[lord of dor-lomin]

I hope you post again and point out any faults in this post.

What? Someone inviting me to post a second time? It must be my birthday or something.

I would just imagine that if say two great warriors fought each other, neither would back down and both would be good enough to avoid death longer than normal people.

If neither "would back down" then the fight would be very very short. Like I said before, there's so many chances to gain the upper hand in a fight with just one swing or thrust and if one guy gets the upper hand the other one had better back off quick or he's dead within two seconds.

If you get in a good blow on the other guy's leg his mobility is gone and it's easy to get him to fall down. You win pretty quick. If you get a good blow on his arm, then he's trying to match the strength and speed of your two good hands on your weapon with his one good hand on his weapon. You win pretty quick.

So it doesn't even take a mortal blow to make a fight be over quick.

Let's look at fights in general. Notice that fighting sports like boxing do certain things to lengthen the fight. They put padding on the fists of the fighters (making it harder to knock the other guy out), they make it illegal to punch in certain areas (making it easier to defend yourself), they don't let you grab your opponent or push them or kick them (limiting the ways you can gain an advantage), and finally they stop the fight every two minutes to allow the fighters to recover.

They've done an awful lot to make the fights longer, haven't they?

And yet, in most fights how long are the guys in the ring before one of them wins? Not too long.

So just imagine how short a fight would be with absolutely no rules, no padding, and no time outs. They'd be as long as a street fight. Have you ever seen two guys get mad at each other and decide to go at it? Those sort of fights usually lasts five to ten seconds.

Most men, after all, have no special anything

And dwarves and elves have a "special anything"? They're just a different race, that's all.

But they are famed fighters

Dwarves are known for being warlike, but "famed fighters"? Certainly not any more famous than men. Think of every great battle exploit by a dwarf or dwarf army and I can give you three or four great battle exploits by men.

Compared to Pippin, definately.

No, not just compared to Pip. Gandalf lifted Faramir like he was a toothpick. I know I couldn't do that, and I'm not old and decrepit at all.