Elves Vs Dwarves - Television Tropes & Idioms

Many stories will have animosity between a beautiful, highly advanced race or civilization, and a much more gritty, industrial-like force. Both are very powerful, but are as different as night and day, and get along like a house on fire - ever strayed into a burning house?

In many fantasy fictions these are Elves and Dwarves, who usually fulfill these roles. Science Fiction will have some variation on Eloi and Morlocks. In the world of business, it is Marketeers versus Engineers.

Elves are tall and slender (at least the better kind are), Dwarves are short and stout. Elves use longswords and bows, weapons requiring flexibility and grace, and are masters of magic. Dwarves use axes and hammers, which are primarily about direct application of strength to vulnerable spots, and will often have very little magic, if they can use it at all. Sometimes, they will use muskets or revolver-style pistols and various Steampunk machines and tanks instead.

Elves live in pristine woods or elegant castles, Dwarves live in great halls and impregnable fortresses that are usually underground. Elves are often portrayed as being masters of diplomacy, small talk--and doubletalk, able to go on for hours without giving a straight answer. Dwarves are typically as straightforward as the grill of an oncoming semi.

These differences result in distrust, hatred, and quite often, all-out War. If the star of the Elves and Dwarves is fading, there's a good chance that somewhere further up the timeline there was a war between the two that helped the decline along.

The Elves may feel the Dwarves are wasteful barbarians, while the Dwarves believe the Elves are stuck-up, arrogant, vain jerks holding them back from their destiny.

This conflict is often made all the more tragic because, in a setting with established Good Guys and Bad Guys, both the Elves and the Dwarves are usually on the side of Good, or at the least have yet to choose a side. In these cases the two will often manage to put aside their differences long enough to combat the greater threat, even if their conflict was the very thing that allowed that threat to become so great in the first place.

Ironically, Dwarves (Dvergar) in Norse Mythology started as a Memetic Mutation of the Dökkálfar-- the Dark Elves. So did the Trolls.

A form of Fantastic Racism. Compare with Ninja vs. Pirates- although the latter is a recent Memetic Mutation while this trope is Older Than Radio. Likewise the horror-oriented Werewolves Vs. Vampires.

Examples:

Film

The classic silent film Metropolis has a leisure class living above ground in luxury, while workers both live and work below ground.

Literature

H.G. Wells' The Time Machine features the Morlocks (below ground) and the Eloi (above ground), two subspecies of humanity, in the year 802701. Unlike the more common form of this trope, however, the Eloi are neither highly advanced nor highly intelligent.
Although they hadn't come to blows in a long time, Elves and Dwarves seemed to have a lot of distrust towards each other in Lord Of The Rings, making this one of The Oldest Ones In The Book. It stemmed at least partially from an ancient war between a particular dwarven city and the Elves of Doriath, one which eventually contributed to the downfall of both areas, and also between a general severing of ties between all the races that made them much more mystic and thus suspicious to each other.
It's a lot more blatant in The Hobbit. The Dwarves refuse to trust the Elves of Mirkwood with details of their mission, and so the Elves hold the Dwarves prisoner until Bilbo breaks them out. Remembering this, Thorin later refuses to negotiate with the men of Laketown in the presence of the Elves, leading to his reclaimed kingdom being besieged. Fortunately, when the goblins attack, all this animosity is ~~forgotten~~ put on hold. This doesn't stop Gloin, who was one of the dwarves, from randomly bringing it up again at the Council of Elrond. (Of course, both elves and dwarves are known to have long-lasting friendships...and similarly long-lasting grudges.)
It's kind of explained in The Silmarillion, where Aule created dwarves before Iluvatar's elves. Iluvatar allowed the dwarves to live, but said "often strife will arise between the children of my adoption and the children of my choice."
In Katherine Kerr's Deverry novels, many of the Mountain Folk (dwarves) believe the Westfolk (elves) are all thieves, and enchant their weaponry to glow when they come into contact with elves (this is how it's revealed the main character is a Half Human Hybrid). Any antipathy the Westfolk have to the dwarves is mostly a reaction to this attitude.
Justified in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, where dwarfs are more aware than humans that The Fair Folk are sociopathic monsters. Used straight, however, with the dwarves and the trolls. In this case, the explanation is that dwarves like to cut apart rocks to get at precious minerals, and trolls are rocks with precious minerals inside. And many of them stay stationary most of the day. An alternate explanation is that they fight because they've always fought, and most of them don't like to let go of a perfectly good grudge, like any tradition--millions of people can't be wrong, can they?
The Jigsaw Prophecy series has the Rawulf and the Felpurr. While they are not always fighting, their natural evolution from dogs and cats has resulted in a rather edgy relationship between the two species, and characters of these species are also more likely to find petty, species-based reasons to be enemies. The Rawulves have a highly social pack mind, and their bodies are strength-based, while the Felpurr are highly individual, generally more intelligent, far more violent and incredibly graceful in battle.
Averted in Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Saga, where Dwarves and Elves are on the whole pretty good friends. They even get along fairly well with humans, and both races have a Honoured Enemy thing going with the Dark Elves.

