When I started figuring out some basic premises for the forum RPG campaign After The Fall, I decided I wantedd to make dwarves differ more from humans. Although for the most part they are very much in the Tolkienian tradition for the most part, I decided that instead of their flesh rotting, it turns back into the substance from which the species was originally created from: stone. Although dwarves are born just like humans, scars, old age and decrepitude show themselves as petrification of the flesh. When dwarves die, they turn into statues, and thereby remain present in a very concrete sense for later generations.

As a more general note, it seems to me that the demagification of dwarves is a recent development, and mostly due to authors of books, film and games taking Tolkien's dwarves as a starting point and narrowing down their scope from there. In Germanic myth dwarves were often described as possessing magical powers, and this manifests in Tolkien's works as supernatural manual dexterity and cunning workmanship. Their crafts beget items of uncanny power, and this is largely the extent of their magic - but we must not forget that this applies to all of Middle-earth (with the exception of demigods, of course). Even for the Elves, magic was indistinguishable from sheer craftsmanship (as discussed by the Elves of Lothlorien as the Fellowship departs). The thunder-and-lightning school of magic was strictly the territory of Wizards.

When other authors adopted Tolkien's races, they seemed to avoid going outside explicit outlines, even though the worlds they created were much more flamboyantly magical than Middle-earth. Because Elves were described by Tolkien as an inherently magical people, they were allotted dramatic magical powers, while Dwarves were relegated to a race of bearded warrior-smiths. Similarly, Hobbits became little more than a race of burglars in a number of settings. In all cases, the scope was narrowed down.

I think Dungeons & Dragons really locked dwarves into the anti-magic niche. The game formulated them as such in mechanical terms, and as so many modern fantasy authors grew up with a d20 in hand, the stereotype was reinforced to the point where spellcasting dwarves are considered sacrilege by some. Note that in D&D dwarves have had just as much potential to be powerful wizards as any other race since 3rd edition, but to my knowledge no official D&D setting has embraced the concept (granted, the most popular settings like the Forgotten Realms date from First and Second Edition, where dwarves couldn't be arcane spellcasters).

As for dwarf women's beards, I'm all for them! I like it that Tolkien's Dwarves have a distinctly different aesthetic sense from the popular human norm. It makes the world more fantastical, and challenges our prejudices while it's at it - precisely what fantastical fiction does at its best!

Has anyone noticed changes to these trends?

I've never subscribed to "Dwarves aren't magical." When Gandalf brought cargo from Erebor and Dale, "There were toys the like of which they had never seen before, all beautiful and some obviously magical. Many of them had indeed been ordered a year before,and had come all the way from the Mountain and from Dale and were of real dwarf-make." Dwarves just have a different type and focus of magic from Elves.

Updated 20 May 2015 (16:46)

I've always liked the Dwarves. I've never really been a magic kind of guy in most fantasy games, because my characters tend to be about marital prowess or bodily strength. But Dwarves have this essence around them that I feel is inherently magical. I mean, the stories say they are born from stone, after all.

To add to the above, as dwarves are smiths and crafters of other machinery, they fit Steampunk perfectly. Whenever Steampunk is magicless, it strengthens the antimagic dwarf archetype.

I like the idea of a more "magical" dwarf. Indeed in most cases dwarfs are treated as a race with no magical "potential" which is so unfair!!!! I like to view it differently: Dwarfs are magical creatures and do use magic. When other races use magic for a number of ridiculous reasons (like keeping dust off books, or having an everburning pipe.... ) dwarfs, in most cases, focus on item creations that are practical and needed. Therefore Dwarfs are more respectfull to the weave than any other race. Am I right?? "Using magic with moderation" is mistaken with "no magical aptitude"

It all depends on what you want to achieve in your story or lore. You may want to create all races equal and quite similar like Asians, black and white people, or you may want to give them some more significant, while still subtle differences, or you may want to categorize them clearly, e.g. dwarfs like machinery and elves like magic. It all depends on the effect you want to achieve. For example, in the Steampunk work I create, there's basically no magic at all. I use the well established difference to portray dwarves as great, but conservative engineers, therefore using a little outdated, but perfected technology, and humans who are modern, but the new technologies are not well refined (it's like gasoline vs electric cars in the real world, only recently the latter is gaining an edge over the former). Elves is a humorous addition, as they believe in magic, but unfortunately there's actually no magic in this world, so they are a religious, superstitious and benevolent kind, and it completely doesn't work for them.

Siege the ground, comprades!! - Horlemmar Mernar!! Eat this axe!! - Nyr Doch!!