This is a summary of the history of the Petty-dwarves made by compiling all mentions of them in Tolkien's works into one history, as best I can remember without re-reading Tolkien's works*. Thus, it is possible I will get things wrong; please let me know if I do so!
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The history of the Petty-dwarves begins some time after the chaining of Melkor but before his return to Middle-earth, when the weak, small, and rebellious dwarves were exiled from the dwarven cities in the Blue Mountains. After their exile, they wandered around until they eventually settled in Beleriand.
Some time later, the Sindar came to Beleriand and settled there, but the Petty-dwarves attacked them.** The Sindar could never get good views of their attackers, so they assumed that the Petty-dwarves were some sort of intelligent animal and hunted them, greatly reducing their numbers. In response, the Petty-dwarves retreated to their homes, two of which were Nargothrond and Amon Rûdh, only attacking the Sindar if they came too close.
At some point, the Sindar met the greater dwarves and realized their mistake. They stopped hunting the Petty-dwarves and left them alone. But the damage had been done, and the Petty-dwarves now hated elves with a passion. It is at this time that the Sindar gave them the name Noegyth Nibin, which translates to "Petty-dwarf".
Then the Noldor came to Middle-earth, Finrod receives a dream from Ulmo, and Thingol tells Finrod about Nargothrond. Somehow the Petty-dwarves and the Noldor end up working together to expand Nargothrond...at least in the beginning. Then there is some sort of falling out between them, causing Mîm, the chief of the Petty-dwarves, to attempt to murder Finrod in his sleep. (Note: the previous two sentences are NoMe-specific, and is not mentioned in HoMe or the Silm.). In response, Finrod exiles Mîm, and Finrod pays the greater dwarves to kick the Petty-dwarves out of Nargothrond. At this point, we don't know how many Petty-dwarves are left, but when Mîm next appears, he and his two sons are the only ones still alive.
The Petty-dwarves disappear from history until Túrin encounters Mîm and his two sons near Amon Rûdh. Túrin and his band of outlaws surprise them while they are out gathering ore and roots, and Mîm is compelled to board them in his home. However, Mîm's son Khîm is killed by one of the outlaws. Túrin and his band live there from F.A. 486-489, until Mîm betrays the band to orcs. (The Silmarillion implies that he did so unwillingly, while The Children of Hurin says he did so willingly.)
At some point near the end of Mîm's life, The Complaint of Mîm the Dwarf occurs. (Note: if one takes The Complaint of Mîm the Dwarf to be canonical, Mîm would have to have lived over 500 years, much longer than the 200 or 250 year lifespan of a Dwarf. Thus, use of this source as canon is disputed.) At this time, Mîm is alone; his other son Ibun is not mentioned in it at all. Then after Glaurung is killed, Mîm moves back into Nargothrond.
There he dies at Húrin's hand: the last of the Petty-dwarves, having outlived his people, his wife (presumably, unless the sons were adopted), and his sons, but having lived long enough to watch his people lose their homes and dwindle away to just him - an old, bitter, unforgiving dwarf (who recognizes this, but can't forgive).
* "Tolkien's works" refers to those works by Tolkien which discuss Petty-Dwarves: The Silmarillion, The History of Middle-earth, The Nature of Middle-earth, The Children of Húrin, and the Unfinished Tales
**My headcanon to explain this is that since the orcs likely looked rather like elves (supported by the Elves first mistaking Orcs as Dark Elves), the Petty-dwarves weren't taking chances that these weren't orcs and so attacked them first. Though this presupposes a negative interaction between the Petty-dwarves the Orcs before the Elves showed up.
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As I said earlier, please correct me if I made any mistakes.
Ninimben passes his right hand over his face and looks up at his liege-lord, who is sitting on his throne in Ladros. He is dismayed, and the lords around him are, also. Relocation? Why are they relocating, when they have just finally settled roots down here in Dorthonion? Why? Moving is such a hassle! And the businesses–
Finrod stands and holds up a pacifying hand, halting the growing murmurs of discontent from his court. On his beautiful face he curates a kind smile, apologetic.
“I know, I know— once more I am asking from all of you a sacrifice,” he tells his lords and captains. “But know this. I ask this from you all not lightly. Not at all. I was given a vision by the Vala Ulmo, that I am tasked to build a secret stronghold for the Eldar, so that we may yet endure many years upon Beleriand. It is not just me, with my whim and fancy, my lords. We are tasked to ensure the survival of the Eldar. If we are thus called, shall we not answer?”
