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Originally Posted by Encaitare
Yes, I believe the appendices say that Dis was the only female dwarf who was in any of the Middle-earth tales. I believe the Dwarves were a declining race, since there were so few Dwarf-women and many Dwarf-men never married anyway.
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Quite right, it says so in the Appendices - that there were fewer Dwarf women than men and some of those never wanted to marry, or didn't bother to re-marry if they were widowed - which, I think, tells us something about Dwarf culture and the place of women in it. In many of the other cultures, women would have been pressured to marry or re-marry - largely, I suspect, to keep the land in the family. The Appendices also say that Dwarf women are hard to tell from the Men and dress like them when they go out, which isn't often. Of course, this implies that the women also have beards, something with which Terry Pratchett has had a lot of fun, and I'm pretty sure it actually says so in one of the HOME books, I forget which one. The mind boggles!
Personally, I have always thought some of Thorin Oakenshield's comrades in THE HOBBIT were female. (g)
I have to agree with you, Boromir88, they are a fascinating folk - brave, tough, likable, with their own flaws like the other races, in their case a love of gold -but then, they're craftsmen and can't help loving beautiful things.