Fantasy races tend to have a hard time getting along. Whether it’sDungeons and DragonsorDragon Age, intelligent humanoids with various traits hate each other for dubious reasons. One of the earliest and most iconic examples isLord of the Rings. Legolas and Gimli take time out from carrying the Ring to Mount Doom to talk smack and gradually form a friendship. Why doesn’t Aragorn ever join in? Are humans and Dwarves friends?
Sauron has a wayof bringing the people of Middle-Earth together. Not unlike the extradimensional alien from the end ofWatchmen, a force that threatens all life equally can create bonds that wouldn’t form otherwise. By the end of the War of the Rings, most non-evil races in the franchise are allies. Some friendships came with less effort than others.
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Do Humans and Dwarves get along?
In short, the humans and Dwarves of Middle-Earth mostly lived in peace and harmony for all of known history.Dwarves are thought to bestubborn, hard-working, and straightforward. They were said to have excellent memories of slights or favors. If a man made friends with a Dwarf, they had a steadfast ally that would remember them long after their natural demise. Tolkien once mentioned “enmity between the two races” in the appendix on “Durin’s Folk” inReturn of the King. He specified that some Men in earlier times lusted after the gems and craft skills of Dwarves, leading to some unpleasant interactions. There were, however, no examples of this strife between the peoples. Every mentioned interplay between humans andDwarves seems as pleasantas a negotiation could be. It’s fair to say that most humans and Dwarves got along, though there must have been some less friendly cases.
The earliest known interaction between the two races came near the end of the First Age. The House of Hador encountered Dwarves in the west as they settled in Estolad and Hithlum. They lived inharmony with the Dwarves. It was said that humans were immediately awed by the Dwarves' skills. For decades, they enjoyed limited interactions and cordial relationships. Around the 40th year of the Second Age, Morgoth’s Orcs invaded the shared regions. His fortress, Angband, fell under the forces of the Valar in the War of Wrath. This left the leaderless Orcs to pillage wildly as they fled their old home. Dwarves were vastly outnumbered by the invaders, but humans were more than happy to lend a hand and fight off the Orcs. The Men were skilled and fierce mounted warriors. After the Dwarves provided them with mighty weapons, they madeshort work of the Orcs. This shared victory forged a long-lived bond between the two races and an alliance that lasted almost 1,700 years.
Have Humans and Dwarves ever fought one another?
Men and Dwarves fought side-by-side for generations. Dwarves learned the language of Men, keeping their natural speech to themselves. The original alliance fell apart afterthe invasion of Sauronnear the end of the Second Age. Sauron frequently brought savage humans into his army, using them to invade Eriador. The alliance held during this encounter, but it couldn’t withstand the loss of most of its participating members. Sauron took Gundabad and sacked the Grey Mountains. It took more than six years to drive Sauron’s army of Orcs and Men from the shared region. The local humans, once the most numerous intelligent species in the area, were reduced to a handful of impoverished cave-dwelling hermits. The Longbeards, who signed the initial alliance, could no longer regularly communicate with the shared territory.
The relationship between humans and Dwarves didn’t die with the loss of the alliance. Thousands of years later, the Men of Dale and the Dwarves of Erebor would hold a critical trade agreement. This deal allowed both civilizations to become extraordinarily wealthy. Men and Dwarves would fight side-by-side in the War of the Rings. Dwarves were, at worst, neutral toward Men in most cases. They would sometimes sit on the sidelineswhile Elves and humans foughtevil. The stubbornness of the Dwarf and the greed of humanity sometimes drove a wedge between the two peoples, but their relationship was almost always positive. The couple of long-running alliances between humans and Dwarves frequently brought out the best in both societies.
Humans and Dwarves aren’t monoliths. Individual members of either race would have had varied interactions with each other. Kingdoms of either race also have their own motivations. The general relationship between Dwarves and humans has been positive. There wasnever a widespread rivalryor any consistent conflict. The omnipresent invasion of dark forces regularly forged new bonds in battle. From the first settlement of humans to the time after Saruron’s fall, Dwarves and Men lived in peace and harmony with very few exceptions. There is love between the small folk and the tall folk.
