The Need for More Dwarves in Fantasy/Mythic Fiction - How Martin & Rowling Failed to Ruin Them
How Dwarves resist change it seems
To say that Dwarves occupy a special place in Fantasy Fiction is to speak mildly. They are an integral part of the DnD of old (Dungeons & Dragons for the uninitiated ;) ), being one of the most developed races of the old books as they in the first generation of DnD, 2e and even the 3e and 3.5 Editions enjoyed considerable focus by the writers and game-designers. Though Flint Fireforge in Dragonlance was little more than a meme half the time, the ideas advanced by Dragonlance of the two distinctly different civilizations known as Hill Dwarves and Mountain Dwarves was a stroke of genius.
In a single blow they managed to bring back the idea of the classic Dwarves of Tolkien’s Legendarium, wherein they get their cake and get to eat it too. The Dwarves of Krynn are inspired both by the Dwarves of the Third Age after the destruction of their last Kingdom by Smaug, and those of the earlier Third Age, who enjoy underground kingdoms.
This distinction between the two groupings and the making of them into enemies of a sort was a masterstroke and allowed for an interesting building up of great lore. After that, Dwarves ultimately fell by the wayside, with there being no interesting stories, no great tales and no great interest by Fantasy writers in the 90s, with Dragonlance/DnD having something of a literary monopoly it seems.
Dragon Age of course did much in the Video-Game sphere to pounce on their popularity and did some interesting stuff in the first two games. The first one they played it straight with the Dwarf companion being a dirty-slobbering drunk with a heart of gold, he’s also struggling apparently through getting over a bad marriage and ending up remarried and now with a kid on the way. The other Dwarves are portrayed as ruling over the Deeproads, with the race depicted as being savvy politicians, honourable men yet they’ve their own ghettos.
In all, the Dwarves under the mountains had a fascinating culture in some ways more innovative and fascinating than any other since Tolkien. What was more was that they followed this up with Dragon Age II where the mentor is a clean-shaven, benevolent Dwarf who is also established as the one telling the story.
It was an interesting frame-narrative, but also a great character. The thing is in Dragon Age the Dwarves of that era were intended to all live underground except for those exiled from the underground kingdom. This and being clean-shaven are marks of shame for the Dwarves, which was a fascinating idea.
After that Dwarves fell into abeyance it seems, once more thrown out. I’ll admit that one of the joys of coming to Substack has been discovering
’s work where Dwarves have fascinating tales, and legends all to themselves and their own culture with Oscar doing a lot to combine ideas from the three big pieces of Dwarvish fiction (Tolkien, DnD & DA). His work is wondrous and mythical, and simply magical in a way that is totally unique.My own fiction has plenty of Dwarves, though I wish to do more with them. Jex the Hero is one of the first stories that will feature a major lead who is a Dwarf (introduced in Chapter 4 or so, Thain). After that it is my hope to expand to include more Dwarves in my works.
Why do this? Dwarves are hardly the most popular of the races in Fantasy fiction, likely that honour belongs to Elves, Half-Elves and many others. But the thing about Dwarves is that they are every bit as integral as Elves.
You cannot have one really without the other. They are key, because of what they represent and what is it they represent? They are ingenuity personified. Elves might be fairies, and might be greater than any men could ever prove themselves to be in some ways, but Dwarves are in some ways the most hard-nosed and yet the most ingenious of men.
They are the ones who come up with inventions, they are the ones who work the hardest, they also tend to be those who hide their wives away if for their protection. They are thus capable of being truly intellectual while also being incredibly suspicious of outsiders and protective of their own.
A fascianting race, with a tendency to pull back from society. They are also among the most nationalistic of people, the most devoted to their Kingdoms and the most greedy of people around, hungering for wealth and glory beyond the ken of others.
What makes this combination of intelligence, and love for their own homeland so interesting is that Dwarves also possess a stubborn streak that often makes them more mule-headed than any other race around. They are almost obsessive in their desire to prove themselves right, at least in most depictions.
