Are there any female dwarves, and if not, how do they reproduce?

Question

In the The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings series, there are many descriptions of dwarves. But there isn't any mention of female dwarves. Are there any in-universe mentions of female dwarves? If there aren't, then how do they reproduce? Is there any explanation from Tolkien?

Lord of the Rings DID mention female dwarves and their beards. — Meat Trademark, Dec 29 '18 at 15:53
This question was discussed on meta: https://scifi.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/12252/question-falsely-closed-as-duplicate — , Dec 30 '18 at 09:10

score 19 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 03 '19 at 14:45

19

There were dwarf women. One is mentioned by name in Tolkien's work, Dís, the daughter of Thraín II.

From Appendix A of The Lord of the Rings:

Dís was the daughter of Thraín 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'.

Dwarf-women are not mentioned in the major stories. They were few, and did not go abroad much, so they probably could add very little to the plot.

edited Apr 03 '19 at 14:45

Glorfindel

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answered Dec 29 '18 at 10:55

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I think the mother of two of the Dwarves from the Hobbit is mentioned (if not named) as well. – James Douglas Dec 29 '18 at 11:34
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@JamesDouglas: That's the same woman: Dís is Thorin's sister and the mother of Fili and Kili. – Tim Pederick Dec 29 '18 at 11:57
@TimPederick Ah thanks! I haven't read it in a while... – James Douglas Dec 29 '18 at 15:07

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 29 '18 at 17:10

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In The Two Towers, one of the characters asks the same question to the dwarf master, and he responds by saying that dwarf women look a lot like male dwarfs, even in the beard.

edited Dec 29 '18 at 17:10

Valorum

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answered Dec 29 '18 at 14:54

Lucas Araújo

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links to source? – user13267 Dec 29 '18 at 15:10
@user13267 How do you link to a scene in a movie? – Dec 29 '18 at 16:50
if you can find a page containing transcripts of the relevant dialogue you can link to them – user13267 Dec 29 '18 at 17:01
@user57423 - Like that – Valorum Dec 29 '18 at 17:11
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@Valorum And what if such a YouTube video for the part of a movie I refer to does not exist? Am I expected to buy the movie, learn how to use software to create short video extracts, register with a video portal, and upload a video there? Film scholars are not expected to provide videos when they discuss movies. Why should I? – Dec 29 '18 at 17:43
@user57423 - For me the question is 'do I want to provide the best answer that I can?' That might mean learning to use a simple clipping tool like LiceCap to provide a short gif, searching for a scene on youtube (which is what I did in this case) or at the very least providing a short transcript of the scene and correctly identifying the correct film. As to why you should do so, the simple answer is that good, well-referenced answers with clear and visible sources will tend to get more reputation points for being helpful to other users. – Valorum Dec 29 '18 at 17:45
@Valorum In my eyes you're just adding unnecessary fluff. Film scholars and film reviewers manage to discuss movies without linking to movie clips. The best answer is one that provides all the necessary detail. It would have been more than sufficient to write that In the Two Towers, Gimli speaks about how dwarf women are often confused for males and Legolas adds that this happens because of their beards. The movie clip adds nothing to that except a distraction from that information and an incentive to go browse YouTube and waste one's time. – Dec 30 '18 at 09:14
@user57423 - In my opinion that would be a very poor answer because it would require the reader to either take it on trust that your precis of the script is accurate or watch the entire film to find the sequence that you're referring to. – Valorum Dec 30 '18 at 11:00
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"good, well-referenced answers with clear and visible sources will tend to get more reputation points for being helpful to other users" - or, for those not motivated by imaginary internet points, it's good to add sources because they make the answer clearly correct. Anyone on the internet can claim any old stuff, and the only way to tell the right from the rubbish is to verify it at the source. cc @user57423 – Rand al'Thor Dec 30 '18 at 15:40

Are there any female dwarves, and if not, how do they reproduce?

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