Q: Did Dwarves Ever Serve Sauron?
ANSWER: Readers sometimes ask if Sauron ever had followers among the Dwarves. There is, for example, a passage in “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age” where Tolkien writes:
…Sauron gathered into his hands all the remaining Rings of Power; and he dealt them out to the other peoples of Middle-earth, hoping thus to bring under his sway all those that desired secret power beyond the measure of their kind. Seven Rings he gave to the Dwarves; but to Men he gave nine, for Men proved in this matter as in others the readiest to his will. And all those rings that he governed he perverted, the more easily since he had a part in their making, and they were accursed, and they betrayed in the end all those that used them. The Dwarves indeed proved tough and hard to tame; they ill endure the domination of others, and the thoughts of their hearts are hard to fathom, nor can they be turned to shadows. They used their rings only for the getting of wealth; but wrath and an over-mastering greed of gold were kindled in their hearts, of which evil enough after came to the profit of Sauron. It is said that the foundation of each of the Seven Hoards of the Dwarf-kings of old was a golden ring; but all those hoards long ago were plundered and the Dragons devoured them, and of the Seven Rings some were consumed in fire and some Sauron recovered.
So if Sauron gave Rings of Power to the Dwarves, what were the circumstances of the granting of Rings of Power? We can only speculate, but many people have argued or surmised that this passage shows that Sauron’s plan to subject the Dwarves to his own will failed.
Perhaps. But some readers point to another passage found later on in “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age”, where Tolkien writes:
…All living things were divided in that day, and some of every kind, even of beasts and birds, were found in either host, save the Elves only. They alone were undivided and followed Gil-galad. Of the Dwarves few fought upon either side; but the kindred of Durin of Moria fought against Sauron.
In this passage we can only be sure that Durin’s Folk opposed Sauron and actively fought against him. Clearly, possessing a Ring from Sauron did not compel these Dwarves (or, we should say, their king) to stay out of the fight or to serve Sauron. But the text suggests some Dwarves may have fought FOR Sauron in the war.
Who would those Dwarves have been? Were they an entire people or just adventurers and rogues? Tolkien never explains. However, in the essay “Dwarves and Men” (which Christopher Tolkien published in The Peoples of Middle-earth, Volume XII of The History of Middle-earth), we find an interesting note:
28. For they had met some far to the East who were of evil mind. [This was a later pencilled note. On the previous page of the typescript my father wrote at the same time, without indication of its reference to the text but perhaps arising from the mention (p. 301) of the awakening of the eastern kindreds of the Dwarves: ‘Alas, it seems probable that (as Men did later) the Dwarves of the far eastern mansions (and some of the nearer ones?) came under the Shadow of Morgoth and turned to evil.’]
This note is attached to the part of the essay where Tolkien explains how the long relationship between the Longbeard Dwarves and Men of the Vales of Anduin developed:
The Men with whom they were thus associated were for the most part akin in race and language with the tall and mostly fair-haired people of the ‘House of Hador’, the most renowned and numerous of the Edain, who were allied with the Eldar in the War of the Jewels. These Men, it seems, had come westward until faced by the Great Greenwood, and then had divided: some reaching the Anduin and passing thence northward up the Vales; some passing between the north-eaves of the Wood and the Ered Mithrin. Only a small part of this people, already very numerous and divided into many tribes, had then passed on into Eriador and so come at last to Beleriand. They were brave and loyal folk, truehearted, haters of Morgoth and his servants; and at first had regarded the Dwarves askance, fearing that they were under the Shadow (as they said)….
Hence, it seems fair to say that Tolkien envisioned some Dwarves serving the purposes of Morgoth and/or Sauron, although they may not necessarily have been willing servants of the dark lords. Perhaps they were simply manipulated into doing evil and became corrupt but not enslaved. It is difficult to think of evil Dwarves — especially evil Dwarves who were in Sauron’s service — allying themselves with the Heir of Durin to avenge the murder of Thror. Of course, one could rationalize such an alliance by pointing out that even evil Dwarves might hate the Orcs. But it could be that the eastern Dwarves’ evilness was something different from the long-standing servitude that many tribes of Men, Orcs, and Trolls owed to Sauron.
Hence, we cannot say with any certainty that many Dwarves served Sauron, but it does seem apparent that he may have been served by some Dwarves in the late Second Age, and perhaps Tolkien imagined only extraordinary circumstances leading to such servitude. Perhaps those Dwarves felt they were merely allied with Sauron for their own reasons, rather than actually serving him.
Addendum: There is also a passage in The Hobbit that some readers mention. When Thorin and Company are brought before the Great Goblin the narrator provides some background:
There in the shadows on a large flat stone sat a tremendous goblin with a huge head, and armed goblins were standing round him carrying the axes and the bent swords that they use. Now goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted. They make no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones. They can tunnel and mine as well as any but the most skilled dwarves, when they take the trouble, though they are usually untidy and dirty. Hammers, axes, swords, daggers, pickaxes, tongs, and also instruments of torture, they make very well, or get other people to make to their design, prisoners and slaves that have to work till they die for want of air and light. It is not unlikely that they invented some of the machines that have since troubled the world, especially the ingenious devices for killing large numbers of people at once, for wheels and engines and explosions always delighted them, and also not working with their own hands more than they could help; but in those days and those wild parts they had not advanced (as it is called) so far. They did not hate dwarves especially, no more than they hated everybody and everything, and particularly the orderly and prosperous; in some parts wicked dwarves had even made alliances with them. But they had a special grudge against Thorin’s people, because of the war which you have heard mentioned, but which does not come into this tale; and anyway goblins don’t care who they catch, as long as it is done smart and secret, and the prisoners are not able to defend themselves.
The emphasis is mine.
These “wicked dwarves”, as well (perhaps) as the dwarves of “evil mind” mentioned in the “Dwarves and Men” essay, are probably faint echoes of the evil Dwarves from The Book of Lost Tales. Neither passage really has anything to do with the the question about whether Dwarves served Sauron but Tolkien left open the possibility that the Dwarves were susceptible to being evil just like Men and Elves.
See also:
- How Did Sauron Give the Seven Rings to the Dwarven Kings?
- Why Did Sauron Take Back the Dwarven Rings of Power?
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