In Tolkien’s Hobbit, it is different with the Dwarves there being of a more varied sort of natures, as a number of them such as Bombur and Kili, and others such as Gimli’s father Gloin, are hardly the stubborn almost obtuse stereotypes of later legend.
Lovers of gold, they are susceptible in ways no other races are to Dragon-Sickness with the likes of Mim evidently becoming infected by it, same with Thorin (who is the prime example of a victim of this curse) and also those Dwarves who once happily toiled for Elu Thingol.
The thing is that Tolkien’s Dwarves while harbouring a great many of the stereotypes of later Fantasy fiction, are however more muted in his stories or more subtly shown. This is to his credit as he doesn’t write his characters to be the obnoxious stereotypes many later writers would create.
That said there’s a charm to how many writers of the 80s strove to portray their Dwarves, yet none ever quite managed to capture the zest that Tolkien’s characters had.
And yet you don’t hear much about Dwarves in modern fantasy. Did they disappear? And why?
The fact is they didn’t entirely fade away all at once. They were slowly subverted if in different capacities. Harry Potter went some way towards subverting them into household slaves, too stupid to merit living on their own and good for only serving as the lowest of income wage-slaves. Why is this? Who knows. The thing is though, this is in contrast to the likes of Gimli who serves as a kind of Gawain.
The Dobby character is a massive climb-down, dumb and snivelling he represents a kind of attack against Gimli whom is proud and majestic, and also against the Kingly if self-righteous Thorin.
What Rowling was doing before she was somehow transformed by the desperate conservative movement who lack for celebrities especially literary ones is what we call subversion. She hollowed out the Dwarves from a proud race of ‘alpha males’ who stand up toe to toe with Orcs, who are capable of fighting proudly side by side with the Elves of Middle-Earth, and who once even repelled a Dragon.
The interesting thing though is that after her there was George R.R. Martin who also contributed to subverting Dwarves as a race. What he did was try to turn one of them into a strange male sex-icon (not sure why), but this along with Tyrion’s spiteful nature and the fact that the character is basically a self-insert from what I hear for Martin, makes the situation weirder. What is more is that Tyrion is hated by everyone in Westeros because…. he’s a Dwarf?
It makes no sense. Dwarves though in Martin’s universe aren’t the earth-diggers they are in other literature, but interestingly instead suffer from dwarfism an actual condition. This is an interesting touch, the trouble for we the readers and lovers of Mythic literature is that Tyrion is indeed an inversion of the classic Dwarves.
Though a heavily tribal people, Tyrion like Dobby has no attachment to his nation, hating it just as it hates him. Tyrion though is clever (a good trait), but is ruthless, guilty of parricide and isn’t exactly very moral as he does rape a woman. What this does is show him to be an inversion of Gimli whom is respected, humble, loves his father and most of all as the stand in for Gawain is essentially the ‘Maiden’s Knight’ just see his devotion to Galadriel.
There is also Flint Fireforge who though a meme of sorts, is also a tender old man who dies a rather heart-breaking yet heart-warming death having previously played the role of father to the group of heroes he travelled with. Flint is someone who remains for a reason a fan-favourite. A kind of surrogate father to his would be daughter-in-law Laurana, he trains Sturm in swordsmanship and is of course a father of sorts to Tanis, who was the product of rape and violence yet comes to value life itself thanks to Flint’s teachings.
What Tyrion is, as said is the anti-Flint and the anti-Gimli. But more than that, being of the nobility without any of the desire to comport himself in a noble fashion, like Thorin he represents a subversion of that great heroic icon also.
So in a way Dwarves as icons of Mythic literature didn’t die due to a sudden subversion but due to a combination of neglect by most writers, people not paying attention and a thousand papercuts they were laid low.
What is so fascinating though, is that starting with Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age II they were revived as a serious, fan-favourite race. There was also Pathfinder, and other games, and such that began the process including Warcraft III where a Dwarf is a former mentor to Arthas, is slain tragically yet is held up as an icon of heroism and chivalry.
