LotR --- Appendix A: III -- Durin's Folk

[Estelyn Telcontar]

The last section of Appendix A tells of the Dwarves' history. Though some of that part which concerns the story told in The Hobbit is also related in Unfinished Tales, 'The Quest of Erebor', much of the information is unique - unless HoME contains some which I have not yet read.

Those who are interested in the Dwarven rings can find out more, especially about the last one, here. We find out about the effect the Rings of Power had on the Dwarves - or rather the lack thereof! They could not be dominated, enslaved, or reduced to wraiths, nor was their life span changed. However, the possibility that Sauron's malice results in restlessness and discontent through the Rings is shown.

The background story of Moria is told, going way back to the first Durin. We read of the waking of the Balrog. The battles between Dwarves and orcs are part of the story. For those who wondered why Thorin was called "Oakenshield", the answer is in this section.

Was the meeting of Gandalf and Thorin only by chance? We read that both were thinking of contacting each other before that meeting.

This section is also the source of what little information we have about Dwarven women. (...which was also inserted into the movie...)

We also find out more of what happened to Gimli after the War of the Ring - and of his end, at least as it was surmised.

Gimli's family tree and some important dates round off this section - have you used any of this information for writing?

I know I've used this part of Appendix A for information in discussions on Dwarves; is it important to you, or have you ignored it up till now?

[davem]

This is one of those sections that I love to read but find very difficult to comment on. That said, I’ve posted on every single chapter of CbC so far & I’m not going to be beaten now!

We’re told the information in this section probably came from Gimli:

The section A III, Durin's Folk, was probably derived from Gimli the Dwarf, who maintained his friendship with Peregrin and Meriadoc and met them again many times in Gondor and Rohan.

Its probably true - the mood & atmosphere of this section seems ‘darker’. The focus is, first on the war of the Dwarves & the Orcs, second, on providing a background to the events of The Hobbit. However, while Gimli may be the source for most of the information given here he clearly can’t be for the final note. But who was?

As with the Rohirrim, so here we are given a glimpse of the Dwarves’ beliefs. They are descended from the Seven Fathers of their race (the proverbial Seven Dwarves - which I think is a deliberate reference to the folk tale by Tolkien: the number ‘seven’ has an ancient association with Dwarves & Tolkien is here attempting to give an explanation). They also believe in a kind of reincarnation.

This is interesting, though we’re not told if the Dwarves believe that they all reincarnate, or if only some (or Durin alone) do so. Was this a belief they picked up from the Elves? If so its odd that they would adopt a belief of their ‘enemy’.

Anyway, I think that what we pick up from this section is that the Dwarves & the Orcs are in many ways ‘ideal’ foes for each other - apart from their common preference for living in caves (& fighting underground - a horrible thought for someone who get’s claustrophobic like myself!).

We also learn to what extent Dwarves are driven by revenge, passing on vows of, & responsibility for, vengeance to their children & grandchildren.

As I said, part of the focus of this section is to provide a background to TH & to tie that book into the events of this one. What we see here (& in The Quest of Erebor) is a glimpse of another ‘Hobbit’ - the ‘true’, historical, account of the events decribed in TH - the version which should be in the Legendarium.

Ironically, if Tolkien’s intention was to tie TH in more closely with LotR through Durin’s Folk & QoE I think he made a mistake & worked against that. These versions of the earlier history actually make TH seem even more juvenile & silly than it is when read for itself - by an adult reader, that is (now, that said, I do love TH - or to be precise I love my memories of it ).

The simple fact is that these Dwarves are plainly the Naugrim of the Sil, while those of TH are not. Of course, some will argue that in TH we are getting an account of the Dwarves seen through the eyes of a Hobbit while in this section we are getting the facts from Gimli himself. I don’t go along with that myself - I suspect that the character of Gimli we see in the movie is based rather more on Thorin et al in TH than on Gimli of LotR.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Who was responsible for the final note? Good question - we read this:

Here follows one of the last notes in the Red Book

Was it Sam who wrote that entry? I would think that Legolas and Gimli, being long-lived/immortal, would have stayed in Middle-earth longer than that. However, I don't know if there's a date mentioned for their departure anywhere in the Legendarium. Perhaps Elanor or one of her family wrote it; she had stayed at Aragorn and Arwen's court for awhile, so could have kept up her connection with the last members of the Fellowship to survive.

