The Peoples of Middle-earth (53 page)

followed by a translation. Since, as noted, the provision of a contemporary text in the actual Common Speech was not possible, the only proper procedure was to provide a translation into English of the legible words of the pages hastily examined by Gandalf.(15) This was done in the text; and short of a construction of the actual Common Speech sufficient to allow the text to be in its contemporary form, all that can legitimately be done.

A special difficulty is presented by the inscription on Balin's tomb. This is effective in its place: giving an idea of the style of the Runes when incised with more care for a solemn purpose, and providing a glimpse of a strange tongue; though all that is really necessary for the tale is the six lines on I.334 (16)(with the translation of the inscription in bigger and bolder lettering). The actual representation of the inscription has however landed in some absurdities.(17)

The use in the inscription of the older and more 'correct'

values and shapes of the Angerthas, and not the later 'usage of Erebor', is not absurd (though possibly an unnecessary elaboration); it is in accord with the history of the Runes as sketched in the Appendix E. The older Runes would be used for such a purpose, since they were used in Moria before the flight of the Dwarves, and would appear in other inscriptions of like kind -

and Balin was claiming to be the descendant and successor of the former Lords of Moria. The use of the Dwarf-tongue (Khuzdul) is possible in so short an inscription, since this tongue has been sketched in some detail of structure, if with a very small vocabulary. But the names Balin and Fundin are in such a context absurd. The Dwarves, as is stated in III.411,(18) had names in their own language; these they only used among themselves (on solemn occasions) and kept strictly secret from other peoples, and therefore never spelt them out in writing or inscriptions meant for or likely to be seen by strangers. In times or places where they had dealings, in trade or friendship, with their neighbours, they adopted 'outer names' for convenience.(19) These names were in form generally suited to the structure of the Common Speech [> the structure of the language from which they were derived]. Very frequently they had recognizable meanings in that language, or were names current in it; sometimes they were names [> current in it, being names] used by neighbouring Men among whom they dwelt, and were derived from the local Mannish language in which they might have a still known meaning, though this was not often the case

[this phrase struck out].(20) Whether the adopted names that had meanings were selected because these meanings had some relation to their secret 'inner' names cannot be determined.

The adopted names could be and sometimes were changed -

usually in consequence of some event, such as the migration of either the Dwarves or their friends that separated them.

The case of the Dwarves of Moria was an example of adoption of names from Mannish languages of the North, not from the Common Speech.(21) It might have been better in that case to have given them in their actual forms. But in carrying out the theory (necessary for the lessening of the load of invention of names in different styles of language), that names derived from the Mannish tongues and dialects of the West historically related to the Common Speech should be represented by names found (or made of elements found in) languages related to English, the Dwarvish names were taken from Norse: since the Mannish language from which they were adopted was closely related to the more southerly language from which was derived the language of Rohan (represented as Old English, because of its greater archaism in form as compared with those elements in the Common Speech derived from the languages of the same kinship). In consequence such names as Balin, etc. would not have appeared in any contemporary inscription using actual Khuzdul.(22)

Relations of the Longbeard Dwarves and Men.(23)

In the Dwarvish traditions of the Third Age the names of the places where each of the Seven Ancestors had 'awakened' were remembered; but only two of them were known to Elves and Men of the West: the most westerly, the awakening place of the ancestors of the Firebeards and the Broadbeams; and that of the ancestor of the Longbeards,(24) the eldest in making and awakening. The first had been in the north of the Ered Lindon, the great eastern wall of Beleriand, of which the Blue Mountains of the Second and later ages were the remnant; the second had been Mount Gundabad (in origin a Khuzdul name), which was therefore revered by the Dwarves, and its occupation in the Third Age by the Orks of Sauron was one of the chief reasons for their great hatred of the Orks.(25) The other two places were eastward, at distances as great or greater than that between the Blue Mountains and Gundabad: the arising of the Ironfists and Stiffbeards, and that of the Blacklocks and Stonefoots. Though these four points were far sundered the Dwarves of different kindreds were in communication, and in the early ages often held assemblies of delegates at Mount Gundabad. In times of great need even the most distant would send help to any of their people; as was the case in the great War against the Orks (Third Age 2793 to 2799). Though they were loth to migrate and make permanent dwellings or 'mansions' far from their original homes, except under great pressure from enemies or after some catastrophe such as the ruin of Beleriand, they were great and hardy travellers and skilled road-makers; also, all the kindreds shared a common language.(26)

But in far distant days the Dwarves were secretive [struck out: - and none more so than the Longbeards -] and had few dealings with the Elves. In the West at the end of the First Age the dealings of the Dwarves of the Ered Lindon with King Thingol ended in disaster and the ruin of Doriath, the memory of which still poisoned the relations of Elves and Dwarves in after ages. At that time the migrations of Men from the East and South had brought advance-guards into Beleriand; but they were not in great numbers, though further east in Eriador and Rhovanion (especially in the northern parts) their kindred must already have occupied much of the land. There dealings between Men and the Longbeards must soon have begun. For the Longbeards, though the proudest of the seven kindreds, were also the wisest and the most farseeing. Men held them in awe and were eager to learn from them; and the Longbeards were very willing to use Men for their own purposes. Thus there grew up in those regions the economy, later characteristic of the dealings of Dwarves and Men (including Hobbits): Men became the chief providers of food, as herdsmen, shepherds, and land-tillers, which the Dwarves exchanged for work as builders, roadmakers, miners, and the makers of things of craft, from useful tools to weapons and arms and many other things of great cost and skill. To the great profit of the Dwarves. Not only to be reckoned in hours of labour, though in early times the Dwarves must have obtained goods that were the product of greater and longer toil than the things or services that they gave in exchange - before Men became wiser and developed skills of their own. The chief advantage to them was their freedom to proceed unhindered with their own work and to refine their arts, especially in metallurgy, to the marvellous skill which these reached before the decline and dwindling of the Khazad.