Rowling & Martin destroyed the race as a symbol, but it wasn’t lasting it seems. Yes certainly Dragon Age Inquisition and Veilguard deconstructed (it’s what they do), however it seems as though the marxists don’t think enough of Dwarves to really do much with them. Elves remain the principal target that they go after, and while this has thankfully saved Dwarves, Orcs and a great many other Mythic-races the trouble still remains that the genre is in dire straits.
That said, there is reason to hope since if Dwarves could have avoided the worst of the subversion wars so to speak and if someone like Oscar could gain such popularity writing about them, and if Dragon Age could make them among their most fascinating races, there is good reason to hope.
The race should for all the writers out there, remain an icon of ingenuity and yet also nationalists and tribal people who cling to their nations and tribes. In a way they could be the greatest of icons for a people lost and confused and divided like those of us living and suffering through these modern times.
Dwarves thus, are the answer to a great many of our problems as they are inherently anti-liberalism, being much more monarchical by nature and also of a very particular bent that does not allow for liberals to portray them as anything other than weasely, weak and pathetic. In a way they have only ever used them as victims, which is interesting however this does not make sense given the pride of this particular race.
Writers should remember their pride, their obstenicy and their greed, they are in a way kind of like miniature Belits’ and yet are always shown in a particular kind of setting that is to say kingdoms which is a great default setting as theirs are always particular in nature as far as kingdoms go.
While Tolkien was said to have been inspired by the ancient Hebrews, with regards to his Dwarves and somewhat modern followers of Judaism, this can be hard to see. It is complicated and very likely that he made a lot of stuff up and that he also drew inspiration.
One could also detect in his efforts to create an intriguing race, his dislike for Disney’s Snow White movie, so that he made his Dwarves entirely different from those found in Disney. And that these traits have only hardened and solidified into what Dwarves are now, in terms of literary status and stereotypes and tropes is another important aspect of their nature.
As to why Martin & Rowling could not subvert them, it is because they’re characters have precious little in common with the original race. The House-Elves are also mockeries of Elves, and hardly seem to have registered long-term beyond being somehow considered cute by little girls (I think?).
As to Tyrion though he has some connections to the earth, what with him coming from a place with deep silver and gold mines, he doesn’t have as hard a connection as one would expect.
Dwarves represent the earth, they are the hard granite stone, and the rocks with which we build our homes. They are thus one of the most special races out there, for this very reason. They are also because of this an antitetical people to an extent to the Elves who are most strongly connected to the trees and forests of the earth.
Immovable as the earth, hard as stones and associated with all the riches of the earth, Dwarves are one of the most unique of races. They are not only contrasts to Elves, but also Orcs who are the barbarians of the world (or supposed to be).
If Rowling and Martin have failed to corrupt them, it is because they preferred to write within royal palaces or large schools, not underground passages and in underground kingdoms (not gonna judge them too harshly here, as I get it it isn’t for everyone).
Needless to say, they are among the most fascinating of the races of Fantasy fiction.
In terms of mythology they occupy an important place, with games such as Age of Mythology using them similarly to how Tolkien did, though they are given a decidedly heroic bent. The heroism of the race, and the lack of recent appearances is interesting and yet I suspect they’ll soon regain their prior popularity within the genre.
Also it must be asked but; what is your favourite Dwarf in the whole history of the genre? And why?
For me, it has to be Disney's 7 Dwarfs from 1937 (Dopey is the most favored).
Are gnomes, brownies, sprites and kobolds considered to be dwarves or are they separate species?
Favorite Dwarf for me is definitely Gimli. Proud and stubborn, yet noble through and through. Plus, I love the deep friendship he, Legolas, and Aragorn forged.
I had a scene in my Cinderella retelling with a group of Dwarves (they were brought in from another kingdom to help with a minor infestation of Earthwryms (wingless, tunnelling dragons)) and it was one of my favorite scenes to write. Had a blast writing the Elf/Dwarf banter for that scene and can't wait to bring them back in later. I have plans later for a Snow White retelling so I was establishing my Dwarves for the worldbuilding early.