Cursing In the Books

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

If 'the curse of a Dwarf never dies' had become a saying in Middle-earth, maybe that speaks for Aulë having some unusual interest in his children, and interceding on their behalf on a regular basis.

I'd see this proverbial longevity of Dwarven curses as a nod to Nordic mythology, where curses by Dwarves working havoc over a lengthy period of time are a somewhat recurring motif. The most famous example would be the Dwarf Andvari (in Reginsmál and Völsunga saga) who, when the Gods took his treasure from him, cursed the gold (which would later end up as the hoard of the Nibelungs) and especially the ring Andvaranaut, so that it would cause the death of all its subsequent owners; and so it happened. Another example is given here .
Unlike Mîm's curse on Andróg, of course, both these curses were attached to items either wrought or formerly owned by the respective Dwarf. But now I think of it - is this just phantom memory again, or does some variant to the Silmarillion text in HoME (or possibly CoH?) mention that Mîm cursed the Nauglamír when Húrin slew him in Nargothrond, and that curse contributed to the ruin of Doriath? If so, this would be a nice parallel to the story of Andvari - with the exception that Mîm wasn't the rightful owner of the necklace, so "karmic balance" wouldn't play a part in the fulfilling of the curse.

About Morgoth's curse - if we accept that he had the power to make his curse come true, don't we thereby agree that he was indeed, as he claimed in the Narn, "Master of the fates of Arda", and that Húrin's defiant words "You cannot see them, or govern them from afar: not while you keep this shape, and desire still to be a King visible upon earth" were mistaken?
As I see it, all Morgoth could do was, so to speak, set the frame conditions for his curse to be fulfilled - but Túrin had lots of chances to escape it at every turn of the way, if he had made some better choices. (Btw, the fact that he didn't still doesn't make him a jerk for me!)