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AndHeHandedHimTheTobaccoJar
Bree
May 19 2015, 2:28am
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Dying Young in the House of Durin
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I was looking at the House of Durin Family Tree, and it stood out to me that a lot of the dwarves listed die at a tragically young age. There are 26 dwarves listed that have birth dates and death dates, and of those, 4 (Fíli, Kíli, Frór, Frerin) die before they reach 100 (or 83 for that matter, Frerin and Frór before 50). Náin I, Dáin I, Náin, and Fundin die after 100 but before 150. I wouldn't consider them (Náin, Náin, Dáin and Fundin) tragically young, but they still should have had at least another 100 years to live. In total that is 31% of the dwarves that die before 150! Do you think it was Tolkien's WW1 experiences, and his friends dying that influenced this odd behaviour in the House of Durin? Are there some other factors as well? Do you think Tolkien actually was trying to make a point, or is it just coincidence?
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DisDwarfWoman
Rivendell
May 19 2015, 2:28pm
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If I had to go through and make up random birth and death dates for characters that aren't really developed in the book, it would be a coincidence for sure. But since this is Tolkien I'd imagine he put some thought into them, I can't think of anything he wrote that was not planned or thought out in some way.
Is this trend just for the Durins? I don't remember if specific dates are given for the other houses, but maybe it was a comment on dwarf leaders in general having a shorter lifespan? They tend to be the first into battle and the last out, a nod to the Norse influence I think. Compared to elves, say, where the leaders usually hang back. This difference shows up in the hobbit movies pretty well in my opinion. Fun to speculate about 
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Otaku-sempai
Immortal
May 19 2015, 2:36pm
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I think that Tolkien might have been influenced by the trench warfare of the First World War, especially with the deaths of Frerin, Fili and Kili. One wonders, though, if Thorin Oakenshield resisted much pressure for him to wed and produce an heir. He might have been content to know that he could leave his kingdom to Fili, but in that case it becomes very irresponsible for him to bring both of his nephews (and heirs) on the Quest of Erebor. At the same time, I can understand if he felt that the boys needed some experience to season them.
The older Dwarves who did not seem to live out a natural lifespan were generally the victims of dragons or Orcs.
"At the end of the journey, all men think that their youth was Arcadia..." - Phantom F. Harlock
(This post was edited by Otaku-sempai on May 19 2015, 2:41pm)
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Hamfast Gamgee
Tol Eressea
May 20 2015, 11:20pm
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I suppose that is the type of thing that happens
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When you have armies of Orcs and Trolls at a genocidal war with you.
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