Stiffbeards

A note on the sources

The canonical texts count seven houses of the Dwarves but name only Durin's Folk and describe the two Blue Mountain houses by their cities. Stiffbeards, together with Ironfists, Blacklocks and Stonefoots, is a name from Tolkien's later unpublished essays. The entry records what the published sources allow.

Origins

After Ilúvatar accepted Aulë's children, the Seven Fathers were put to sleep in separate places under the mountains. Durin woke alone; the other six woke in pairs, two in the Blue Mountains and four in the East. The Stiffbeards descend from one of those eastern fathers. Their mansions lay in mountain ranges east of Rhûn that the histories of the West never mapped, and their people were known to Elves and Men chiefly as travellers on the roads, for Dwarves of the East went far in trade.

Part in the histories

The one recorded moment when the eastern houses acted in the affairs of the West was the War of the Dwarves and Orcs. Thráin II sent word of the murder of Thrór to every house, and all sent warriors, for the eldest line was honoured by all. From 2793 to 2799 the united host sacked the Orc-holds of the Misty Mountains from Gundabad to the Gladden and ended the war before the East-gate of Moria at Azanulbizar, after which the eastern Dwarves returned home. No individual of the house is named.

Character

The name suggests a distinctive way of wearing the beard, and no more can be said. They spoke Khuzdul and kept it secret, dealt with Men in trade, and shared the stubbornness, hardiness and love of craft common to all Dwarves.

No description survives beyond the common Dwarvish form; the name implies beards worn stiff or bristling.

Not separately recorded. Their loyalty to the wider kinship of the Dwarves is shown by their answer to Thráin's summons.

Descended from one of the two pairs of fathers who awoke in the eastern mountains after the awakening of the Elves.

Unknown; the eastern houses are presumed to have continued in their own lands into the Fourth Age.