Dwarves (Oh, and Elves, too)

[odclay]

A few months ago I wrote a short entry about what I would've cut from Eldest if I had been the editor. I'm currently working on a longer and more detailed list (with the precise number of chapters and pages), but until then, here's one of the things I would've removed from the book:

Eragon's journey to Ellesmera.

I remember reading an interview

Comments

[hackslayer]

I don't think it's wrong to use elves and dwarves. I think it's wrong to use Tolkien's elves and dwarves. People should think outside the box (or go back inside the box, since Tolkien's thinking was originally outside the box), and derive their own cultures from mythology. Elves don't HAVE too be solemn and mysterious and leaving the land for unknown reasons. Dwarves don't have to live in an underground city and have huge beards and wield axes. Elves and dwarves don't HAVE to have a feud going on for no apparent reason.

Hell, look at Tolkien's contemporary, C. S. Lewis. In Prince Caspian, mention is made of dwarven archers. See? It isn't that hard to be different than Tolkien.

Elves are not allergic to axes.

Dwarves are not allergic to bows or any other weapons besides axes and hammers.

Also, don't set up archetypes that everyone in the race follows. Do all humans follow the same religion? Are all humans vegetarian? Are all humans racist or sexist or otherwise bigotted? Then why the hell should it follow that ALL elves are wise and powerful, that ALL dwarves use axes, etc.?

Giving blanket features to an entire race is a sure way to get me to not like your writing.

There may be customs or codes of honor that they adhere to, but that's a part of culture--the way that there are customs that certain religions follow, or something. And there will always be someone who breaks custom. Always.

Just my two cents.

--Hackslayer

[odclay]

Well, the thing is, a large population of dwarves in my story live in underground cities. But it's not a love of gold or mining or anything-- they're agoraphobic. It's either the result of "a curse of fear" put upon their race a long time ago that is now deeply ingrained in their psyche...or something else.

I've said too much, haven't I?

[swordpen]

THe Silmarillion was awesome. I could only take it a few chapters at a time, though. Any more than that and my brain would explode. ;)

[windfeder]

For some years I could not imagine write a Fantasy book without Elves *g* I think my next story would be without them ... But it's boring to copy the old archetypes of elves and dwarfs with all tolkien-details. Give some "new" aspects from your own to it and make them yours. The same with Orks. Why do anyone use them as brainless fighters? They have a right of their own life an thinking an being to.

[odclay]

Good point. I never cared much for Orcs, though. Was thinking of using trolls, but considering both are just used as trained brutes and muscles, there's not much difference.

[swordpen]

I've been writing about elves for years, and I'm not trying to appear arrogant or anything, but it is pretty DAMN easy to make them not like Tolkein.

I mean... you don't HAVE to make your elves anything. Just because they're elves doesn't mean they have to be immortal, beautiful, wise, etc.

Same with orcs, too. I mean, in my books the elves and orcs are close allies, and the orcs don't follow any stupid dark lord.

[hackslayer]

Well, see, that is just the problem people have with Tolkien. As in, they think Tolkien has something in a certain way, but actually he doesn't. And another is that even if they read the LotR, they don't even bother to read the Appendices, and even less read any of the other works.

Not all Elves live open-air in trees. In fact, most don't, and those few that do are what we would consider "backwater". The great cities and huge undergroud fortresses of the Elves just get swept under the rug. And not even the majority of hobbits live in the eponymous hobbit-holes.
Neither Elves nor Dwarves nor Humans are saints; but in the LotR you only get the end of a long history in Middle-earth, and from somebody else's perspective, and so all the bloody history, all the people screwing up because of pride and stupidity and petty jealousies, most of that gets overlooked. The wars of the First Age, the Kinslayings among the Elves, civil wars in Gondor...

And the most recent film adaptation is probably also responsible for a lot of misconceptions. It portrayed the Elves as a stiff dispassionate emotionless bunch, which is a far cry from the range of emotion they have and display in the books; the film-elves are incapable of laughing and it apparently causes them great pain to even smile, and they stand around as if they swallowed a broom all the time and never move; they are practically dead. A far cry from the animated real Elves who can't seem to keep quiet. And the filmmakers are obviously of the opinion that nobody of or below dwarf-size can be taken seriously and has to be reduced to comic relief. Dwarves are hit doubly hard, because they have beards ("eww") and thus cannot be exploited by them as eye-candy. And their Orcs have about ten shared braincells among themselves. The Orcs are not a natural race, but they still are way more intelligent and capable of speech than in the film.

And the Dwarves don't use only axes, but because Gimli carries one in LotR (which the film again multiplies to a whole arsenal), that is all the public remember.
~a Tolkiendil