Khazâd Part I: Aulë

One of my favourite things about The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit is the world in which they exist. Tolkien has created an elaborate speculative universe with layers and layers of back story, legend, history, geography, myths, folktales, and, of course, languages. With more than a dozen volumes in the Middle Earth library, I am far from seeing all the patterns in the framework.
A blogger I follow, Jubilare, has drawn together for us a number of lines to tell us the history of Tolkien’s Dwarves. They call themselves the Khazâd, and Jubilare has wonderful 4-blog series on the subject. I’m posting here Part I, and there are links at the bottom to the remainder. Enjoy the richness of this history!

jubilare

And now I will begin to explain my take on J. R. R. Tolkien’s Dwarves, or the Khazâd, as they call themselves. It has taken me this long to gather my thoughts, dig up my evidence and organize my reasoning. I assume that most of my readers are familiar with Middle Earth and its inhabitants. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me in the comments section, or check out the Tolkien Gateway and its handy search engine.

I begin with what is, for the Dwarves, the beginning.

As far as I know, the Dwarves are the only race of Arda to be created by a single Ainu. The others arose from the Music of the Ainur, or from the corrupting influence of Melkor on existing races. There are other races closely associated with specific Ainu (like the Ents and Yavanna, or the Eagles and Manwë), but only…

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