The Dwarfs of Narnia

[crjr9833]

How do think the Dwarfs of Narnia compare and differ to the Dwarves of Middle Earth( The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit,etc.)?





Discuss

[Dead Rain]

oh much indeed. for instance, they are very very very very much smaller and more cranky.

[crjr9833]

I think the Dwarves in ME are much more gold (and mithril)hungry too.

[Dead Rain]

aye. and the ones in Narnia smaller and more scragaly

[In a Stable]

I just find the Narnian dwarves easier to become attached to, like Trumpkin and Poggin. I can get attached to Middle Earth dwarves too, but it takes more time and effort. Narnian dwarves just sorta take hold of me and never let go.

[Dead Rain]

that's true, In a Stable. true indeed!

[rosymole]

Both sets of Dwarfs/Dwarves (geddit?!) seem to orginate formt eh same stuff- they are dawrves afterall, however the ME ones seem to be far more animalistic in their behaviour- they enjoy fighting, although saying this Blck Narnian dwarfs are a pretty mean bunch (LB).
Actually thinking about it they seem quite similar- dwarfs are dwarves i suppose- built from the earth upwards!

[Dead Rain]

heh. yeah well.. i guess that would work too.

[Bitter Milton]

It seems to me that the middle earth dwarves are easily disgruntled, but are willing to fight for the greater good.

Most narnian dwarves seem easily disgruntled and selfish.

[rosymole]

THere are some cases of them behaving pretty badly I agree , Bitter Milton (can I call you Milton?), but others seem ok, Poggin , Trumpkin etc. Dwarfs just don't seem to like busying themselves with the higher matters, and the messing about before things get done- prefering the basic facts and what they know, which could come across as a selfish manner. They do tend to work for them selves - as can be seen throughout the whole history of Narnia, but basically most of them are good

[Bitter Milton]

Yes, you can call me Milton.

I think in both Narnia and middle earth, the dwarves sort of keep to themselves, but the few dwarves that we have met are fighting for the greater good. theyre quite funny too!

[tgraveline]

hmm, i really think the dwarves in narnia are much more individual people. They can't really be spoken for like in middle earth about worrying about their mining and metals and all. These ones are much more individual attitudes in how they see things. I just really am wondering how they will look differently cause the movies have weta workshops involved.

tg

[she-elfwarrior19]

yes i agree, the narnian dwaves seem more easy to get along with aswell, then the ME ones do to me for some reason i think that the narnian ones seem less greedier, by the way i thought this was a spectacular question :D

[Gondor Knight of Narnia]

the dwarves of narnia are a bit more social than those of middle-earth,and they don't live in mountains!oh, and i've noticed they use bow and arrow more than the dwarves of middle-earth who'd prefere throwing axes! :D

[she-elfwarrior19]

My thoughts of the middle earthen dwarves and the narnia dwarves...hmm, from what ive seen in middle-earth the dwarves are greedy, like most dwarves, but in MiddleE they seem fine.
Narnian Dwarves, they can be bad and some good, like black dwarves are bad right? I think that the similarities would be, defending the dwarves rights, and confidence in their kind, and they will fight for the dwarves, im not to sure of dwarves, i like dwarves, but i know more about like elves, and centaurs, minotaurs and most narnian beasts, not much on dwarves though :o

[Gondor Knight of Narnia]

excellent points!if you recall in Rotk they fought with the men of dale at the foot of erebor then went inside and were besieged?at least i think they were besieged...i know they at least fought together at the foot of erebor.

i also noticed narnian dwarves seem to wear armor less frequently than middle-earth dwarves?at least it appears that way from paulina bines' drawings. :)

[she-elfwarrior19]

Perhap's,....................hm about the armor situation
*ponders*

[Gondor Knight of Narnia]

hmmmmm....also,dwarves in middle-earth seem more prone to speaking khuzdul(AKA dwarvish...yes i have a "languages of middle-earth" book with me as i post this!lol :D ) than the dwarves of narnia who seem to speak english constantly.i think that would go back to their openness to their neighbors thing... :)

[inkspot]

The dwarves in both places seem a bit selfish, or clannish I guess you could say. And somewhere I read (probably one of CS Lewis' books) that when the devil wants to distract people from the path of Truth, he can sometimes get them to focus on something that is a virtue, maybe a minor virtue like love of one's own kind, to the exclusion of more important virtues such as compassion, self-sacrifice, etc. Maybe the dwarves, to an extent, represent this? They have focused on one good thing: love of dwarf-kind, to the exclusion of better things, such as helping to save Middle Earth in LOTR or helping to save Narnia in TLB.

