Why Do The DWARVES & ELVES Hate Each Other? | Middle Earth Lore

Hello and welcome to the Broken Sword. Today we are having a look at the reason behind the tension between the Dwarves and the Elves. Well, here we are at last, said Gandalf. Here the Elven way from Hollin ended. Hollin was the token of the people of that land, and they planted it here to mark the end of their domain, for the west door was made cheaply for their use in their traffic with the lords of Moria. Those were happier days, when there was still close friendship and time between folk of different race, even between Dwarves and Elves. It was not the fault of the Dwarves that the friendship waned, said Gimli. I have not heard that it was the fault of the Elves, said Legolas. I have heard both, said Gandalf, and I will not give judgment now, but I beg you two, Legolas and Gimli, at least to be friends, and to help me. I need you both. The doors are shut and hidden, and the sooner we find them, the better. Night is at hand. It has been made well known from the movies that the Dwarves and the Elves do not tend to get along from our viewings of Legolas and Gimli, as well as Thorin and Thranduil. But where did this all start? After all, there is not the same kind of rivalry between the likes of Dwarves and Men, for example. Well, first things first. To put a blanket statement out of all Dwarves and all Elves hate each other is not really correct. There are several different groups that make up each of these races, and they do not all share the same relationships and feelings as each other. But to start with, I think we should look at what is considered to be the most important moment that created the tensions between these peoples. To do this, we need to travel back to times of the first age of Middle Earth and focus on the Elves, or more specifically, at the group known as the Sindar Elves. Now for those of you who aren't sure, these were originally Telerin Elves, who would come to make their home in Beleriand under King Thingol, who is an Elf that is the father of Luthien from the famous Beren and Luthien tale. The greatest host came last, and they were named the Teleri. For they tarried on the road, and were not wholly of a mind to pass from the dusk to the light of Valinor. In water, they had great delight, and those that came at last to the western shores were enamoured of the sea. The Sea Elves, therefore, they became in the land of Aman, the Falmeri, for they made music beside the breaking waves. As that quote shows, the Teleri loved the waters and the trees, and these traits would stay with this group as they became known as the group of the Sindar. These Sindar would also go by the name of Grey People, as they would go their own way when they chose to reject the invitation to take the great journey. So, although they were Aldar, they never beheld the light of the two trees of Valinor. And despite this, they still became some of the most skilled and wisest of any of the Elves of Middle-earth. This would also lead them to being referred to as the Elves of the Twilight. Now, in the early days of the First Age, most Dwarves and Elves had been allies, even to the point that the piece of jewellery known as the Necklace of the Dwarves, or more famously as the Nauglamir, would be crafted by Dwarves from the Blue Mountains using gems from Valinor, and it would be considered a piece of jewellery with incredible beauty and grace. It was also considered to be the most prized treasure in Nargothrond, and the most famed Dwarven work of the Outer Days, as it stood as a symbol of the alliance between the Elves and Dwarves. But like I said, this was not made by the Dwarves for the Dwarves, no, it was made for Finrod Felagund, who was the Elven King of another group of the Elves called the Noldor Elves, and these were the second group of the Elves to make their way to Aman. Finrod was best known for being a King of the Noldor, the eldest son of Finarfin and brother to Galadriel, Angrod and Aegnor. The First Age would reach the year 495 and the Battles of Beleriand would be taking many lives. Here the forces of Morgoth would attack the city of Nargothrond and destroy it, as the lead of this army was Glaurung. Glaurung was the father of the Dragons, his power was great and terrifying for he was a fire-breathing dragon who could both talk and understand speech as well. The only thing Glaurung really lacked was the ability of flight. The destruction he would unleash during this event would lead to it becoming known as the Sack of Nargothrond and Glaurung would then remain here afterwards, collecting all treasures he could find, including the Nauglamir and sitting in the ruins. His horde would grow and amongst it the necklace would remain for a great time. And you may be wondering at this point as well, just why is this necklace so important? Well trust me it will become apparent very shortly, just feel sometimes a bit of the backstory behind it all helps you get a better understanding of more of the story. But jumping back into it, the Nauglamir would be here until the man named Hurin Thalion, of who the story of the Children of Hurin is written regarding, would make his way to the ruins of Nargothrond and recover the Nauglamir, with him then taking it to Doriath. And also on a side note here, Hurin is a tragic character with a very interesting story that includes being cursed by none other than Morgoth. So if his story is something you would be interested in for a future video, then please do me two things, leave a comment below of Hurin the Cursed, and along with this, help us get this video to pass 3000 likes just to show that there is interest in this character. A thank you in advance. But anyway, now back to the tale. The Nauglamir was now in the hands of Thingol in Doriath thanks to Hurin. Thingol wished to add to this necklace though, and not just with anything, but he wanted to add the Silmaril of Beren and Luthien onto it. So Thingol asked the Dwarves of Nogrod to come and help him with this task, of which the Dwarves agreed. However, when their work was done, the Dwarves became so infatuated by this beautiful thing before them that they turned around and demanded that they keep the They claimed that the Nauglamir was never made for Thingol, it had been made for Finrod, but now that Finrod had died it should now belong to the Dwarves that made it again. However, Thingol would see this as they just wished for the Silmaril, so he sent them on their way with no payment at all, insulting them greatly. And this is where the first drop of hatred may These Dwarves would not take this insult lying down, and so they slew Thingol. However, only two of the Dwarves would actually make it out of Doriath alive, and then return home to Nogrod in the Blue Mountains. Here, when questioned about how they came into the necklace, they would lie. They would claim that Thingol had ordered them to be killed after their work was complete, so that he would not have to pay. This raised the want for revenge within the Dwarves of Nogrod, so they raised an army in anger and rage and marched to avenge their kin, all from a lie. This would begin the event that would be known as the Battle of the Thousand Caves, where