Can Dwarves Use Magic?

3 comments

Q: Can Dwarves Use Magic?

ANSWER: Yes, Dwarves can use magic. More specifically, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Dwarves in Middle-earth use magic. They create magic weapons and armor (such as Narsil and the Dragon-helm of Dor-lomin); they create magical instruments such as those that Thorin and Company took up to play after they seized Erebor; they create marvelous magical toys such as those Bilbo distributed at The Party in the Shire; and they enchant doorways and gates such as the secret door on Erebor and the East-gate of Moria/Khazad-dum. And by “enchant”, I do mean they use spells. Some people are of the mistaken belief that Tolkien’s Dwarves don’t use spells. They do.

These are just a few examples of Dwarven magic from J.R.R. Tolkien’s stories. Millions of people have read about these magical artifacts created by the Dwarves of J.R.R. Tolkien in the Middle-earth created by J.R.R. Tolkien. And yet many people still ask if the Dwarves can use magic.

I suppose it is the lack of references to “Dwarvish sorcery” (as opposed to “Elvish sorcery”) and the mundane clothing and tools carried by Dwarves as opposed to the magical ropes and cloaks and boats that Elves are wont to bestow upon their friends that lead people to overlook all the magic made or used by Dwarves in Middle-earth.

Elves get all the glamour. Dwarves get nothing.

I think the problem with general reader perceptions of Dwarves in The Lord of the Rings is that it is an essentially elvish story, albeit one told from a Hobbit point of view. Nearly every important conversation in the book draws upon Elvish history, philosophy, or mystique. Even Gimli becomes a devoted Elf-lover.

The Hobbit, on the other hand, is presented as a “children’s story” in published form. It’s only the Peter Jackson movie that actually struggles to make it a “Dwarf story”. I have said before that I rather like the concept but some of the harshest criticism directed at the first “Hobbit” movie focused on the way the Dwarves are portrayed.

Dwarves just can’t seem to get ahead in the audience’s reckoning.

The use of magic in Middle-earth is almost ubiquitous. It’s a rare speaking role in the book that doesn’t mention magic; and many characters whom most readers feel have no magic end up using it, including Frodo and his three companions, Eomer, Theoden, Aragorn, Gimli — well, the list goes on. Magic is ubiquitous. It permeates Middle-earth and the Dwarves are no exception to the rule that all the races of Middle-earth find some connection with magic (and I don’t mean through the Rings of Power).

“Magic” is the word that J.R.R. Tolkien struggled with. To him it was not really “magic” but rather a native talent which some possessed in far greater measure than others. Tolkien might have agreed with Arthur C. Clarke’s statement that “any sufficiently advanced technology seems like magic”. In fact, one day we may each be served by little swarms of semi-intelligent robots that can assemble themselves into all sorts of useful devices, devices perhaps controlled by our thoughts (in that they will passively detect and analyze our brainwaves).

Conceptually all these technologies exist today. We are still in the process of figuring out how to produce the obedient semi-intelligent swarms that can communicate with us, which will obey us, and which will be capable of doing things we cannot do directly with our hands. Such synergistic capabilities would surely seem like magic even to early generations of the 20th century, would they not?

Tolkien’s Dwarves were what he called technologists, and though he did not envision swarms of nanobots doing the bidding of Elves and Dwarves he did nonetheless see these two races possessing the ability to “enchant” the world around them. The magic did not vanish when the last Elf sailed over Sea or faded. It remained here, right here in Middle-earth. It’s just that it takes a different form under a human hand. Our “magic” is more mundane than the magic of the Elves and Dwarves. We cannot sing things into existence (yet) but we can sing in ways that our ancestors never dreamed of.

To be a Dwarf in Middle-earth is to be attuned to the world and to possess the ability to change that world according to one’s will, in some measure — perhaps less so than an elf and more so than a man. One should never doubt that the Dwarves can use magic, for without it they would be lost and lonely in Middle-earth.

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3 comments

  1. Sorry, wasn’t sure exactly where to direct my question:

    Are there examples of elf-dwarf friendships before Legolas and Gimli?

    1. Meg, thanks for asking. I can think of one example off the top of my head. There may have been two. I’ll do a little research and post the article next week.

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