[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by denethorthefirst

I do not think that there were "evil" Dwarves in Middle-Earth. We have to remember that the recorded history of Middle-Earth has largely an elvish perspective and from an elven point of view the Dwarves may seem sometimes "evil". The Dwarves are very strong-willed, pragmatic, not easily cowed or impressed and they protect their interests fiercely and aggressive; their way of life is also antithetical to a lot of (sindarin/silvan) elven practices (mining, industry, resource-extraction, etc.). It is no wonder then that the Elves would deem them somewhat "evil" or "wicked".

Siding with the Melkorian forces to any extent from a moral standpoint is "evil" by definition in Middle-earth. It is heavily implied that dwarves did serve the Melkorian side in some cases.

But another, more important point, is that the Dwarves simply have to be pragmatic and realist in their (political) approach to life in Middle-Earth. They can't flee to Valinor to Valar daddy and mommy if things get dicey. They are bound to Middle-Earth come what may and so are forced to make hard choices and compromises simply to survive! They are not immortal, they have no valinorean "safety ticket" or strength in numbers like the humans. The Dwarves simply can't afford to always take the moral high road like the Elves!

Tolkien is quite clear that, aside from those forced practical arrangements, that the Dwarves were never corrupted, i.e. they never became "evil"

I don't think that Tolkien would agree that survival is of ultimate importance but rather correct action is regardless of consequence. I'm not disagreeing that dwarves did such things, but I am saying that such actions would be inherently evil and corrupting.

This is a bit contradictory; by "harry Dwarves" Tolkien probably meant "Dwarves of Durins Folk" because Sauron gave away rings to the other clans afterwards so he at least tried to subdue them "diplomatically" at first. Of course that failed, and the hatred he felt for Durins Folk must have been extended to all the other Dwarves as well.

I don't know that this necessarily follows. The context of the passage about the Longbeard assistance to Rivendell is, as you say, specific to the Longbeards. I think the passage should be interpreted as Sauron intensely hated Longbeards specifically and not all dwarves. This is not to say that Sauron didn't hate all dwarves. He hated everyone, but I don't think that passage supports the idea of Sauron having a special hatred of all dwarves based on that one incident.

Even IF (big if) Sauron dominated the eastern Houses of the Dwarves during the Second Age, how come so few were willing to fight for him? I guess those few were either mercenaries/specialists that Sauron paid or small detachments sent for the aforementioned political/diplomatic reasons, a symbolic token gesture maybe.

Comparatively speaking, there may have been few eastern dwarves there to fight. Elsewhere I have speculated that even a very large number of dwarves might have seemed small when compared to the large numbers of men, elves, orcs, and other creatures assembled for the great battles of the Last Alliance.