D&D 5E What Do Dwarves Eat?

[Celebrim]

The iconic images of dwarven citadels are the likes of Erebor...

Dale was the principle supplier of food to Erebor. And it's easy to see that - even in the aftermath of the Dragon - the descendants of Dale were still prominent traders in agricultural products, acting as middle men between the wood elf Kingdom in the North, and the province of Dorwinnen in the south. It would not be unreasonable to assume that they also traded with the Dwarves of the Iron Mountains and even at the extent of their range the men of Rhun to the east. And as the text points out, there are far more people (humans and even hobbits) living in the portions of the map marked as 'wild' as people from places like the Shire actually believe.

I didn't see any significant evidence of faming outside of Erebor in any of the Hobbit movies...

The movies are evidence of nothing. IMO they are best ignored.

The internal evidence of the text is that Laketown was a major hub in the agricultural trade. The elves were clearly buying wine, apples, butter, and other goods from Laketown. Some of it - such as apples and grain - was probably produced locally. Others, like the wine, was explicitly in the text brought up the river from Gondor. We can presume that tea and similar commodities was being exported in from Rhun via some sort of 'silk road', and coffee likely up from as far away as Far Harad. All of this is implied by the text just not usually explicitly called out, but at times the vast largely invisible web of traders that make the economy of middle earth run is an important plot point of The Lord of the Rings, as when the Hobbits find barrels of premium Shire tobacco in the ruin of Isengard. It's implied from the text that the Baggins became wealthy as grocers, and it seems highly likely to me that the Sackville-Baggins represent a union in marriage of the Shire's two most prominent grocery families, producing a virtual monopoly on the storage and distribution of food stuffs (mills, warehouses, transport, etc.).

Tolkien had the heart of a DM. Erebor and all of Middle Earth was intended to be completely internally consistent.

 

[Bluenose]

the province of Dorwinnen in the south.


Others, like the wine, was explicitly in the text brought up the river from Gondor.

While Dorwinion is technically southwards of Erebor, it's off to the east near the Sea of Rhun and not anywhere near Gondor. I've always wondered what it was actually like, as it's off in the east but doesn't seem to have been similar to other "Easterling" peoples.

 

[Jaelommiss]

Dwarves don't eat. They are clockwork constructs that gnomes created for heavy lifting and reaching the top shelf (designed with gnomish shelves in mind). A small army of elite gnomish ninijas travel the world and hand crank dwarves at night to prevent them from shutting down.

Alternatively, halflings, hobbits, and disobedient children.

 

[Galendril]

In the Lord of the Rings Online game, they interpreted Moria as having their living quarters nearer to the surface areas. There are some places which are lit by a series of of adjustable mirrors reflecting light in from the outside. This setup also utilizes very large crystals which amplify and spread the light out. In one part of their interpretation of Moria, there's a extremely large garden which is lit from this reflected light from outside.

They also keep a large number of domesticated mountain goats and fish the underwater rivers and lakes. But, it seems that most of their food is bought with the metals they mine.

 

[Celebrim]

While Dorwinion is technically southwards of Erebor, it's off to the east near the Sea of Rhun and not anywhere near Gondor. I've always wondered what it was actually like, as it's off in the east but doesn't seem to have been similar to other "Easterling" peoples.

Hmmm... for some reason I always managed it closer to Gondor, near the Southern edge of Mirkwood. Wasn't Dorwinion a province of Gondor at one point before it's decline?

 

[Bluenose]

I think there's a reference to Gondor's borders reaching the south-western edge of the Sea of Rhun, but Dorwinion is on the north side. Though it might have been a tributary state, since I think Rhovanion as a whole is described as paying tribute when Gondor was at it's peak.

 

[Shasarak]

I always imagined that Dwarves eat Dwarven bread which is made out of gravel and can also be used as a weapon.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

"Dwarves? Cursed rock-eaters!" - An elf, probably.

Hey! We eat uncursed rocks too!

 

[Grand DM]

Beer bread of course!

 

[phantomK9]

Honestly of all the races, the dwarves are probably the most internally inconsistent.

Speaking of inconsistent I've always wondered why an underground/mountain races is given axes as racial weapon proficiency. Shouldn't that go to someone who developed around trees? (Axes being the tool used to chop wood). In my games I'm going to change that to warpick since picks are used for mining and breaking stone.