This system developed slowly, and it was long before the Longbeards felt any need to learn the language of their neighbours, still less to adopt names by which they could be known individually to 'outsiders'. This process began not in barter and trade, but in war; for the Longbeards had spread southward down the Vales of Anduin and had made their chief 'mansion'

and stronghold at Moria; and also eastward to the Iron Hills, where the mines were their chief source of iron-ore. They regarded the Iron Hills, the Ered Mithrin, and the east dales of the Misty Mountains as their own land. But they were under attack from the Orks of Morgoth. During the War of the Jewels and the Siege of Angband, when Morgoth needed all his strength, these attacks ceased; but when Morgoth fell and Angband was destroyed hosts of the Orks fled eastwards seeking homes. They were now masterless and without any general leadership, but they were well-armed and very numerous, cruel, savage, and reckless in assault. In the battles that followed the Dwarves were outnumbered, and though they were the most redoubtable warriors of all the Speaking Peoples they were glad to make alliance with Men.(27)

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).(28) But they were glad of the alliance, for they were more vulnerable to the attacks of the Orks: they dwelt largely in scattered homesteads and villages, and if they drew together into small townships they were poorly defended, at best by dikes and wooden fences. Also they were lightly armed, chiefly with bows, for they had little metal and the few smiths among them had no great skill. These things the Dwarves amended in return for one great service that Men could offer. They were tamers of beasts and had learned the mastery of horses, and many were skilled and fearless riders.(29) These would often ride far afield as scouts and keep watch on movements of their enemies; and if the Orks dared to assemble in the open for some great raid, they would gather great force of horsed archers to surround them and destroy them. In these ways the Alliance of Dwarves and Men in the North came early in the Second Age to command great strength, swift in attack and valiant and well-protected in defence, and there grew up in that region between Dwarves and Men respect and esteem, and sometimes warm friendship.

It was at that time, when the Dwarves were associated with Men both in war and in the ordering of the lands that they had secured,(30) that the Longbeards adopted the speech of Men for communication with them. They were not unwilling to teach their own tongue to Men with whom they had special friendship, but Men found it difficult and were slow to learn more than isolated words, many of which they adapted and took into their own language. But on one point the Longbeards were as rigidly secretive as all other Dwarves. For reasons which neither Elves nor Men ever fully understood they would not reveal any personal names to people of other kin,(31) nor later when they had acquired the arts of writing allow them ever to be carved or written. They therefore took names by which they could be known to their allies in Mannish forms.(32) This custom endured among the Longbeards into the Fourth Age and beyond the view of these histories. It would appear that when speaking to Men with whom they had close friendship, and would speak together of the histories and memories of their peoples, they also gave similar names to Dwarves remembered in their annals long before the meeting of Dwarves and Men. But of these ancient times only one name was in the Third Age preserved: Durin, the name they gave to the prime ancestor of the Longbeards and by which he was known to Elves and Men. (It appears to have been simply a word for 'king' in the language of the Men of the North of the Second Age.)(33) The names of the Longbeards otherwise are not known in lists going back before the ruin of Moria (Khazad-dum), Third Age 1980; but they are all of the same kind, sc. in a long 'dead' Mannish language.

This can only be explained by supposing that these names from the early Second Age had been adopted by the Dwarves, and preserved with as little change as their own language, and continued to be given (and often repeated) for something like four thousand years or more since the Alliance was destroyed by the power of Sauron! In this way they soon became to later Men specially Dwarvish names,(34) and the Longbeards acquired a vocabulary of traditional names peculiar to themselves, while still keeping their true 'inner' names completely secret.

Very great changes came to pass as the Second Age proceeded. The first ships of the Numenoreans appeared off the coasts of Middle-earth about Second Age 600, but no rumour of this portent reached the distant North. At the same time, however, Sauron came out of hiding and revealed himself in fair form. For long he paid little heed to Dwarves or Men and endeavoured to win the friendship and trust of the Eldar. But slowly he reverted again to the allegiance of Morgoth and began to seek power by force, marshalling again and directing the Orks and other evil things of the First Age, and secretly building his great fortress in the mountain-girt land in the South that was afterwards known as Mordor. The Second Age had reached only the middle of its course (c. Second Age 1695) when he invaded Eriador and destroyed Eregion, a small realm established by the Eldar migrating from the ruin of Beleriand that had formed an alliance also with the Longbeards of Moria. This marked the end of the Alliance of the Longbeards with Men of the North. For though Moria remained impregnable for many centuries, the Orks reinforced and commanded by servants of Sauron invaded the mountains again. Gundabad was re-taken, the Ered Mithrin infested and the communication between Moria and the Iron Hills for a time cut off. The Men of the Alliance were involved in war not only with Orks but with alien Men of evil sort. For Sauron had acquired dominion over many savage tribes in the East (of old corrupted by Morgoth), and he now urged them to seek land and booty in the West. When the storm passed,(35) the Men of the old Alliance were diminished and scattered, and those that lingered on in their old regions were impoverished, and lived mostly in caves or in the borders of the Forest.