Thorin and the Dwarves once coal diggers?

[Haramu]

The Hobbit

"...Just let any one say I chose the wrong man or the wrong house, and you can stop at thirteen and have all the bad you like, or go back to digging coal."

Did Dwarves after the fall of Erebor resort to digging coal and doing other dirty unwanted jobs like shoveling dung etc? I suppose they would take any job because they had lost everything and had no place to call home. Where were they digging coal? Did they work with other dwarves? Where were these exiled Dwarves digging coal? Was the payment decent or not?

And is thirteen really a unlucky number?

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Yes, I always took that literally - and I like that idea. I assume, since coal, at least in our world's history in the Middle Ages, was mostly the one you "make" from wood, while the Dwarves did actually dig it, it points towards some advanced technology, and therefore probably means working in some Dwarven mines, most likely in the Blue Mountains, where we know Thorin and co. lived for a long time. So, I think it was simply a "working class-Dwarves'" job, while the coal would later be used for Dwarven furnaces, since that coal can produce much more heat than wood and you need high temperatures for making all kinds of super-extra steel and whatnot. So I imagine the Dwarves would be working among their own, but it would be just a very mechanical, "dirty" job for someone as fancy as Thorin.

Of course, it's possible Gandalf was only exaggerating and being sort of ironic. Actually, I am pretty sure he was. But that doesn't rule out the possibility of some of the Dwarves, if not all, at some point really making their living by digging coal.

[Alfirin]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

Yes, I always took that literally - and I like that idea. I assume, since coal, at least in our world's history in the Middle Ages, was mostly the one you "make" from wood, while the Dwarves did actually dig it, it points towards some advanced technology, and therefore probably means working in some Dwarven mines, most likely in the Blue Mountains, where we know Thorin and co. lived for a long time. So, I think it was simply a "working class-Dwarves'" job, while the coal would later be used for Dwarven furnaces, since that coal can produce much more heat than wood and you need high temperatures for making all kinds of super-extra steel and whatnot. So I imagine the Dwarves would be working among their own, but it would be just a very mechanical, "dirty" job for someone as fancy as Thorin..

Actually the tech level would probably have to be even higher than that. To make really good steel even coal isn't usually capable of generating enough heat; you need to burn it in a low air condtion and turn it into coke. Wood Charcoal usually doesn't make good coke; it has too much ash and sulphur content. So for the dwarves to be able to make the steel they could, coal would be a neccesity as it might be for some of the other metals smelted (I can't think of any others explicit ones off the top of my, but there are some people who think mithril might be a lanthanide metal like platinum, and most of those require extreme heat to smelt. But it would be a low class task, basically the Dwarf equivalent of blue collar work, well below the dignity of an heir apparant.
Just for the sake of completeness, theoretically, Thorin and co. could have still been gem mining as they dug . I'm not saying it was likely, in fact I think it isn't but I should point out that techically, jet is coal (well pre-coal), and yet is considered a minor gemstone.
Incidentally, given ME's very strict creationist orgin and accompanying shorter geological timeline, anyone want to speculate where the coal came from? Did Aule finally get tired of bickering with Yavannah about dwarven wood needs and call into being (or I suppose petition Illuvitar to bring into being). rocks that could burn and take some of the wood's place?

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by Alfirin

Incidentally, given ME's very strict creationist orgin and accompanying shorter geological timeline, anyone want to speculate where the coal came from? Did Aule finally get tired of bickering with Yavannah about dwarven wood needs and call into being (or I suppose petition Illuvitar to bring into being). rocks that could burn and take some of the wood's place?

That is a very interesting theory.

[Aganzir]

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

Ahh...dwarf topics, how I love thee...
...unfortunately, I don't have much time to devote to discussion at present.

Kuru you're so cute.

Gandalf was probably to some degree speaking with a bit of classic Gandalf sharpness when he made the coal reference.

Yup it's definitely there, and while, objectively, it's likely they did dig for coal, I don't think we can use anything Gandalf says in that tone as proof.

Originally Posted by Alfirin

Incidentally, given ME's very strict creationist orgin and accompanying shorter geological timeline, anyone want to speculate where the coal came from? Did Aule finally get tired of bickering with Yavannah about dwarven wood needs and call into being (or I suppose petition Illuvitar to bring into being). rocks that could burn and take some of the wood's place?

That's an interesting idea. Then again, it took at least tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of years to get to the Years of the Sun; and even so we don't know how long the Valar were there before the Years of the Lamps.

Or then perhaps...

And they built lands and Melkor destroyed them; valleys they delved and Melkor raised them up; mountains they carved and Melkor threw them down; seas they hollowed and Melkor spilled them; forests they raised and Melkor buried them...

[Bêthberry]

Digging coal is a nasty, hard job, but is it a low, despised job? Does Middle-earth carry the same class connotations that England had/has?

[Kuruharan]

...unfortunately, I don't have much time to devote to discussion at present.

Did Dwarves after the fall of Erebor resort to digging coal and doing other dirty unwanted jobs like shoveling dung etc?

I doubt dung but I think it likely that in the early phase of their exile the dwarves formerly of Erebor probably did dig for coal.

Where were they digging coal?

Dunland is one place specifically mentioned.

Did they work with other dwarves?

Probably not until they got to the Blue Mountains.

Was the payment decent or not?

It probably wasn't particularly.

However, I think once the exiles of Erebor settled in the Blue Mountains they were able to mine for other things than coal. The Hobbit indicates the exiles of Erebor were prospering again to a degree.

Gandalf was probably to some degree speaking with a bit of classic Gandalf sharpness when he made the coal reference.

For further reference, here is a thread that talks about this specific period of dwarf history in some detail.