so many casualties would be suffered. The Dwarves would be victorious in stealing back their treasure, with them finally reaching the treasury where the necklace lay with Mablung, the Captain and Marchwarden of the once King Elu-Thingol, stood. But although he was mighty, this Elf could not withstand the Dwarven power and so fell at its doors. This attack would not go unheard of though, for the word of what they did spread very fast throughout Middle-earth, and on their return journey they were attacked in revenge by Elves of Ossiriand, some Ents, and these were all led by Beren. And in this attack, all on the side of the Dwarves were killed. Beren now took the Nauglamir himself and gave it to Luthien, but the rest of that story is not relevant for today. So, that is definitely the event that could be considered to have driven a big wedge between the races, which, just like most of the events from the First Age, was caused due to the beautiful effects of the Silmarils. And this kept long in the memories of both races, with each believing that they had been betrayed by the other, even to the point that it is shown in the quote from the very start of this video from the Lord of the Rings, where Legolas has only heard the tales that it is the fault of the Dwarves, where Gimli has only heard tales that it is the fault of the Elves. And you can only imagine, over time, just hearing one side of the story, these feelings and opinions and the drasticness of the story was most likely just increased after every telling. It is a sad thing to know when so many facts were left unknown. But that is not the sole moment though, there is another factor that could have had some influence on their relationship, and that is to do with the Peti Dwarves. Now for those of you who are unsure of just who or what these are, the Peti Dwarves are a group of their race that have been members of several other of the clans of the Dwarves, but these ones are those who had been exiled from the Eastern Dwarven cities. However, the reasons for these exilings are never actually been specified, but we can make a cup of logical guesses. They weren't different from normal Dwarves, they were smaller in size and far less sociable, so in some ways they could have been considered as almost the runt of the litter if you want to think of it in that way and maybe just excluded for that, but that is just my thought. But there is also the fact that they would happily give away their Khuzdul names, which is also a likely reason to be exiled by the Dwarves, as all other Dwarves kept their Khuzdul names and language a secret from basically all others. That was theirs and theirs alone, so little is known about it, so for them to give it away freely, it would very much be frowned upon by the others. Now, these Peti Dwarves were the first to cross the Ered Luin in the First Age, coming to Beleriand before any of the Elves had arrived themselves. However, when the Sindar Elves would arrive, they began to hunt these Peti Dwarves. After all, they had no experience with Dwarves at all at this point, so they mistook them for animals, and it was not until the Dwarves of Belagost and Nogrod would eventually make contact with the Elves that they realised what these small humanoid beings actually were. The Elves would leave the numbers were now so few, and they had been driven out of their homes, that the Peti Dwarves now held an everlasting hatred for the Elves. We need to remember them. Although this specific group held such a deep hatred for the Elves, the Peti Dwarves had nearly died out by the end of the Wars of Beleriand in the year 587 of the First Age. So, although it is possible that the Dwarves did keep a memory of the way these Peti Dwarves were treated, it is unlikely that this would have too much of an impact on the other houses of the Dwarves, as, again, you got to remember, this group had been exiled, so they probably not held too highly. And now, before I wrap up this video, there is actually one more point I would like to add, and this is more of a theory than something that can be backed up by documented events. But still, I am curious to see what you all think. So, if we go back to the very beginning, to the creations of the races, first we had the children of Ilúvatar, who are the Elves, and they were meant to come first. However, the Vala Aule would go and create the Dwarves in secret after becoming impatient with having to wait so long for the first children to arrive. Aule just wished to be able to teach his lore and crafts to these new beings, and he just got fed up waiting. And this little bit actually explains why the Dwarves are different looking, like they're shorter, as Aule had never seen an Elf to base any of his attempted creations off. This was in fact against Ilúvatar's ways, as only Ilúvatar could create life. But nonetheless, Ilúvatar granted life to what would be the Dwarves after Aule initially expected to have to destroy them all, but they would have to sleep until after the children of Ilúvatar would awaken first. So, this means that the Elves are the children of the creator's choice, whereas the Dwarves are the children that were, in want of a better term, adopted. Therefore, this kind of situation is always likely to leave some degree of jealousy between the pair, even if they don't really know why that is. They were rival creations from the very beginning, who possessed opposite ways of life. One of them loved the trees and the sea, whereas the others loved stone and mining. It was almost written in the stars that they would always be destined to challenge each other one way or another. But again, I will emphasise that section is just one of my opinion, there's not really fact to back that up, it's just an idea. So there we have it, these are the main reasons I could find for their rivalry and hatred towards each other. I do believe that the main trigger for the tension in their friendships has to be down to the events of Thingol, the Dwarves of Noghrad and the Nauglamir, and this mistrust would generally remain throughout the ages, but that may never have been avoidable if the theory with Ilúvatar comes into things. But in spite of this, it is important to also note that actually a great number of Dwarves and Elves did get along okay, or even very well indeed. As just one example of this, we have the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm getting on very well with the Elves of Eregion in the times of Navi and Celebrimbor during the Second Age. It is not to say it never happened, it just gets overshadowed by the hatred of their past. And so, I hope you all enjoyed this video for today, and that leads me to my question for you all today, which is, how do you think things could have been different throughout the histories of Middle-earth if the event with the Nauglamir never happened? Do you think there was always destined to be a rivalry between the Elves and the Dwarves, or do you think they would have actually gotten along just fine like both races generally did with men? We can never know for sure, but I would love to know your thoughts and opinions on this in the comment section below. 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