Video Games

The Protoss and the Terrans of Star Craft, which many have accused of ripping off, or at least being "inspired by", the Eldar and Imperium of Warhammer 40000 (see below).
In the World of Warcraft, elves are split into nature-loving night elves and magic-loving blood elves. Neither is very similar to the mining, smithing, Scottish-accented dwarves of Ironforge.
- In the Lore, the Dwarves swore unending allegiance to the Alliance at the end of the Second War for getting their ancestral lands back, while the High Elves (most of whom became the Blood Elves) went their own way, angry that the Alliance wasn't able to properly protect their forests. However, this is actually subverted in one instance, as one of the Dwarves' "subraces," the Wildhammer Dwarves, are also druidic nature-loving fellas, who get along quite nicely with Night Elves in the (albeit rare) times they interact. The high elves are also said to be the only race that they really got along with, due also to their nature-loving.
In Morrowind, the dark elves were a suspicious, religious, and nomadic race. The vanished race of technology-minded dwarves had Steam Punk cities that still repaired themselves hundreds of years after their disappearance. In the expansion pack, it's revealed that they disappeared very suddenly, to the point of them being in bed or on guard duty when they were disintegrated into piles of ash. This troper found that very disturbing after accidentally almost eating one of them.
In Dwarf Fortress, the Elves are not antagonistic - but they are condescending and snotty, and will refuse to trade if you accidentally offer them wood or animal products.
The trope is taken to its logical conclusion in the game Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, where dwarves are about to totally conquer elves due to immense technological prowess. Magic is becoming more reclusive, the elves have only one major hub city left (Qintarra), and the only naturally magical race left on the outside, the orcs (who are by and large pacified and no longer prone to sacking settlements, realizing they can't keep up with the advances the war has wrought), are too dumb to use it. Your character can still choose to be a mage if he wants, of course; it just takes more dedication. Resembles Shadowrun if it were steam- instead of cyberpunk, as learning more about machinery dampens your magical prowess. (However, in this case, the reverse is true as well.)
Stonekeep features dwarves who are prejudiced against elves. And goblins. And trolls. And fairies. And various other green-skinned races. And dwarves who have been dishonored. Despite all this, the dwarves are not unlikable, probably because they have no problems with humans whatsoever. Dwarves make up the majority of your traveling companions early in the game, and one does nothing to hide his intolerance of party members from the above races.
The story of the NES game Faxanadu revolved around Elves vs. Dwarves, although it's because the dwarves had gone psycho and turned into demons.
In Overlord, it turns out that - a short while before your Awakening - the Dwarves and Elves fought a war of extinction. The Dwarves won, carting away the most valued treasure of the Elves, as well as several cartloads of elven slaves to work in their mines, and leaving the Elvish forest of Evernight to the mournful whispers of the ghosts. If you are so inclined, you can help the Elves regain their freedom, and their treasure... or you could kill them all and keep the treasure to yourself.
Averted in Zelda, you'd think the dwarf-like Gorons and Elf-like Zoras would hate each other but they are actually extremely close.

