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appendix a 1417
that when the War came at last the main assault was turned
southwards; yet even so with his far-stretched right hand Sauron
might have done great evil in the North, if King Dáin and King
Brand had not stood in his path. Even as Gandalf said afterwards
to Frodo and Gimli, when they dwelt together for a time in
Minas Tirith. Not long before news had come to Gondor of
events far away.
‘I grieved at the fall of Thorin,’ said Gandalf; ‘and now we
hear that Dáin has fallen, fighting in Dale again, even while we
fought here. I should call that a heavy loss, if it was not a wonder
rather that in his great age he could still wield his axe as mightily
as they say that he did, standing over the body of King Brand
before the Gate of Erebor until the darkness fell.
‘Yet things might have gone far otherwise and far worse. When
you think of the great Battle of the Pelennor, do not forget the
battles in Dale and the valour of Durin’s Folk. Think of what
might have been. Dragon-fire and savage swords in Eriador,
night in Rivendell. There might be no Queen in Gondor. We
might now hope to return from the victory here only to ruin
and ash. But that has been averted – because I met Thorin
Oakenshield one evening on the edge of spring in Bree. A
chance-meeting, as we say in Middle-earth.’
Dís was the daughter of Thráin II. She is the only dwarf-woman
named in these histories. It was said by Gimli that there are few
dwarf-women, probably no more than a third of the whole
people. They seldom walk abroad except at great need. They
are in voice and appearance, and in garb if they must go on a
journey, so like to the dwarf-men that the eyes and ears of other
peoples cannot tell them apart. This has given rise to the foolish
opinion among Men that there are no dwarf-women, and that
the Dwarves ‘grow out of stone’.
It is because of the fewness of women among them that the
kind of the Dwarves increases slowly, and is in peril when they
have no secure dwellings. For Dwarves take only one wife or
husband each in their lives, and are jealous, as in all matters of
their rights. The number of dwarf-men that marry is actually
less than one-third. For not all the women take husbands: some
desire none; some desire one that they cannot get, and so will