how durin founded the longbeards

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by mhagain

To be honest, this is presented as a racial founding-myth and probably shouldn't be taken so literally.

Then again, couldn't one say the same of the Elves' awakening at Cuiviénen? We as readers are given the Elves' "version" of First Age history in Arda, and the making of the Dwarves by Aulë is presented from their point of view, with a little detail about the Dwarves' reverence for the maker "Mahal", their name for the Vala.

I would take the view that though Durin might have been "alone", that was more a distinction of his being the Eldest of the race. The tale of their beginning in The Silmarillion says that Aulë "made first the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves" (emphasis added). That leaves room for the idea that he later made others, though only the Seven Fathers were mentioned specifically.