There are ways we do this in everyday life, such as focusing on our career, which is a good thing -- to the exlusion of focusing on our family, which would be a better thing ...

[Johan 72109]

I always find the dwarves of Narnia much more believable than the dwarfs of Middle Earth. Dwarfs of ME all come across as very similar - clannish, distrusting other races, but a certain nobility about them nonetheless. Dwarves of Narnia all have different personalities - they're selfish, and clannish, and cynical, (well, by the time of PC), but they all have different ways of acting, and are selfish and cynical to different degrees.

[Gondor Knight of Narnia]

The dwarves in both places seem a bit selfish, or clannish I guess you could say. And somewhere I read (probably one of CS Lewis' books) that when the devil wants to distract people from the path of Truth, he can sometimes get them to focus on something that is a virtue, maybe a minor virtue like love of one's own kind, to the exclusion of more important virtues such as compassion, self-sacrifice, etc. Maybe the dwarves, to an extent, represent this? They have focused on one good thing: love of dwarf-kind, to the exclusion of better things, such as helping to save Middle Earth in LOTR or helping to save Narnia in TLB.

There are ways we do this in everyday life, such as focusing on our career, which is a good thing -- to the exlusion of focusing on our family, which would be a better thing ...
well put inkspot :D

[Narborg]

How do think the Dwarfs of Narnia compare and differ to the Dwarves of Middle Earth( The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit,etc.)?





Discuss

This is not mant to be an essay, I hope

[Hounddoom43]

:) They are smaller and meaner

[Malacandra]

The dwarves in both places seem a bit selfish, or clannish I guess you could say. And somewhere I read (probably one of CS Lewis' books) that when the devil wants to distract people from the path of Truth, he can sometimes get them to focus on something that is a virtue, maybe a minor virtue like love of one's own kind, to the exclusion of more important virtues such as compassion, self-sacrifice, etc. Maybe the dwarves, to an extent, represent this? They have focused on one good thing: love of dwarf-kind, to the exclusion of better things, such as helping to save Middle Earth in LOTR or helping to save Narnia in TLB.

There are ways we do this in everyday life, such as focusing on our career, which is a good thing -- to the exlusion of focusing on our family, which would be a better thing ...

Yes. (The bolded bit.) That's the dialogue between the Oyarsa of Malacandra (often just called "Malacandra" subsequently, but at that time just called "Oyarsa") and Professor Weston, towards the close of Out of the Silent Planet. A kind of loyalty to the future of Mankind is pretty much Weston's only virtue, and unfortunately blinds him to other virtues such as compassion and straight dealing and so on; and not even an interview with Mars's ruling archangel gets him to see sense.

It's worth remembering that the dwarves of Middle-Earth were a dying race by the time of the events in LotR. Their great days were thousands of years ago. Neither Morgoth in ancient times nor Sauron in his turn could dominate the Naugrim, but they took what measures they could to lead to their eventual extinction, though Morgoth and Sauron both were more concerned with defeating the Elves.

ME's dwarves seem rather more lordly and stately than Narnia's dwarfs (and Tolkien and Lewis alike would have been scrupulous about the plural forms), and that's intentional on the part of Tolkien. He explained that the reason why he called them dwarves instead of dwarfs was to distance them as much as possible from the kind of creatures you find in Snow White and so on, and lend them some dignity.

You should note that Thorin and company could and did use bows; there's only one dwarf seen much of in LotR, Gimli, and he never uses a distance weapon of any kind.