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.
Oh, I'm having a blast with the worldbuilding for that series and putting my on twist on established fantasy races/creatures, as well as, inventing my own creatures. There are more Elves than Dwarves in my Cinderella retelling, but the Dwarves will definitely be making more appearances in future books and eventually getting their own once I find where to fit the Snow White retelling (I don't like the Disney-style Dwarves either so doing a retelling with more Tolkien-esque Dwarves should be a lot of fun!). First book in a series though has an awful lot of worldbulding to setup so I planted a bunch of seeds (like the Dwarves) early on so I can grow them as the series progresses. It's an art-themed fantasy where there is magic often tied to different arts/crafts. The art focus for the first one was charcoal.
Thanks! I really have. The funny thing is what spawned it all though: I misread someone's post in a Facebook art group asking if it would be cheating to use an art assistant, except I read 'art assassin.' After that I just had to think of a story where my misreading was a real thing 😂.
Hahahaha or ‘Height-Challenged Folk’, yeah ‘little people’ that’s a good one hehehehe. Thanks for contributing some much needed humour A.C.! This has got to be the comment of the day!
A few thoughts on different depictions of Dwarves:
Warhammer also has fun Dwarves. I don’t know much about D&D, but Warhammer takes the typical, Tolkienesque conception of Dwarves and turns it up to 11 (like they do with everything else in their fantasy world). The result is a cold, brutal, yet still lovable civilization of resolute warriors and ingenious inventors, who harbor deep, long-standing grudges against those who slight them.
The Elder Scrolls also has interesting Dwarves, in that it doesn’t have them. The Dwarves are an extinct race that lived thousands of years ago and fashioned incredible cave-cities and machines, whose remnants and ruins continue to puzzle the modern inhabitants of Tamriel.
This last one is obscure, but I like it a lot. The strategy game Europa Universalis IV has a very popular and highly developed mod called “Anbennar,” a fantasy conversion that takes place in an original setting. They turn the stereotype of the declining Dwarvish civilization on its head by making Dwarves a race on the up-and-up. After centuries of living in the human world as a minority diaspora, Dwarves are just now beginning to find their footing and are moving back into the ancient mountains to colonize them and rebuild their lost cities. They become incredibly wealthy and introduce many important innovations to the Renaissance-era world, like gunpowder and gem faceting.
The rest of the mod is great too, it has analogues to historical events like the Protestant Reformation (which god should succeed the old Wotan/Zeus guy as King of the Gods), colonization of America (Elves rediscover lost homeland, Native Americans are Dark Elves), the Holy Roman Empire (Empire of Anbennar, with its patchwork princes and Electors and religious conflict), the Dutch Revolt (Hobbits get organized and revolt against human overlords), absolutism (Witch-Kings, magical monarchy as an ideology), the rise of Russia (northern Orcs enact forced human-Orc intermarriage to create new, ambitious, modernizing Half-Orc kingdom), and Industrial Revolution (proliferation of easy magic for common people), among other things. It has your typical fantasy adventurer quest-taker type of people, who become an actual class in society alongside nobles, priests, merchants, and mages. Their arrival on the scene at the start of the game is what breaks up the old feudal system and sets the Renaissance in motion.
It’s really cool. They mostly live in the human cities as bankers and craftsmen, but discover the old great mountain range that was once their home. The banks and guilds fund expeditions to explore and resettle the caverns and derelict tunnels, and the expedition teams can settle down and found new Dwarven kingdoms under the mountains. The goal for Dwarf players is to resettle the mountain range, conquer the Goblin and Orc squatters as well as rival Dwarven colonies, and reforge the ancient Dwarven Empire of Aul-Dwarov (All-Dwarves-Home).
The gameplay is unique because provinces are strong along in a linear path that follows the course of the ancient tunnel systems. There are three types of provinces: super-urbanized subterranean “Hold” cities, the tunnel sections (which can eventually be upgraded with a functioning rail system), and side-branch caverns.
Good question, I’d say that the key is to keep the foundations similar while diverging ever so slightly. I’ve seen depictions where they’re envious of the Elves, why not have them indifferent instead? You can try be more cheerful and upbeat, and friendly like in the Hobbit. No one does that anymore.
On can also try to have them be more philosophically oriened, no one’s really done that before.
