Arcane Topic Warning: Part the Second

[Kuruharan]

This may seem more like an encyclopedia article than a discussion topic, but everyone can at least tell me how wrong I am…

I was just thumbing through The Silmarillion and something obvious finally dawned on me. The Dwarves were aware of the existence of the Elves well before they inhabited the Blue Mountains and crossed over into Beleriand and had their first “official meeting.” The Dwarves must have known about the Avari for a long time before they (the Dwarves) went west (you always have to specify who you are talking about when things are going west). The Petty-Dwarves had some sort of cultural memory of them, to judge from Mîm’s words (I say cultural memory because I doubt that Mîm had ever actually met one of the “Wild Elves” that he refers to in regard to them not knowing about earth bread…although, perhaps I should not assume that. Mîm might have been a great traveler in his younger days). If the Petty-Dwarves knew about Wild Elves, it is only natural to assume the rest of the Dwarves knew of them as well, especially considering how long the Dwarves inhabited the same areas as the Avari. In fact, contact could have been made fairly early on in Dwarven cultural existence. Although, it is a bit difficult to see what sort of interaction the Dwarves would have had with the Avari. Two more dissimilar cultures it would be hard to imagine, the Dwarves with their society based essentially on mining and commerce and the Avari with their society based on meandering about aimlessly and singing silly songs at the top of their voices. In fact, the Dwarves are referred to as fighting against the Avari, which seems likely enough.

Anyway, the point is that the “amazement” that filled the Elves upon meeting the Dwarves was all on one side. The Dwarves had to have known about Elves already, and may have known that at some point a whole bunch of them had gone off west looking for some funny flashing lights. The Dwarves were probably expecting to find more Elves on the other side of the Blue Mountains. If they were surprised about anything, they were probably surprised about the level of cultural development the Sindar had achieved as all the other Elves they’d ever met were little more than tramps.

The more one studies, the more one gains the impression that the Elves were the ones blundering naively about the world while the Dwarves were the enlightened and experienced cultural sophisticates.

It is also interesting to note that the Dwarves seemed to have more contact with the Avari than the Sindar because it is the Dwarves to relate to Thingol that the Avari are being driven out of the plains and into the hills by Morgoth’s creatures.