You might be wondering after last installments talk of The Children of Ilúvatar being Elves and Men "Hey, what about the Dwarves? What are they, chopped liver?" Well, never fear, fans of Durin's line. We'll be talking about how they came to be in this installment.
Basically, Aulë was getting impatient waiting for the Children to come, as he really wanted students to teach crafting to. So he decided to craft sentient life in the form of the Dwarves in secret.
But just when Aulë had finished creating them and started teaching them the language he made for them, Ilúvatar's voice comes to him and says "Son, why are you doing this? Don't you know that without you constantly thinking about what they will do these beings will be basically inert. Not to mention the fact that creating sentient life is my job."
Aulë could only answer with "Whoah, I did not know this would be like The Sims. I just wanted people to teach my craft to and enjoy this awesome world. If you want these beings as your own, have them. Otherwise, I'll destroy them."
So Aulë picked his hammer up to destroy his creation, but Ilúvatar had decided to grant the Dwarves true sentience and stopped Aulë from destroying the now begging dwarves. Ilúvatar allows them to exist, but they will be in stasis until after the Elves come to be. Which explains why Elves and Dwarves do not often get along.
The next paragraph explains the reason for some Dwarven traits, as well as their personal mythology. Pretty straight forward stuff.
So after all this, Aulë decides to tell his wife Yavanna all that had happened. Yavanna, being the hippy that she is, began worrying over how her creations would be exploited by the Dwarves.
"But honey" Aulë says (basically) "Dad gave them dominion over your creations. Besides, they won't fell a tree without gratitude."
"Have you forgotten about Mr. 'I-Corrupt-Everything-I-Touch' Melkor?" Yavanna counters (essentially). So she decides to talk to Manwë to allay her fears about deforestation without giving away her husbands secret.
After hearing her fears, Manwë suddenly recalls a part of the Song that he hadn't paid attention to before; singing trees that are rather slow, but with great anger. That's right, boys and girls. We be talking about Ents, though they are not referred to as such in the Silmarillion.
Satisfied, Yavanna returns to her husband gloating about what she just learned.
And what does Aulë say? "Still gonna need wood, honey."
Yeah, you're sleeping on the couch for a good millenia, Aulë.
Next time: Hey, look! Elves!
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