Seven fathers of the Dwarves

[Eönwë]

Originally Posted by alatar

I always took 'fathers of the Dwarves' to mean special heads of small groups. Kind of like when, in the United States of America, we speak of our "Founding Fathers." These men (and women) got the whole process going, but are not the biological sires of all of those that now live here. They were not alone in founding this country, but they were at the forefront - the kings, as it were.

Anyway, if it was only them, they'd have probably all died by the end of the First Age of genetic diseases (Unless their genes worked differently to ours).

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Eönwë

Anyway, if it was only them, they'd have probably all died by the end of the First Age of genetic diseases (Unless their genes worked differently to ours).

Some would say, like Adam and Eve, that they were more, if not entirely "pure" and so contained no defects, and so random deleterious mutations would take some time to accumulate to observable levels. Surely by this time they found other groups and intermingled.

[Eönwë]

Originally Posted by alatar

Some would say, like Adam and Eve, that they were more, if not entirely "pure" and so contained no defects, and so random deleterious mutations would take some time to accumulate to observable levels. Surely by this time they found other groups and intermingled.

At least, I hope.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

.....our "Founding Fathers." These men (and women) got the whole process going, but are not the biological sires of all of those that now live here.

Except for Ben Franklin- the randy old goat is probably responsible for a fair chunk of the population...