Rowling created house elves. They’re by no means the hardy and proud dwarves of Tolkien, and were never meant to be. They were more like the brownies, or the hidden diminutive elves who helped the cobbler in folklore. And Tyrion Lannister never claimed to come from a race, although a short woman he met in his travels was a second generation “small folk”. It’s clear that they weren’t meant to represent in any way mythical dwarves but people afflicted with stunted growth. I agree that mythical dwarves don’t get the character development they deserve, but the two examples given are unrelated to that
Fair point, but I figure there was some inspiration there, with the house-elves mostly with the connection to the earth it always seemed like she was lampooning the Dwarves and the Elves.
As to Tyrion I explained he’s not of a race but suffers from Dwarfism, in the article. He’s still a subversion though.
Ah okay, I’ll bow to you on this one. I’ll look up Deesa to know which character if only out of respect for your excellent comments and to better understand (without watching the show).
The dwarves of WoW were a lot of fun to play. I played a female huntress. The dwarves of the Elder Scrolls are a little different. They're extinct, but they lived underground and were extremely inventive. They basically invented themselves out of existence, leaving only machines and ghosts.
Why do you say Rowling, "hollowed out dwarves" via characters like Dobby, but also say that "the House-Elves are also mockeries of Elves"?
I can readily understand why you would take the latter view of Rowling's work...but I'm not following how the House-Elves have anything to do with dwarvian depictions. If anything, I assumed that Professor Flitwick would be the more obvious dwarvian representative.
My view is that they are both Elves and Dwarves, ina way they have traits of one and the other. They have the diminutive height, and the work ethic of Dwarves but the Elf name slapped onto them.
I guess. So this is ultimately rooted in your identification of a dwarvan work ethic?
I just don't see it because, to me, it seems like we need more than the work ethic alone. I can't conceive of a fantasy dwarf that isn't somehow directly connected to the earth and minerals. (Perhaps that just owing to my steeping in Tolkien).
Not simply the work-ethic the union with the earth, the House-Elves are often depicted as being in the kitchen, in the places beneath where humans live. They belong to the subterranean, just as Dwarves do.
But if you don’t see it is fine, I’m not terribly steeped in HP (obviously) and am also utterly steeped in Tolkien whom is my favourite along with Howard.
Thanks! I gotta admit I never played as a Dwarf Noble, but feel compelled to do so soon. I must commend you for still trying the game, it is a masterpiece but really, really freaking long.
I’ve finished it, but I like the second game better. It plays more like a novel.
DAII is massively underrated, because it had a subtler plot, was more character-driven, tackled larger themes and more personal ones and involved a battle against despair.
The first one is an excellent roleplaying game, the second is a good action game with RPG elements, and the third is a decent finale to the trilogy. There's also some cool prequel novels to the games as well by Drew Karpyshyn.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld series is some of the best fantasy novels I've ever read. They're funny, not exactly parody. He uses fantasy tropes for humor.
Guards! Guards! is a great book to start with. Feet of Clay and the Fifth Elephant both involves dwarfs quite a bit.
There are 40 something books, so look at some fan pages before you really dive into it. Also, DO NOT watch the 2021 BBC series "The Watch." It does everything wrong you'd expect from modern adaptations.
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?
I always thought them separate, Gnomes I associate with the Noldor Elves as Gnome is another term for them in Tolkien’s works.
The later DnD Gnomes I’m not sure about.
As to brownies (not familiar with them), sprites and kobolds I consider them separate.
Does that help?
It does. "The Encyclopedia of Fantasy" has separate entries for most of them.
Good point.
Whatever best serves your story. In the folklore they could merge or separate even in the lore of very small regions.
Very good point
https://youtube.com/shorts/eaqjWmcS2lI?feature=share
Lmao perfect video for this article (just saw it) hahahahaha
Will check it out
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.
That friendship is definitely one of the best in all of literature.
And that story of yours sounds fascinant, Cendrillon with Dwarves and Earth-Wyrms? Count me in!
Absolutely.
Oh, I'm having a blast with the worldbuilding for that series and putting my on twist on established fantasy races/creatures, as well as, inventing my own creatures. There are more Elves than Dwarves in my Cinderella retelling, but the Dwarves will definitely be making more appearances in future books and eventually getting their own once I find where to fit the Snow White retelling (I don't like the Disney-style Dwarves either so doing a retelling with more Tolkien-esque Dwarves should be a lot of fun!). First book in a series though has an awful lot of worldbulding to setup so I planted a bunch of seeds (like the Dwarves) early on so I can grow them as the series progresses. It's an art-themed fantasy where there is magic often tied to different arts/crafts. The art focus for the first one was charcoal.
