Tolkien and Nuance: Dwarf as 'Other' in Rohan

Sometimes, we are too close to a topic emotionally to be able to write about it well, or to get started with what we want to say.  Would it be strange to say that I feel that way about the Ents? But never fear--an Ent post is coming.

In the meantime, I have pased the compelling part of the Ent story in The Two Towers, and moved into Rohan, which I also love.  From the earliest encounter with the Rohirrim, Gimli's difference is the most pronounced of the three travelers--Aragon, Legolas, and Gimli--as compared to the Rohirrim.  Though the Riders think it is strange for a dwarf and an elf to be travelling in company, Gimli is singled out for his difference more often.  Having gotten on the wrong side of Éomer by being hasty, as Treebeard might say, over the matter of Galadriel, the Lady of the Wood, whom the Rohirrim call a sorceress, Gimli becomes the focus of Éomer's attention and menace.  The dialog that follows might be called trash talk, Middle Earth style (hence its inclusion in Peter Jackson's film), if not for Éomer's spear and sword:

"I would cut off your head, beard and all, Master Dwarf, if it stood but a little higher from the ground."

Though the Rohirrim are also bearded (a fact we learn from Theoden's snow-white beard, though in the initial description of Éomer and his men, there are no beards), Gimli's beard is noteworthy enough to be a focus of Éomer's threat.  However, Gimli's height is the focus of greater insult.  We know that the Rohirrim are tall; Gimli's stature makes him, in Éomer's insult, unfit to kill.

While the particular insult is racial, the tension between the two is not--except insofar as a dwarf is defending the honor of an elf to a man who has insulted her.  But this scene offers to the reader the sense that dwarves are particularly strange in Rohan, though their ways are known.

This is not the notable moment that inspired me to write, however.  The moment occurs in Helm's Deep--in a chapter that I hate and dread because Peter Jackson has made me expect the Battle of Helm's Deep to be interminable as his portrayal of it.  My mantra as I enter the chapter:  "It's only ONE chapter.  It's only ONE chapter.  It's only ONE chapter.  And there's only ONE elf."  During this particular reading, I found myself anticipating a particular meeting of man of Rohan and dwarf, and thinking about a critique that some level at Tolkien--that he lacks nuance.  One example is the age-old accusation, more recently based in the movie adaptations and largely ignoring traditional literary dichotomies, that Tolkien equates blackness and dark races with evil and whiteness or white races with goodness.  More recently, the "no nuance" argument has been a characteristic of George R. R. Martin's attempts to differentiate himself from Tolkien, which were brought to my attention by Darwin's post on the topic.

In Helm's Deep, we see an encounter between Gimli the Dwarf and Gamling the Old, a defender of the Hornburg who describes himself as having "seen too many winters," that shows a rather nuanced understanding of encounters with difference:

     "We must stop this rat-hole," said Gamling.  "Dwarves are said to be cunning folk with stone.  Lend us your aid, master!"
     "We do not shape stone with battle-axes, nor with our finger-nails," said Gimli.  "But I will help as I may."
     They gathered such small boulders and broken stones as they could find to hand, and under Gimli's direction the Westfold-men blocked up the inner end of the culvery, until only a narrow outlet remained.

On the surface, Gimli's frustration may seem to be with the lack of tools for the task, though it never seemed so to me.  Reading this now, I think of the posts that appear on Facebook, promoting sensitivity and understanding for one or another group (most recently, families who adopt and Autistic individuals) from others--sometimes well-meaning, sometimes not--who regard them as strange or different.  Posts like the photo essay by one mother who poses her daughters with signs displaying rude and inappropriate comments made by strangers draw support for sensitivity, inform, and shame those who have behaved in rude, inconsiderate, unthinking, or blatantly hostile ways.  Many times, we are intended to squirm, because who hasn't been in a situation in which we have not known what to say, and have inadvertently said the wrong thing--or remained silent, which is often considered just as discriminatory?

Here, in Helm's Deep, Gamling draws on what he knows of dwarves to make a connection with Gimli, to offer a compliment, and yes, to solicit assistance in Rohan's need.  However, the situation and his particular way of soliciting help with a compliment reveals--at least to Gimli--the man's utter ignorance of the way of dwarves.  It is pehaps the stress of battle and frustration with the lack of tools, but may also be a crotchety yet ultimately good-natured ribbing and correction of an ignorant view of dwarves that prompts Gimli's words:  "'We do not shape stone with battle-axes, nor with our finger-nails,' said Gimli.  'But I will help as I may.'"  That Gimli's words are instructive is borne out by the narrative:  "...under Gimli's direction the Westfold-men blocked up the inner end of the culvery, until only a narrow outlet remained."  Gimli counters the man's ignorance of the ways of dwarves and stonework, but also demonstrates what skill he has to apply to the situation.

In this scenario, I have always felt a bit more sorrow and embarrassment for Gamling than amusement at Gimli's words.  After all, this is a man who has (presumably) had no encounters with dwarves apart from the songs and tales of the Rohirrim.  I imagine the mortification I would feel as an onlooker in such a situation, knowing what the person speaking could not know.  In a way, Gimli diffuses it with crotchety humor and grace, but the fact remains that these are two very different races, and that the men know very little of dwarves.  At the end of the battle, we see again this difference when Gimli comments on the glittering caverns of Helm's Deep--men hide in them in times of war, but dwarves would cultivate them to reveal their beauty.  Like the men of Rohan, Legolas has little appreciation for caves, which might signal that he is less strange to them overall.  Although the Rohirrim exhibit some superficial similarities to dwarves--they are blunt and direct, battle-hardy, and hunt orcs--and bear little resemblance to elves, it is Gimli who is revealed--over and over again--to be the Other.  Even Ents and Hobbits (the holbytla, in the tongue of the Rohirrim) have more in common with Rohan.  And yet, there is not a simple dichotomy here (Human/non-Human or Dwarf/non-Dwarf).  In a very small moment, when Gamling solicits Gimli's help, Tolkien reveals, as he does many times over, that he has a very nuanced understanding of interpersonal interactions, and of the conflict that can occur between those who are fundamentally different, even as they seek connection.