Mystaros
First Post
Introducing D&D Gnomes in Middle-earth...
Okay, to get back to the original request somewhat, and to be altogether rather heretical, here's a way (actually, two ways) to introduce D&D "Gnomes" into Middle-earth:
Quick and Easy Way
There were the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves. IIRC, at least two branches of dwarf kind went east, and two went south, and were not heard from thereafter save only rarely, and then through legend. Perhaps one of those lines developed into what we would term D&D gnomes? In the Fourth Age, after the fall of Sauron (and ere the rise of a new dark power in the east and south) perhaps wanderers from that tribe could come north and west, and settle in Gondor, bringing their strange magics and new songs?
More Dirty and Involved
There were, before even the First Age of the Sun, the Petty Dwarves or Noegyth Nibin of Beleriand. Descended from exiles of eastern dwarf cities (perhaps Khazad-dum, perhaps not), these dwarves lived in Beleriand before the coming of the Noldor. They were hunted by the great elves, and eventually died out in Beleriand, Mim and his sons being the last. But that does not mean there were not more of their race in Eriador, or the Ered Mithrin, or even Rhovanion (perhaps in the hills and mountains bordering the Sea of Rhun). These petty dwarves would have been well hidden (perhaps by illusion magics?) for the last two ages, and like their relations in Beleriand, taken no part in the great tales of the world. Perhaps they further differentiated from their dwarven cousins by taking in some hobbitish blood, for none knoe when the hobbits truly awoke, or whence they came, and D&D gnomes do, in fact, have elements of both races, though a character all their own...
Okay, to get back to the original request somewhat, and to be altogether rather heretical, here's a way (actually, two ways) to introduce D&D "Gnomes" into Middle-earth:
Quick and Easy Way
There were the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves. IIRC, at least two branches of dwarf kind went east, and two went south, and were not heard from thereafter save only rarely, and then through legend. Perhaps one of those lines developed into what we would term D&D gnomes? In the Fourth Age, after the fall of Sauron (and ere the rise of a new dark power in the east and south) perhaps wanderers from that tribe could come north and west, and settle in Gondor, bringing their strange magics and new songs?
More Dirty and Involved
There were, before even the First Age of the Sun, the Petty Dwarves or Noegyth Nibin of Beleriand. Descended from exiles of eastern dwarf cities (perhaps Khazad-dum, perhaps not), these dwarves lived in Beleriand before the coming of the Noldor. They were hunted by the great elves, and eventually died out in Beleriand, Mim and his sons being the last. But that does not mean there were not more of their race in Eriador, or the Ered Mithrin, or even Rhovanion (perhaps in the hills and mountains bordering the Sea of Rhun). These petty dwarves would have been well hidden (perhaps by illusion magics?) for the last two ages, and like their relations in Beleriand, taken no part in the great tales of the world. Perhaps they further differentiated from their dwarven cousins by taking in some hobbitish blood, for none knoe when the hobbits truly awoke, or whence they came, and D&D gnomes do, in fact, have elements of both races, though a character all their own...
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While you may have to go back a long way to find an original thought, most modern writers are getting their thoughts from Tolkien, not from the original source material. And Tokien's fiction is not a "pure" use of that source material by a long shot. He (quite rightly) used and bent the mythological types as he saw fit.
