Them Dwarves

Alas not me blog has a guest post by Trish Lambert, who some Tolkien professor followers will know from his discussions.

It is comparing Disney's Dwarfs vs Tolkien's Dwarves...

long and a bit nuanced essay. so mainly for Tolkien scholars geeks.

Tolkien's dwarves were friendly versions of those in Norse Myth, whereas Disney's dwarfs were cutified for a mass audience.

although I must confess, most of us now see Tolkien's dwarves through the eyes of Peter Jackson.

One of the Tolkien professor's discussions awhile back pointed out that Dwarves tended to be menacing in Norse tales, but the Hobbit, and Snow White, both came out about the same time and made them more friendly...

And remember: This was at a time when the Darwinian ideas of eliminating bad genes from "untermensh" was floating around Europe.