Summary

• In J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, there were Half-elves, Half-orcs and Half-trolls but no Half-dwarves.
• Further, there were no romantic relationships between Dwarves and non-Dwarves in Tolkien's novels.
• Though Tolkien never mentioned Half-dwarves, there were hints that some non-Dwarven characters had Dwarven ancestry.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, romance between Elves and Men was rare but not unprecedented. The relationship of Aragorn and Arwen was the most famous example, but others included those of Elrond's grandparents, Tuor and Idril, and Aragorn and Arwen's ancestors, Beren and Lúthien. Tolkien often referred to the children of such pairings as Half-elven. The Lord of the Rings also made mention of Half-orcs, Goblin-men, and soldiers who resembled Half-trolls among the armies of Sauron and Saruman. There were even some Elves and Men with Maiar ancestry due to Melian marrying the Elven king Elu Thingol. It was clear that members of Middle-earth's different races could have children, yet there was one glaring exception: Dwarves.

Throughout Tolkien's entire legendarium, there were no Half-dwarves, nor were there any romantic relationships between Dwarves and other races. When the Fellowship traveled to Lothlórien in The Fellowship of the Ring, Gimli became enraptured by Galadriel's beauty, but it did not lead to any romance. In Peter Jackson's The Hobbit film trilogy, Kili and Tauriel fell in love, but this relationship -- and Tauriel as a whole -- did not come from Tolkien's novels. Even within the films' canon, their time together was too fleeting for them to marry or have a child. So was it a coincidence that there were no Half-dwarves in The Lord of the Rings, or was there a deeper reason?

Dwarves Lived in the Far Reaches of Middle-earth

Compared to Elves, Dwarves had few opportunities to meet and fall in love with members of other races. During the First Age, Elves and Men coexisted in the northern land of Beleriand, where both Beren and Lúthien and Tuor and Idril met and fell in love. For most of the Second Age, the Elves of Middle-earth were friends to the Men of Númenor, and they frequently visited each other's realms; it was not until shortly before the Downfall of Númenor that a rift formed between their cultures, and even then, the Faithful remained allies of the Elves. In the Third Age, Rivendell fostered the Rangers of the North, allowing Aragorn to form a strong bond with Elrond and Arwen. After the War of the Ring, many Elves from the Woodland Realm settled in Ithilien, a region of Gondor. Such geographical and political relationships provided plentiful chances for the two races to intermingle.

In contrast, Dwarves had little contact with other races. They lived in isolated mountain communities that were generally on the periphery of Middle-earth. Aside from when they were buying or trading goods, they were content to remain in their underground halls, far from the rest of society. This was evident in The Lord of the Rings. Dwarves appeared far less frequently than Men, Elves, or hobbits; the only living Dwarves in the story were those who helped Bilbo move out of Bag End and those who came to the Council of Elrond. On the few occasions that Dwarves interacted with non-Dwarves, romance was usually not on their minds, for it was a low priority in Dwarven culture. In Appendix A of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien wrote, "The number of dwarf-men that marry is less than one-third. For not all the women take husbands... As for the men, very many also do not desire marriage, being engrossed in their crafts." Tolkien noted that this mindset was so common that the Dwarven population often stagnated or declined over time.

Dwarves Were Unlike Any Other Races in Middle-earth

• Tolkien mentioned Troll-men in the chapter "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields," but these were likely the Men whom he described earlier in the chapter as resembling Half-trolls.
• Dwarves mainly traded for plant and animal products because they did not like to practice agriculture.
• In Appendix A, Tolkien also wrote, "Dwarves take only one wife or husband each in their lives, and are jealous, as in all matters of their rights."

Even if a Dwarf and a non-Dwarf had fallen in love, it may have been impossible for them to have children. Elves and Men were both creations of Eru Ilúvatar, the god of The Lord of the Rings, so they were very similar to one another; in fact, Middle-earth's Elves might have lacked pointed ears. In a letter that Tolkien wrote to a bookstore manager, he stated that Elves and Men were the same species from a scientific perspective, hence their ability to reproduce. In Tolkien's mind, the main difference between them was metaphysical rather than biological. The same was likely true of Men and Orcs. Though Tolkien changed his mind about the Orcs' origins throughout his life, the most common explanation was that they were the descendants of Elves whom the Dark Lord Morgoth had corrupted with evil.

Dwarves, on the other hand, were creations of Aulë, the Vala of crafting and forging. Dwarves were unlike the other races in several ways, the most obvious being their diminutive stature and abundance of hair. Some of these distinctions were intentional on Aulë's part, as he wanted them to be hardy enough to withstand the threat of Morgoth. Others arose simply because he lacked full knowledge of Ilúvatar's creations and so could not match the existing examples of Elves and Men. Though Dwarves were mostly humanoid in appearance, their genetics could have been entirely incompatible with those of other races. In Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Gimli joked to Éowyn about the myth "that there are no Dwarf women and that Dwarves just spring out of holes in the ground!" This notion was "ridiculous," as Gimli put it, but it proved that Dwarven biology was not commonly understood by non-Dwarves.

The Dwarves' Place in Middle-earth Was Complicated

• The myth about Dwarves springing out of the ground appeared in the novel, but it was information from the appendices rather than dialogue from Gimli.
• Glóin was the only Dwarf of Thorin's Company from The Hobbit whom Tolkien confirmed had a child.
• The tabletop role-playing game Middle-earth Role Playing included Half-dwarves called Umli.

The disconnect between Dwarves and other races was cultural as well as biological. There existed a long-standing rivalry between the Elves and Dwarves of Middle-earth, so the average Dwarf was unwilling to even befriend an Elf, let alone start a family with one. Men tended to be kinder to Dwarves, but their relationship was not free of turmoil. In Appendix A of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien stated that Thorin's grandfather, Thrór, was sick of "the scorn of Men," which was one of the reasons that he tried to reclaim Moria. This animosity was another result of the Dwarves' unique origin. In the section "Of Aulë and Yavanna" from The Silmarillion, Ilúvatar allowed the Dwarves to live in Middle-earth, but he told Aulë, "Often strife shall arise between thine and mine, the children of my adoption and the children of my choice."

Tolkien never mentioned Half-dwarves, but that did not necessarily mean that they did not exist. In The Lord of the Rings, certain groups of Men possessed typical Dwarven traits. In the chapter "The Siege of Gondor" from The Return of the King, Tolkien mentioned some Easterlings who were "not tall, but broad and grim, bearded like dwarves, wielding great axes." Fans have speculated that these Easterlings were Half-dwarves. That would make sense, as four of the seven Dwarf clans -- namely the Ironfists, Stiffbeards, Blacklocks, and Stonefoots -- lived in the eastern regions of Middle-earth. Likewise, the Stoor hobbits were stockier than other hobbits, grew beards, and often wore Dwarven boots, so perhaps these hobbits had some Dwarven ancestry. Though Tolkien's body of work was impressively expansive, he left much of Middle-earth unknown to his readers, so Half-dwarves could easily have existed in far-off lands or long-forgotten history.