Dwarves
Khazâd; the Children of Aulë
The Dwarves
Names
The Avari and the Edain had their word for them too; the Elves’ names always note their smallness and their stone-love, and the Dwarves themselves acknowledge mercy in being called “children of Aulë”.
Origin: the making
The Dwarves were not created by Ilúvatar directly. In the chaos after the fall of the Lamps, before the Elves awoke, Aulë the Smith grew impatient for the Children of Ilúvatar and made the Dwarves in secret, fashioning them “in the likeness of the Children”, for he had learned of their coming and could not wait. He taught them the craft of stone and metal and their own tongue, Khuzdul. Eru discovered the work. Aulë confessed and would have broken his children, but Eru in mercy adopted them: “I have… given to them… free will… and set them… the sleep… until the coming of the Firstborn”. Thus the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves were set to sleep in the earth, and when the Elves awakened, the Dwarves also woke — “and they are the children of Aulë, and he claims them for his own, and regards them as his”. The Seven Fathers: the seven lords from whom the seven kindreds descend, in the seven habitations where they kindled their fires (of the eldest, Durin, the tradition says he slept alone and woke alone, and the Longbeards reckon him the eldest).
Nature and Gifts
- The Sons of Aulë are wanderers of the stone: — hard, secret, stubborn, with a lust for gold and jewels and craftsmanship that is both their glory and their doom. -
They are not bound to the earth as the Elves are, but their fate after death is the mystery of Aulë: “the Elves say the Dwarves believe… that after death they go to the Halls of Aulë… and dwell in his care… and that at the end of the world the Seven Fathers shall be summoned”.
- They are immune to many evils: to the dragon — later lore; within the Silmarillion their stubborn hearts resist the “unquiet” of the rings — their strength against the Evil of Morgoth (who, in the First Age, “of the children of Aulë… could make none his servants” — he corrupted some through greed). Unlike Elves, they beget children rarely and are long-lived but mortal; “their span of years is short by the reckoning of the Elves, but long by that of Men”.
In the Tale (Silmarillion)
Within the
Quenta the Dwarves:
- Built Nogrod and Belegost in the Blue Mountains, the two great mansions of the First Age, and dwelt in peace with the Elves (though on tense terms) — their craft of smithying and their making of the Nauglamír, the Dwarven-necklace set with the Silmaril, being their supreme work. Fought beside Elves and Men against Morgoth, and against the Dragon Glaurung — their smiths were famed for their mail and their vehemence (the “Dwarf-marks” of which later songs tell). Brought about the ruin of Doriath: in the quarrel over the Nauglamír and the payment for its making, the Dwarves of Nogrod slew King Thingol, reduced Menegroth, and stole the Silmaril — an act avenged (and the jewel recovered in the cause of greater ruin) by Beren. The twin evils of greed and oath run through their history.
In the Later Ages
Their descendants of later Ages (the Longbeards of Durin, and Khazad-dûm) lie, but the deep bonds — Aulë as Mahal, the friendship with the Elves of Eregion, and their words in the tale “the hammer and the anvil” — are grounded here.