Interesting, you’ve put quite a bit of thought into your world-building I like it.
Thanks! I really have. The funny thing is what spawned it all though: I misread someone's post in a Facebook art group asking if it would be cheating to use an art assistant, except I read 'art assassin.' After that I just had to think of a story where my misreading was a real thing 😂.
Hahahahha that’s hilare!
Proof that you never know where inspiration will come from 😂.
They're now called "little people". gigglesnort. Actually, that term doesn't have the right oomph to it, so stick with "dwarves".
Hahahaha or ‘Height-Challenged Folk’, yeah ‘little people’ that’s a good one hehehehe. Thanks for contributing some much needed humour A.C.! This has got to be the comment of the day!
I'm a LOTR fan. My favorite dwarf hands down is Gimli.
Gimli is number one.
A few thoughts on different depictions of Dwarves:
Warhammer also has fun Dwarves. I don’t know much about D&D, but Warhammer takes the typical, Tolkienesque conception of Dwarves and turns it up to 11 (like they do with everything else in their fantasy world). The result is a cold, brutal, yet still lovable civilization of resolute warriors and ingenious inventors, who harbor deep, long-standing grudges against those who slight them.
The Elder Scrolls also has interesting Dwarves, in that it doesn’t have them. The Dwarves are an extinct race that lived thousands of years ago and fashioned incredible cave-cities and machines, whose remnants and ruins continue to puzzle the modern inhabitants of Tamriel.
This last one is obscure, but I like it a lot. The strategy game Europa Universalis IV has a very popular and highly developed mod called “Anbennar,” a fantasy conversion that takes place in an original setting. They turn the stereotype of the declining Dwarvish civilization on its head by making Dwarves a race on the up-and-up. After centuries of living in the human world as a minority diaspora, Dwarves are just now beginning to find their footing and are moving back into the ancient mountains to colonize them and rebuild their lost cities. They become incredibly wealthy and introduce many important innovations to the Renaissance-era world, like gunpowder and gem faceting.
I won’t lie that last one is really really fascinant. I really gotta look up that setting.
The rest of the mod is great too, it has analogues to historical events like the Protestant Reformation (which god should succeed the old Wotan/Zeus guy as King of the Gods), colonization of America (Elves rediscover lost homeland, Native Americans are Dark Elves), the Holy Roman Empire (Empire of Anbennar, with its patchwork princes and Electors and religious conflict), the Dutch Revolt (Hobbits get organized and revolt against human overlords), absolutism (Witch-Kings, magical monarchy as an ideology), the rise of Russia (northern Orcs enact forced human-Orc intermarriage to create new, ambitious, modernizing Half-Orc kingdom), and Industrial Revolution (proliferation of easy magic for common people), among other things. It has your typical fantasy adventurer quest-taker type of people, who become an actual class in society alongside nobles, priests, merchants, and mages. Their arrival on the scene at the start of the game is what breaks up the old feudal system and sets the Renaissance in motion.
Interesting, will definitely have to check it out then
It’s really cool. They mostly live in the human cities as bankers and craftsmen, but discover the old great mountain range that was once their home. The banks and guilds fund expeditions to explore and resettle the caverns and derelict tunnels, and the expedition teams can settle down and found new Dwarven kingdoms under the mountains. The goal for Dwarf players is to resettle the mountain range, conquer the Goblin and Orc squatters as well as rival Dwarven colonies, and reforge the ancient Dwarven Empire of Aul-Dwarov (All-Dwarves-Home).
The gameplay is unique because provinces are strong along in a linear path that follows the course of the ancient tunnel systems. There are three types of provinces: super-urbanized subterranean “Hold” cities, the tunnel sections (which can eventually be upgraded with a functioning rail system), and side-branch caverns.
Gotcha
Interesting read. It raises the question, how do you make your Dwarves different while keeping them Dwarves?
Good question, I’d say that the key is to keep the foundations similar while diverging ever so slightly. I’ve seen depictions where they’re envious of the Elves, why not have them indifferent instead? You can try be more cheerful and upbeat, and friendly like in the Hobbit. No one does that anymore.
On can also try to have them be more philosophically oriened, no one’s really done that before.
I have my dwarven counterparts set up in the mythology of Crann Na Beatha, and these ain't yo daddy's krynnian dwarves.