[davem]

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

Who was responsible for the final note? Good question - we read this: Was it Sam who wrote that entry? I would think that Legolas and Gimli, being long-lived/immortal, would have stayed in Middle-earth longer than that. However, I don't know if there's a date mentioned for their departure anywhere in the Legendarium. Perhaps Elinor or one of her family wrote it; she had stayed at Aragorn and Arwen's court for awhile, so could have kept up her connection with the last members of the Fellowship to survive.

The Tale of Years (Appendix B) gives 1482 as the year Rose died & Sam left for the Havens. Legolas began building his grey ship to depart into the West after Aragorn's death on March 1st (his birthday, I've just noticed!)1541, 59 years later - hence, it wasn't Sam who wrote the final note.

Elanor? Possibly - though according to Sam's family tree in Appendix C she was born in 1421, which would make her 120 (assuming she lived that long of course) when Gimli & Legolas left.

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

It's probably stretching things a bit to name Elanor. One-hundred and twenty years is a very long life even for a Hobbit. My money would be on one of the Fairbairns, but to say which would be to build speculation on speculation.

Sadly, it would appear that the original Red Book of Westmarch is lost forever. Tolkien mentions copyists in his foreword, and were he working from the prototype he would not have encountered them. Since Tolkien failed to document the locations of the remaining manuscripts (a shocking omission for so experienced a scholar), and since the prototype, if it survived into our era at all, is lost, we are denied the graphological and linguistic analysis that might have suggested an author and date for this closing comment.

[Lalwendë]

I often use the example of the Elves' and the Dwarves' seeming distrust of one another and the friendship forged between Legolas and Gimli as an example when countering accusations that Tolkien was racist. In that friendship Tolkien showed that such distrust was wrong as they actually had much in common and he showed that an Elf and a Dwarf were as cpaable as anyone of being friends. In this section of the Appendices I see a lot more similarities between Elves and Dwarves.

Firstly in the line descended from Durin there seems to be a peculiar kind of continuation with 'Durin the Deathless' reappearing several times to all intents and purposes. This makes me wonder what happens to these 'Durins' when they die. Do they go somewhere, to a Dwarven Halls of Mandos and then return?

Dwarves prefer to live underground where possible, and that's something which Elves themselves have shared. Did the Elves learn this from the Dwarves in the First Age? They have not always been enemies, as there are examples of other famous Elf-Dwarf friendships. As one, Eol was known for trading with Dwarves and may have learned some of his skills from them.

The Dwarves and Elves alike have a history of being dispossessed and having to move on and found new homelands. There is even a history of taking vengeance in both cultures. And both races also seem to breed slowly. Elves do not have children when the times are hard and they are engaged in war, and large families are not common (Feanor's being an exception). Likewise the Dwarves do not have a tendency to produce many children. What Tolkien says about Dwarf women is very interesting:

Dis was the daughter of Thrain II. She is the only dwarf-woman named in these histories. It was said by Gimli that there are few dwarf-women, probably no more than a third of the whole people. They seldom walk abroad except at great need. They are in voice and appearance, and in garb if they must go on a journey, so like to the dwarf-men that the eyes and ears of other peoples cannot tell them apart. This has given rise to the foolish opinion among Men that there are no dwarf-women, and that the Dwarves 'grow out of stone'.

It is because of the fewness of women among them that the kind of the Dwarves increases slowly, and is in peril when they have no secure dwellings. For Dwarves take only one wife or husband each in their lives, and are jealous, as in all matters of their rights. The number of dwarf-men that marry is actually less than one-third. For not all the women take husbands: some desire none; some desire one that they cannot get, and so will have no other. As for the men, very many also do not desire marriage, being engrossed in their crafts.

It is unusual that there are so few Dwarf women. I wonder if this had always been the case or not? If it had then I wonder how the Dwarf population managed to grow at all? Not only that, but if a female Dwarf was widowed then she would take no new husband; it makes me laugh a little that Tolkien felt he had to point out that the lack of women did notmean that each had two or three husbands. But the Dwarf women also seem to have much independence, refusing a so-so husband if they cannot get the perfect one and maybe refusing marriage altogether in favour of work. Middle-earth's career women are Dwarf women! In light of all this, it makes me even more annoyed at the cheap jokes thrown into the film scripts about Dwarf women!

