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William Cloud Hicklin · 03-27-2009, 10:20 AM

At the time Tolkien began The Hobbit the Dwarves in his legendarium were conceived as being not merely morally dubious, but (if not as wicked as Orcs) then compulsively selfish, dishonest and untrustworthy, their antecedents being Andvari and Regin/Mimir of Norse legend. It was The Hobbit itself which led Tolkien to rehabilitate them somewhat in the Quenta Silmarillion of 1937; and the LR which brought Dwarves (or at least Durin's Folk) solidly into the 'mostly good' column in later Silmarillion texts.

03-27-2009, 10:20 AM	#3
William Cloud Hicklin Loremaster of Annúminas Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 2,330	At the time Tolkien began The Hobbit the Dwarves in his legendarium were conceived as being not merely morally dubious, but (if not as wicked as Orcs) then compulsively selfish, dishonest and untrustworthy, their antecedents being Andvari and Regin/Mimir of Norse legend. It was The Hobbit itself which led Tolkien to rehabilitate them somewhat in the Quenta Silmarillion of 1937; and the LR which brought Dwarves (or at least Durin's Folk) solidly into the 'mostly good' column in later Silmarillion texts. __________________ The entire plot of The Lord of the Rings could be said to turn on what Sauron didn’t know, and when he didn’t know it.