# Female Dwarves



## Corvis (Oct 24, 2004)

Tolkien does not mention female dwarves in the lord of the rings at all, and yet Peter jackson does in _the Two Towers_ film. Why is that? What is the job and life of female dwarves in Middle Earth?


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## Astaldo (Oct 25, 2004)

Petrer Jackson did a lot of thing that they were not written in the books. But I think that what Gimli says is real. Dwarves cannot grow from the earth like flowers.


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## Kelonus (Oct 25, 2004)

PJ was probably trying to bring a bit of info about female Dwarves in theTwo Towers, because he may have felt people would ask how are Dwarves born.


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## Barliman Butterbur (Oct 25, 2004)

Corvis said:


> Tolkien does not mention female dwarves in the lord of the rings at all, and yet Peter jackson does in _the Two Towers_ film. Why is that? What is the job and life of female dwarves in Middle Earth?



You are both right and wrong, my friend, but it is easily forgiven, because to find out anything about this, one must dig deeply into the bowels of Appendix A of LOTR (nothing indeed is mentioned in the story itself), where one finds this passage:

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Dís was the daughter of Thráin 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.

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This passage is the basis for Gimli's description (and Aragorn's corroboration) of dwarf-women in PJ's movie.

Barley


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## Astaldo (Oct 25, 2004)

Always with the right quote Barley


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## Wizard Gandalf (Oct 26, 2004)

I wonder how many others noticed the irony of 'Dwarves do not just pop out of bare rock' .


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## Bergil (Oct 26, 2004)

Maybe PJ picked up out of one of Tolkiens works about a dwarven female and decided to clarify that there were. It also added some comical relief to TTT. just a thought


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## Aulë (Nov 15, 2004)

Also, in the People of Middle Earth, Christopher Tolkien writes:

"
This is followed by the information attributed to Gimli concerning the Dwarf-women, which was preserved in Appendix A (RK p. 360). There is no difference in substance in the present text, except for the statements that they are never forced to wed against their will (which 'would of course be impossible'), and that they have beards. This latter is said also in the 1951 revision of the _Quenta Silmarillion_ (XI.205, §5).

It is then said that Dwarves marry late, seldom before they are ninety or more,http://www.thetolkienforum.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=432229#_edn1_ that they have few children (so many as four being rare), and continues:

To these they are devoted, often rather fiercely: that is, they may treat them with apparent harshness (especially in the desire to ensure that they shall grow up tough, hardy, unyielding), but they defend them with all their power, and resent injuries to them even more than to themselves. The same is true of the attitude of children to parents. For an injury to a father a Dwarf may spend a life-time in achieving revenge. Since the 'kings' or heads of lines are regarded as 'parents' of the whole group, it will be understood how it was that the whole of Durin's Race gathered and marshalled itself to avenge Thrór.

Finally, there is a note on the absence of record concerning the women of the Dwarves:

They are seldom named in genealogies. They join their husbands' families. But if a son is seen to be 110 or so years younger than his father, this usually indicates an elder daughter. Thorin's sister Dís is named simply because of the gallant death of her sons Fili and Kili in defence of Thorin II. The sentiment of affection for sister's children was strong among all peoples of the Third Age, but less so among Dwarves than Men or Elves among whom it was strongest."_


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## Barliman Butterbur (Nov 15, 2004)

Aulë said:


> Also, in the People of Middle Earth, Christopher Tolkien writes:
> This is followed by the information attributed to Gimli concerning the Dwarf-women...It is then said that Dwarves marry late, seldom before they are ninety or more... that they have few children...



Call me jaded, call me *sikkntwistid* — but I wonder what a dwarf woman would look like in a bikini... 

(And DRAT those pesky font changes!)

Barley


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