And if they are so alike, how would an enemy know if they were being challenged by a male or female dwarf? It might provide some interesting ideas for RPG characters...

Happily this part of the appendices ends on a positive note. Gimli's friendship with Legolas and chaste love for Galadriel ends in his sailing for Valinor. To me, this symbolises the relationship that 'could have been' between both races throughout their history.

[Aiwendil]

Lalwende wrote:

Firstly in the line descended from Durin there seems to be a peculiar kind of continuation with 'Durin the Deathless' reappearing several times to all intents and purposes. This makes me wonder what happens to these 'Durins' when they die. Do they go somewhere, to a Dwarven Halls of Mandos and then return?

The only really substantial discussion of this point, as far as I know, is found in HoMe XII, in "Last Writings".

It is possible that this false notion was in some ways connected with the various strange ideas which both Elves and Men had concerning the Dwarves, which were indeed largely derived from the Dwarves themselves. For the Dwarves asserted that the spirits of the Seven Fathers of their races were from time to time reborn in their kindreds. This was notably the case in the race of the Longbeards whose ultimate forefather was called Durin, a name which was taken at intervals by one of his descendants, but by no others but those in a direct line of descent from Durin I. Durin I, eldest of the Fathers, 'awoke' far back in the First Age (it is supposed, soon after the awakening of Men), but in the Second Age several other Durins had appeared as Kings of the Longbeards (Anfangrim). In the Third Age Durin VI was slain by a Balrog in 1980. It was prophesied (by the Dwarves), when Dain Ironfoot took the kingship in Third Age 2941 (after the Battle of Five Armies), that in his direct line there would one day appear a Durin VII - but he would be the last. Of these Durins the Dwarves reported that they retained memory of their former lives as Kings, as real, and yet naturally as incomplete, as if they had been consecutive years of life in one person.

Note that the reference to Durin's waking after the awakening of Men depends on the 'Myths Transformed' chronology.

This notion was almost immediately changed, however, for the second version of this text has:

. . . the reappearance, at long intervals, of the person of one of the Dwarf-fathers, in the lines of their kings - e.g. especially Durin - is not when examined probably one of rebirth, but of the preservation of the body of a former King Durin (say) to which at intervals his spirit would return. But the relations of the Dwarves to the Valar and especially to the Vala Aule are (as it seems) quite different from those of Elves and Men.

And there is a further note:

What effect would this have on the succession? Probably this 'return' would only occur when by some chance or other the reigning king had no son. The Dwarves were very unprolific and this no doubt happened fairly often.

Of course, that doesn't address the issue of where Dwarven spirits (Durin or otherwise) go after death.

[Lalwendë]

. . . the reappearance, at long intervals, of the person of one of the Dwarf-fathers, in the lines of their kings - e.g. especially Durin - is not when examined probably one of rebirth, but of the preservation of the body of a former King Durin (say) to which at intervals his spirit would return. But the relations of the Dwarves to the Valar and especially to the Vala Aule are (as it seems) quite different from those of Elves and Men.

This is interesting, as it seems to suggest some kind of resurrection. I feel that Tolkien would not have intended such a thing for one of his races so I wonder...could it have been simply that 'Durin' was simply in some kind of suspension, an incredibly deep sleep?

And indeed, this makes it even more complicated as to what happens to all Dwarves after death. Their burial customs seem very concerned with eradicating the possibility that no creature should eat the deceased, and when they have no chance to dig a huge amount of stone tombs, they instead turn to cremation. In addition, the actions of Azog drive them to particular rage about the body being defiled after death. It may be more than just disrespect that they are angry about; they may see the preservation of the body as important in their afterlife.

[Bêthberry]

It would be remiss, I believe, not to refer in the Chapter by Chapter discussion of this part of the Appendix to a comment which has fueled so much discussion among Tolkien fans, amounting almost to Gulliverian proportions of the BigEndians and the LittleEndians.

Originally Posted by Tolkien

The Dwarves delved deep at that time, seeking beneath Barazinbar for mithril, the metal beyond price that was becoming yearly ever harder to find. Thus they aroused from sleep a thing of terror that, flying from Thangorodrim, had lain hidden at the foundations of the earth since the coming of the Host of the West: a Balrog of Morgoth.