Iāve been thinking a lot about the fall of Khazad-dum to Durinās Bane. And honestly Iām very angry with how the Dwarves are blamed for this: that they were greedy and so they got what was coming. Thatās more or less how the narrative on this goes. Iāve seen this thought in analyses Iāve read and itās pretty plain in the books. Look at this quote from Gandalf:
āThe Dwarves tell no tale; but even as mithril was the foundation of their wealth, so also it was their destruction: they delved too greedily and too deep, and disturbed that from which they fled, Durinās Bane.ā (Fellowship of the Ring)
Iām not saying that the mining of the Dwarves didnāt cause the Balrog to reappear (whether the mining woke him up from sleep or made it possible to escape from where he was). But Iām angry at they way itās talked about. No one knows better than the Dwarves the calamity that waking the Balrog was. But instead of talking about how it was a tragic accident, people talk about how it was the greedĀ of Dwarves that caused it and I take serious issue.
First off, how could the Dwarves have known the Balrog was there? Do you think they would have kept mining in that direction if they knew? How were they supposed to know how deep was too deep? It would have been bizarre for them to all of a sudden be like āahh yes, weāve dug deep enough, no more mithril mining for us.ā I donāt think the other races of Middle Earth, especially Elves, would appreciate that (Iāll talk about this a bit later).
So it comes back to greed and the idea that coveting something so much will ultimately lead to your downfall. Itās a popular trope (the trope is literally named Dug Too DeepĀ and Iāll give you one guess at the trope namer) and honestly, itās a tired one. Almost everything bad that has happened to Dwarves has supposedly happened out of their greed, at least according to outside perspectives on the events. A dragon came to Erebor resulting in a huge number of deaths and the subsequent exile of the survivors? Yeah, all because King ThrĆ³r was too greedy and coveted riches too much. Thorin and his nephews died in Battle of Five Armies? Definitely because Thorin got too greedy with the gold in the mountain and coveted the Arkenstone too much. A Balrog reappeared and drove the Dwarves of Khazad-dum out? Well, you can see where Iām going. The idea that bad things happen to Dwarves simply because they were greedy is not a unique idea and it is also an antisemitic one.
Another thing that irks me is how sort of high and mighty people of other races get when talking about it. Like I mentioned before, you get the feeling that people donāt really sympathize with the fact that a hell demon just appeared in their home and killed dozens of their people, including their king, and drove the survivors out of a place sacred to their people. Honestly, what the fuck? How can you reduce that level of horrifying tragedy down to āthey were greedy and thatās why this happenedā?Ā
And beyond the seeming total lack of sympathy for the Dwarves, consider the fact that there was probably a huge market for mithril. We know the Elves wanted it:
āMithril! All folk desired it. It could be beaten like copper, and polished like glass; and the Dwarves could make of it a metal, light and yet harder than tempered steel. Its beauty was like to that of common silver, but the beauty of mithril did not tarnish or grow dim. The Elves dearly loved it, and among many uses they made of it ithildin, starmoon, which you saw upon the doors.ā (Fellowship of the Ring)
So of course the Dwarves were mining for more. Lots of people in Middle Earth wanted it. It probably brought in a lot of wealth, and Iām going to argue that prosperous Dwarven colonies increase the prosperity of surrounding settlements. Look at how while Erebor was wealthy, men in Dale were also prosperous based on trade. Even the Elves of Greenwood were probably better off while Erebor was prosperous. But besides that, why would the Dwarves randomly stop mining for mithril when there was such a demand for it? It wouldnāt make sense and I have no idea how that could really be called Dwarven greed. Besides, who is giving these weird retellings about how their greed for mithril caused the Balrog to wake up? Not Dwarves, thatās for sure, and throughout the books other races continuously have poor opinions of the Dwarves and treat them terribly. So Iām extremely skeptical of this idea.
Basically, I seriously mistrust anything an Elf or Man has to say about Dwarves and take it with a huge grain of salt because they have continuously demonstrated an unfounded disdain towards them. How can they blame the fall of Khazad-dum on the Dwarves getting greedy for mithril when they themselves were creating a large demand for mithril? How is it that all they can say about the fall of Khazad-dum is that the Dwarves were greedy? So many Dwarves died. The ones that didnāt lost their home. All Dwarves lost a sacred place. Citing greed as the reason for the Balrog every time the story is told is heartless, misguided, and antisemitic.
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