I think that it's well to remember that at the time of the Council of Elrond, Dáin has made no reply to Sauron's demand. In fact, Glóin's declared reason for attending the council is "...to warn Bilbo that he is sought by the Enemy, and to learn, if may be, why he desires this ring, this least of rings." In fact, Dáin's actions up to that point are much what one would expect from Tolkien's dwarves: careful and considered, neither accepting nor refusing out of hand a demand from a powerful adversary. I think it interesting that Glóin gives good reasons for distrusting Sauron, implying that had he not betrayed the dwarves in the past they might accept his offer, but he also suggests strong motives to accept and avert a threat.
Quote:
Heavy have the hearts of our chieftains been since that night. We needed not the fell voice of the messenger to warn us that his words held both menace and deceit; for we knew already that the power that has re-entered Mordor has not changed, and ever it betrayed us of old... We discover that messengers have come also to King Brand in Dale, and that he is afraid. We fear that he may yield...
LR p.235 (HarperCollins edition)
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Now, the heroic course would be simply to refuse; the cowardly path would be to accept, but the sensible thing to do would be to play for time while finding out the implications of the choice. That is what the Dwarves of Erebor actually do.
Gimli is definitely a hero in several ways: he acts in a way that he thinks honourable despite overpowering fear at the Paths of the Dead, which is a modern view of courage; he is elevated by his adoration of Galadriel like a courtly hero of the High Middle Ages, and he slaughters his enemies in large numbers at the Hornburg like an early-medieval Germanic hero, becoming a powerful lord like Beowulf. One flower, however, does not make a spring, and in general Tolkien's description of Dwarves is as clannish, secretive and possessive, both of wealth and valuable items and of their rights. Gandalf says of Thorin in
The Quest of Erebor that "...his heart was hot with brooding on his wrongs, and the loss of the treasure of his forefathers, and burdened too with the duty of revenge upon Smaug that he had inherited. Dwarves take such duties very seriously." In Appendix A to
LR (
Durin's Folk), Tolkien says "... Dwarves take only one wife or husband each in their lives, and are jealous, as in all matters of their rights."
However, Tolkien's comments in
The Hobbit stand as an element in his theme throughout that work of ironically playing with the ideals and language of ancient and modern heroism. Nothing that Thorin does is inconsistent with medieval heroism: revenge, pride, even greed for money are all aspects of heroes like Beowulf, and one of Tolkien's aims in introducing bourgeois, Edwardian Bilbo into their world is to show up some of the flaws in the early-medieval model of heroic conduct. In fact, the refusal of Thorin and Company to go to Bilbo's aid is not only unheroic, but mirrors a passage in
Beowulf in which, the hero having gone into the dragon's lair alone, his trusted bodyguard do not follow him. Eventually they are berated by the only one of their number to accompany his lord (contrary to his orders), who reminds them of obligations forgotten and boasts unfulfilled. Tolkien makes the comment as narrator, there being no suitable character present.