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They are portrayed by the honorable professor Tolkien (and, incidentally, Mr. Jackson as well) as greedy, crude, self-centered, savage, selfish, barbaric, and almost as a rule always concerned with nothing other than personal gain.
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Alaksoron, while I agree with you to an extent I don't think that is entirely true. Certainly, some dwarves are portrayed as greedy and selfish (i.e. Mim), but the majority are not. Dwarves
do care for gold and weapons and other materials manufactured by hand but I can't remember an example where they are shown to be savage and barbaric.
Some dwarves, such as Gimli, overcame their natural lust for gold and gems and were anything but greedy and self-centered. For this reason (but mostly because of his love for Legolas and Galadriel), Gimli became an Elf-friend. Would you call the Dwarves of Nogrod and Belegost Elf-friends beacuse they were friends with Eöl? Also, a reason for the animosity between Elves and Dwarves is because of the way they were treated by Elves originally. Thingol and Caranthir in particular did not treat Dwarves with the greatest respect. As Legolas said, dwarves have been stereotyped in this way, even though a minority of them were actually so. Also, don't forget there were also lots of greedy, barbaric and selfish Elves- Maeglin, Celegorm, Caranthir and Eol come to my mind.