Thursday, 11 October 2012

Tolkien's Other Dwarves

Whilst continuing my research into dwarves, I came across a website that showed some of Tolkiens earlier work, before he had created the race of dwarves featured in Lord of the Rings he had created a race of evil dwarves that were aggressive, much less intelligent and closer to that of an orc.

"Tolkien's original conception of Dwarves was radically different from the noble yet oh-so-haughty race of brave warriors and kings we meet in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In his first mythology, the "mythology for England" which was laid out (nearly completely) in The Book of Lost Tales, the Dwarves were an evil race, led by Fangli or Fankil (a servant of Melko, the Dark Lord). These early Dwarves were enemies of the fairies (Elves) and they fought a terrible war with the Eldar.

These early evil dwarves gave way to a more neutral race, who were old and never-dying. "Never comes a child among them, nor do they laugh," Tolkien wrote in "The Nauglafring", the first story in which his Dwarves played a prominent role. "They are squat in stature, and yet are strong, and their beards reach even to their toes."

This earlier race of dwarves that Tolkien created is a complete contrast to that of the Lord of Rings dwarves in his later work. This evil description is not really what I think of when trying to describe a dwarf, however it will be good inspiration for when designing evil characters later on in the concepting stage.

http://www.runic.dk/articles1.htm

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