Petty-dwarves

The Petty-dwarves, or (Sindarin) Noegyth Nibin or Nibin-Noeg, (part of an older and longer word Bar-en-Nibin-noeg) were a diminutive race of dwarves that lived in the Beleriand in Middle-earth during the First Age.

History

The Petty-dwarves were dwarves of several houses, which had been exiled for reasons unknown in very ancient times during the Peace of Arda. They were the first to cross the Blue Mountains (Ered Luin) in the First Age, and established strongholds in Beleriand before the building of Nogrod and Belegost in the Blue Mountains, and before the elves arrived. They delved the very ancient settlements of Nulukkizdin (Nargothrond) and Amon Rûdh but they dwindled before the Ñoldor returned to Middle-earth.

The Sindar, not acquainted with dwarves yet, saw the Petty-dwarves as little more than pests, and hunted them for sport. Not until the dwarves of the Ered Luin established contact with the Sindar did they realize what the Petty-dwarves were. Afterwards they were mostly left alone, but not before the Petty-dwarves came to hate all elves with a passion.

Petty-dwarves differed from normal dwarves in various ways: they were smaller, far more unsociable, and they freely gave away their names: other dwarves kept their Khuzdul names and language a secret. This may have been one of the reasons they were exiled.

By the time of the War of the Jewels, after the Return of the Ñoldor, the Petty-dwarves had nearly died out. By the fifth Century First Age, the last remnant of their people were Mîm and his two sons, who lived at Amon Rûdh. Túrin and his men shot at the dwarves, mistaking them for animals or orcs. Mim survived, though it was at last revealed that an arrow killed one of his sons and the other one was killed by orcs. Mîm was killed by Húrin after his release from Angband, and was the last of his race.

External link

• Petty-dwarves at Tolkien Gateway