masks in battle?
In the Silmarillion, it says that during the Fifth Battle, it was the custom of the Naugrim to wear great masks in battle, hideous to look upon, and the masks stood them in great stead against the ...
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Do dwarves always stop fighting when their leader is killed?
In The Silmarillion, it says that during the Fifth Battle, when Glaurung killed Azaghâl, the Lord of the Belegost, the dwarves stopped fighting and carried his body away "with slow steps", "singing a ...
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The dwarven clans of Middle-Earth
I saw a question about the creation of the dwarves and this popped into my mind, bear with me.
The 7 fathers of the dwarves are given life by Iluvatar along with wives, yet Durin didn't have one. ...
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How did the Dwarves reproduce? [duplicate]
Aulë created the first 7 Dwarven fathers, from whom 7 Dwarven clans rose. But how did they reproduce into even more clans, if it's known that the first Dwarves were men, and Dwarves reproduce sexually?...
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Does a Dwelf, Dwarf / Elf hybrid ever appear in any Fantasy, besides D&D?
In the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing games there exists the Dwelf, which is a hybrid between Dwarf and Elf.
The Hobbit movie franchise shows a romance between the dwarf Kili and the elf Tauriel....
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Why didn't the Moria record-taker fight more and write less?
I can't quite get my head around the psychology of the dwarf who had the job of taking notes during Balin's excursions into Moria. The Fellowship comes across this record when they passed through ...
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Did Tolkien invent enough Dwarvish to carry on a conversation? [duplicate]
I read the glossaries of the Lord of the Rings books and it said that the language spoken by the Dwarves was not spoken to others except for a few words. That got me wondering if Tolkien had ever even ...
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Do Dwarves and Elves have a pancreas?
Or, rather, did Tolkien leave any specific or general notes on anatomical differences between their and Men's skeletal/muscle/organ structure? There is information on some differences such as height, ...
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How does interspecies reproduction work in the Lord of the Rings universe?
So, I know that there is a race in The Lord of the Rings of Peredhil (half elf). Also, in The Hobbit (film trilogy, not book), there is a romance between a dwarf and an elf.
My question is, how do man/...
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Is there a legal system in Middle-earth?
I was re-watching the Hobbit films last weekend, and noticed in "An Unexpected Journey", there is a scene in Bag End where the Dwarves present Bilbo with a contract, outlining the many potential ...
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Did Thráin have one of the seven rings?
In the Hobbit film it emphasises Thráin's lust for gold and the insanity this bought on.
Was this caused by only the gold, or did he posses one of the Seven rings given to Dwarfs which could corrupt?
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Why is it "dwarves" and not "dwarfs"?
Throughout the Legendarium, Tolkien uses "dwarves" as the plural for "dwarf". However, as this extremely smoothed Google Ngram search shows, "dwarfs" has always been the more popular choice:
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What happened to the dwarves' instruments?
The dwarves in The Hobbit brought their instruments to Bilbo's hole. Did they leave their fiddles, viols, drum, harp, flutes and clarinets there or take them on the whole journey?
(I noticed that ...
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Are there any classic fantasy type comic series? (with dwarves, magic, etc) [closed]
I'm starting to get into comics and am reading some of the big ones, marvel, dc and I've seen the fantasy world in Grimm Fairy Tales. But I was expecting to be able to find something like a classic ...
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Where did the Dwarves get their food from?
In Tolkien's writings, dwarves are practically always (to my knowledge) pictured as living in underground halls, inside mountains, etc. We never hear about dwarves working fields and pastures, or even ...
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Are Dwarves ever accorded lower stature than Elves or Men because they were not created by Ilúvatar?
Note: I found Was there racism in Middle-earth? shortly before posting this, but I think that they differ enough because the other question focuses on racist attitudes, whereas this question is not ...
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How many dwarves of Thorin's ex company were alive during The War of Ring?
I googled something about this, and somewhere I've found an information which says that 7 dwarves of Thorin's ex company were alive during the War of Ring, but I can't find it again.
Anyway, on LOTR ...
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Why do the Dwarves in LOTR call Moria 'Moria'
Moria
Sindarin: "Black Chasm"
First it is not a very flattering name, second it is the name given by the Dwarves enemy. So why is it used by Gimli when referring to the mines. It has other more ...
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How much Dwarvish appears in Tolkien's work?
The comments on this question led to an interesting conversation about the Dwarvish language (apparently known as Khuzdul among the Dwarves themselves). The conversation centered on Gimli's battle ...
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How many axes did Gimli bring on the quest of the Fellowship?
In the LotR movies, Gimli leaves Rivendell with the Fellowship directly following the Council of Elrond. Yet he seems to have an absurd number of axes with him. One is destroyed when he tries to ...
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What are the dwarves saying (cheering or yelling) after Dain´s words: Let's give those bustards a good hammering?
I was wondering what are the words that the dwarves are yelling before battle in the movie The Battle of Five Armies. Can anyone tell me what those words are?
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Why were the doors of Moria made so easy to open?
Dwarves are supposed to be suspicious and secretive. It doesn't make sense to let anyone who knows the Elvish word for friend have access to the mines. And as we see in FoTR, the "riddle" does prove ...
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Tolkien: Is there any incidence of a romance between a dwarf and a man/woman? [duplicate]
Following up this question about love between Dwarfs and Elves (What inspired Tauriel's story arc?), I wondered whether there is any incidence of a romance between a dwarf and a man/woman? The ...
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Why aren't Dwarves immortal?
Ever since I read The Silmarillion, I've been wondering why the Dwarves were created mortal. Since mortality is the gift of Men from Ilúvatar, it didn't make sense to me that Dwarves also have the ...
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What are the origins of "Dwarf Tossing" in fantasy fiction?
Where did the idea of 'Dwarf Tossing' come from in fantasy?
I am pretty sure I first came across it in Blood Bowl and it famously happened to Gimli in the Two Towers film adaptation.
But it feels ...
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What's the Original example of the common fantastical trope of Dwarf vs Elf?
Related this another recent question
What's the original fictional (including) mythological example of Elves and Dwarves being set up as rival races? Is this a trope that first made it's appearance ...
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