They are called Clann-an-Cloiche (Children of the Stone) and you can find the entry here:
https://josephwiess.substack.com/p/the-sentient-races-of-crann-ceusaidh
I haven't introduced them yet, but I am working on a story where they make an appearance.
Interesting and that sounds fitting as a race.
Rowling created house elves. They’re by no means the hardy and proud dwarves of Tolkien, and were never meant to be. They were more like the brownies, or the hidden diminutive elves who helped the cobbler in folklore. And Tyrion Lannister never claimed to come from a race, although a short woman he met in his travels was a second generation “small folk”. It’s clear that they weren’t meant to represent in any way mythical dwarves but people afflicted with stunted growth. I agree that mythical dwarves don’t get the character development they deserve, but the two examples given are unrelated to that
Fair point, but I figure there was some inspiration there, with the house-elves mostly with the connection to the earth it always seemed like she was lampooning the Dwarves and the Elves.
As to Tyrion I explained he’s not of a race but suffers from Dwarfism, in the article. He’s still a subversion though.
PS: for all the show’s flaws, Deesa of Rings of Power is a good dwarf character
I have no idea who Deesa is, sorry haven’t watched a single episode of the show.
You’re missing nothing, believe me. They lost me after the second episode of the first season
Ah okay, I’ll bow to you on this one. I’ll look up Deesa to know which character if only out of respect for your excellent comments and to better understand (without watching the show).
The dwarves of WoW were a lot of fun to play. I played a female huntress. The dwarves of the Elder Scrolls are a little different. They're extinct, but they lived underground and were extremely inventive. They basically invented themselves out of existence, leaving only machines and ghosts.
Interesting on both accounts, I didn’t know any of that about the Dwarves from Elder Scrolls. Both interesting and sad at once.
Why do you say Rowling, "hollowed out dwarves" via characters like Dobby, but also say that "the House-Elves are also mockeries of Elves"?
I can readily understand why you would take the latter view of Rowling's work...but I'm not following how the House-Elves have anything to do with dwarvian depictions. If anything, I assumed that Professor Flitwick would be the more obvious dwarvian representative.
My view is that they are both Elves and Dwarves, ina way they have traits of one and the other. They have the diminutive height, and the work ethic of Dwarves but the Elf name slapped onto them.
Does that make sense?
I guess. So this is ultimately rooted in your identification of a dwarvan work ethic?
I just don't see it because, to me, it seems like we need more than the work ethic alone. I can't conceive of a fantasy dwarf that isn't somehow directly connected to the earth and minerals. (Perhaps that just owing to my steeping in Tolkien).
Not simply the work-ethic the union with the earth, the House-Elves are often depicted as being in the kitchen, in the places beneath where humans live. They belong to the subterranean, just as Dwarves do.
But if you don’t see it is fine, I’m not terribly steeped in HP (obviously) and am also utterly steeped in Tolkien whom is my favourite along with Howard.
I think you're mistaking the house-elves for dwarves. I don't remember any dwarves in HP, but then, I did only ever watch the movies.
I make reference to them being House-Elves, though I find that they are a subversion of both.
Excellent work. I never finished Dragon Age Origins, but my favorite origin section was the Dwarven Nobility.
Thanks! I gotta admit I never played as a Dwarf Noble, but feel compelled to do so soon. I must commend you for still trying the game, it is a masterpiece but really, really freaking long.
I’ve finished it, but I like the second game better. It plays more like a novel.
Interesting. Before Inquisition, I heard Dragon Age 2 was the weaker game.
DAII is massively underrated, because it had a subtler plot, was more character-driven, tackled larger themes and more personal ones and involved a battle against despair.
Inquisition is a woke mess.
Okay thanks, Have you played Mass Effect?
Never is it any good?
The first one is an excellent roleplaying game, the second is a good action game with RPG elements, and the third is a decent finale to the trilogy. There's also some cool prequel novels to the games as well by Drew Karpyshyn.
How did you avoid mentioning any of the great dwarves from Discworld?
I’m not familiar with Discworld, sorry.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld series is some of the best fantasy novels I've ever read. They're funny, not exactly parody. He uses fantasy tropes for humor.
Guards! Guards! is a great book to start with. Feet of Clay and the Fifth Elephant both involves dwarfs quite a bit.
There are 40 something books, so look at some fan pages before you really dive into it. Also, DO NOT watch the 2021 BBC series "The Watch." It does everything wrong you'd expect from modern adaptations.
Gotcha, merci I’ll take a look at it.