Role Playing Games

The Eldar constantly clash with the Imperium of Man in Warhammer 40000 To expand on that, the Eldar fulfill the classic elven role, they are graceful, ancient, mystical and immortal unless slain. The Eldar also retain the arrogance portrayed in most elvish stories, viewing other races as petty and stupid with humans (or mon-keigh) also viewed as mulish. The humans of 40k are generally xenophobic and superstitious, they see the elves as manipulative "witches" who are better purged or handed over to the Inquisition. It should be noted both races are quite correct, but this doesn't stop them from occasionally allying to fight the real big bads such as Chaos, Orks, Tyranids or Necrons.
- Back in 2nd edition, Warhammer 40,000 featured a race called the Squats - originally a strain of humanity that had evolved for life on high gravity worlds - who were, in essence Warhammer Fantasy dwarfs IN SPACE. The Squats were an allied territory of the Imperium, and, unsurprisingly, didn't get along with Eldar.
  - Eldar regard them as little more than beasts and only barely preferable to Orks. But the Squats care little for the effete ways of men or the mincing delicacies of the Eldar. Squats are robust in body and bluff in manner, and consider other races fragile and lacking in the good, honest Squat values of comradeship and directness. - Codex: Imperialis, Warhammer 40,000 2nd edition.
  - The Squats were considered one of the "jokiest" and "silliest" races in 40K -- they really do look exactly like regular Warhammer Dwarves incongruously put in spacesuits -- and were cut because the 40K crew wanted to do more creative things and pull 40K away from its original "Put stock fantasy tropes in spaceships" premise. It's widely accepted among those who know of the Squats that the Tau race very much matches the conceptual role the Squats played in the setting (and that Dwarves usually play in a stock fantasy setting), despite looking nothing like Dwarves.
  - According to Word Of God, the problem with the Squats was that they couldn't decide on a single unifying theme. The Epic 40,000 (smaller minis for larger battles) version was basically High-Tech Dwarves, while in the early WH 40 K, they were roughly 50/50 between that and Biker Dudes IN SPACE. And speaking of the Tau and Space Dwarves, Guess what the Demiurg, an ally race of the Tau that usually doesn't get involved in ground combat, are?
- Not to mention the Necrons; they were at war with the ancestors of the Eldar and other fledgling races in - guess what? - a galaxy-spanning bitch-fight between two sets of "gods" - the Old Ones (Warhammer Lizardmen IN SPACE) and the C'Tan (Vampires that feed on stars). The Old Ones lost, but a plague of Enslavers - grisly things that turn people into Warp portals - meant the C'tan had no food, and they technically lost too.
  - Technically nobody knows what the old ones exactly looked like, but apparently they were cold-blooded and the 40k equivalent of lizardmen (mainly mentioned in the older editions) were their closest servant race (in fact, most likely they are the same Old Ones that created most races in Fantasy's universe).
Warhammer's history includes a massive war between the High Elves and the Dwarfs, known commonly as the "War of the Beard" ("War of Vengeance," if you ask the Dwarfs), which eventually wrecked their once-great civilizations, and coincidentally, made plenty of room for the Humans to expand and grow. This was started when an elf shaved a dwarf's beard.
Similarly, an ancient war between the Elves and Dwarves in the Palladium Role-Playing Game devastated both sides.
Subverted in Privateer Press's Iron Kingdoms campaign setting, where the Iosans (Elves) are rampant xenophobes that hate everyone, and the Rhulfolk (Dwarves) don't feel particularly strongly toward them one way or the other.
Spoofed in Irregular Webcomic, where the elves and dwarves hate each other "because of some obscure grudge that elves and dwarves always seem to have in these games."
Naturally, done in Dungeons And Dragons. In the current edition, while elves and dwarves aren't at war, they generally don't get on well. While they both share a long-term perspective, dwarves are lawful and communal, with a love of wealth for its own sake; elves are chaotic and tend towards independence, and appreciate "beautiful" things, regardless of monetary value.
Totally ignored in Shadowrun. Almost. There are no ancient wide-spread grudges for the newly emerged "elves" and "dwarves" to draw on, but a lot of dwarves become mechanics, a lot of elves become nature-dwelling vegetarians, and all the new human sub-strains have their racial supremacists.

Web Comics

In Eight Bit Theater, the grudge is mostly explained as elves really, really disliking all the beards. Or, to be more specific, both races believe they rightfully own the Earth Orb.
In Dominic Deegan, they have the Halflings and the Dwarves going at it, with the pretty Halflings having fruited beers while the ugly Dwarves have more generic beers. That is what's presented at the nature of their conflicts, at least in the modern day.

Live-Action Television

The Star Trek episode "The Cloud Minders" had graceful and scholarly humanoids living in a literal flying city, while brutish and mentally limited miners dug tunnels with simple hand tools underground. It's later revealed that the two are actually the same species, but the miners are exposed to a mineral that affects the brain.
In the Star Trek episode "Journey to Babel", Vulcans and Tellarites have a classic elf-dwarf relationship, with Sarek of Vulcan a rather witty Legolas and Gav the Tellarite a doomed variant of Gimli.
Cardassians and Bajorans have a sort of dark elf/drow and dark dwarf enmity going on as well.
- Most of the primary Star Trek races map over to Dungeons And Dragons races: Vulcans are elder brother high elves (especially Sarek and Spock), Tellarites are dwarves, Klingons are orcs (with Worf the classic half-orc), Romulans are drow, Andorians are wood elves, Betazoids are gnomes (including the love of elaborate rituals which serve no real purpose other than providing larger-than-life divertissement), and Humans are either humans or halflings.

Western Animation

In an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, the plot revolves around a war between tree-dwelling Elves (a parody of the Keebler Elves) and Dwarves over who gets what rights to sell food; the Elves, of course, got cookies, while the Dwarves get mushrooms, and have regretted it ever since. In the end, they compromise and make mushroom cookies. This episode famously featured R. Lee Ermey narrating the Relax O Vision.
In Avatar The Last Airbender, the Gan Jin tribe and the Zhang tribe in The Great Divide are just like this, the Gan Jin prim and proper, and their enemy, the Zhang, loud and messy.

Web Original

In Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk (Dungeon of Naheulbeuk)), a French audio Affectionate Parody of tabletop RP Gs and particularly Dungeons And Dragons, elves and dwarves famously can't get along. Each race takes its defining characteristics far, far beyond its limits, making the following more or less the norm:
The Elf [who has fallen in a hole]: Help me, I'm stuck!
The Dwarf: She says we can leave her behind.
The Elf: Heeeeeey, help meeee!
The Dwarf: She says she wants us to make rocks fall on her to put her out of her misery.

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