Arcane Topic Warning: Part the Fifth

[Kuruharan]

One can conceive of Dwarves trading with the Sindar, but once the Noldor arrived trade must have lessened because the Elves of the West were quite capable of forging their own weapons and doing their own construction.

I’ve wondered about this myself. I think perhaps that an exchange of ideas may perhaps have played some role in motivating the parties to continue their contact. My guess would be they were interested in the different skill sets that the other brought to the table. There is also something to be said that there is an element of interest in having stuff that comes from someplace else. This has always been an underlying element in engaging in commerce. I think that this might have been a factor for the Elves. Even though they may not have liked the Dwarves overmuch, I think that their inherent curiosity would drive them to maintain the contact.

However, there has to have been a material side to this as well. I think that, given the environment each group lived in, the Dwarves probably served as the source of raw materials to the Elves as well as manufacturing to a certain extent. True, the Noldor were more than capable of forging their own weapons, but they had to have metal to work. While the northern Noldor under Fingolfin and Fingon had access to ample mountain ranges for mining, the western Noldor and Finrod were a bit lacking in this department. I think the Sons of Feanor and Doriath were the Dwarves’ primary trading partners. I’m not so sure about Nargothrond as I don’t remember if there is any reference to Dwarves visiting the place after it was finished. The secrecy that the Elves of Nargothrond tried to maintain leads me to believe that there probably wasn’t a whole lot (or any) contact that went on there (although I might be wrong).