I must say that I'm rather fond of Dwarves and their rather sturdy, earthen manners and characters. It is my belief that they are and were restricted to their small physical sizes because their love to the earth blocked off their growth upwards. This could only have been to their advantage, given the fact that they are known to be such passionate earth-lovers, this way they could constantly be in very close contact with the element that makes them so unbelievably happy. But that really is just a theory! Their corporal appearance is definitely very stocky, one could even say athletic in a firm, hefty way. They remind me personally very much of human gargoyles, which probably explains the reason why they look more earthen and rocky than anything else.

Dwarves live for themselves, for the others of their kind, for life under this earth (not on it!), for solitude and of course for metal - metals of all kind will make the rough knees of a Dwarf go all wobbly. Metal IS their existence for they are OF metal and other minerals and cold riches which our earth conceals in dark, mysterious caverns. They love the touch of gold, silver, mithril etc. for this feeling gives them a sense of safety and meaning.

These creatures are supposed to be very suspicious of other races, probably for the reason that they spend almost their entire lives under the earth and care little for outside politics. The elven nature seems to form the perfect counterweight to that of the Dwarves. Elves are creatures who live from sunlight, starlight, air and everything that grows (a perfect reason for why they are known to be one of the tallest races, by the way!). Elves and Dwarves also differentiate in language - on one hand, the words spoken in an elvish tongue linger in the air like a good smell, seemingly untouchable and far away and on the other hand the dwarvish language is very hard and extremely "present", one could say that it reflects their material values.

Dwarves are a mystery to other races and would probably like to leave it like that. They will certainly leave the others alone, if their wish for solitude is respected in return. But in the face of immediate threat (especially when their underground realms happen to be an issue), you will find yourself being absolutely amazed at their iron will when it comes to battle - defending one‘s interests is a very important aspect of Dwarvishness! I must admit that they are the most attractive of creatures that live underground or in mountains, given the fact that the other "under-earth" inhabitants consist of rather ugly clusters of Orcs, Goblins, Trolls etc. with questionable habits and repulsive breath on top of it all!

Did you know ...

• that the armour, arms and artifacts fabricated by Dwarves are often endowed with magic?
• that they generally reach maturity at the age of three and are grey-bearded at the age of seven?
• that they can be very touchy and delicate when it comes to showing their feet, for they are supposed to have deformed trotters? They may, for example, be formed as those of a goose or other bird, or they might even point backwards. This is why they wear clothing that reaches to the ground
• that Dwarves were actually a forbidden race - something that shouldn‘t have even taken place... that‘s what Tolkien says anyway.

Here's more of what Tolkien has to say about Dwarves:

"Dwarves were granted a life of about two and a half centuries, for they were mortal; they could also be slain in battle... The Dwarves always gave thanks to Aluë and acknowledged that by him they were given shape." Aluë was one of the "holy ones" of Middle-earth, the first race on earth... beings that possessed great powers and formed the existent races and watched over the earth like gods.

"Aluë is the Smith, Maker of mountains, master of all crafts, deviser of metals and gemstones. He is named Mahal, the "maker", by Dwarves, for he is the power that fashioned these people from earth and stone."

Source: Tolkien (The Illustrated Encyclopaedia by David Day)

A very brave and, in a way, encouraging race - a race which we humans can relate to more easily than with many others.

As almost all creatures of Phantasy, Dwarves have proven a very controversial subject - but something that is definitely worth expressing one‘s thoughts (with pleasure).

I'm sure they would appreciate a few more of those thoughts in future!

If you would like to see more of my images of dwarves then please click on the "Image Gallery" link in the navbar.