A fresh round of murmurs and small arguments erupt from the lords and bannermen of the Third House. Finrod watches them talk to each other awhile before he sits down. He picks up his cup of water and signals to a scribe to bring forth the map of the region of the Faroth. When the map is unfurled on the great table, the chatter gradually dies down.
“We are given land,” Finrod states, standing up again. “There is an extensive cave network here,” he points to the area. “And this land is rich in gold, silver and other metals and precious ores. What’s more, the underground river system provides us with what we need to rekindle the pearl industry.”
“I have seen these lands,” Thilior, Lord of the House of Sapphire, says. “But they are occupied by petty-dwarves, my lord. Nasty, vile creatures. They steal and murder and are most suspicious of outsiders.”
“Yes, and they are poor,” Finrod says, letting his blue eyes roam over the faces of all his lords and captains. “Dirt-poor, I am told. They are starving as we speak, and they do not now have the capacity to rekindle their mines and forges. They can barely pay their debts to Cirdan.”
Ah. The lords of the Third House exchange knowing looks. Even Ninimben perks up in his seat, interest finally baited.
“Then, my lord?” Ninimben prods.
Finrod smiles, and his smile is blindingly bright and beautiful. “I will make them an offer they cannot refuse.”
I tend to prefer the first option here even though it's less supported by the text because I find it less disturbing.
Just — imagine. A consequence of being able to talk to animals and trees and mountains and rocks is that they can't recognize other people when they meet them. Everything might as well be people. They can talk to plants so veganism wouldn't even help.
Okay but what if the Petty-dwarves never went fully extinct? Some might have fled to the east and established themselves there. Petty-dwarves do not follow the same doctrine as the great dwarves, and this might have meant that they actually intermarry and interbreed with the race of men (which I think is highly taboo among most of the great dwarves). This in turn could have led to populations of petty-dwarves that were not quite men, but not quite dwarves either. But Some still they remember the misery they suffered at the hand of the elves and their own kin (the great dwarves), and some are blissfully unaware of their ancestry.
It was the Petty Dwarves they hunted, and it was the Sindar who hunted them, not elves in general. More importantly, they didn’t hunt the Petty “for sport”.
The quote that more clearly adresses ‘hunting’ is this extra-official one, from the History of Middle-Earth:
The Eldar did not at first recognise these as Incarnates, for they seldom caught sight of them in clear light. They only became aware of their existence indeed when they attacked the Eldar by stealth at night, or if they caught them alone in wild places. The Eldar therefore thought that they were a kind of cunning two-legged animals living in caves, and they called them Levain tad-dail, or simply Tad-dail, and they hunted them. (The Quendi and the Eldar, HoME)
So, as far as semi-canon sources go, the Petty were hostile to the Sindar, who in turn didn’t realize they were sentient beings, and hunted them down. The rest of the quote tells us more about the consequences of the Sindarin attitude towards them and how and why it eventually changed:
But after the Eldar had made the acquaintance of the Naugrim, the Tad-dail [Petty dwarves] were recognised as a variety of Dwarves and were left alone. There were then few of them surviving, and they were very wary, and too fearful to attack any Elf, unless their hiding-places were approached too nearly. The Sindar gave them the names Nogotheg ‘Dwarflet’, or Norgoth niben ‘Petty Dwarf’
(…)
The great Dwarves despised the Petty-dwarves(…) But they still acknowledged their kinship and resented any injuries done to them. Indeed it was one of their grievances against the Eldar that they had hunted and slain their lesser kin, who had settled in Beleriand before the Elves came there. This grievance was set aside, when treaties were made between the Dwarves and the Sindar, in consideration of the plea that the Petty-dwarves had never declared themselves to the Eldar, nor presented any claims to land or habitations, but had at once attacked the newcomers in darkness and ambush. (The Quendi and the Eldar, HoME)
This is all, as I have stressed, semi-official, in the sense that none of this shows up in the Silmarillion. So all mentions of Sindar hunting Petty Dwarves is in extra material, and it falls to the fan to choose whether to incorporate it in their own interpretation or not. (Personally, I do! Because I’m really into the Petty Dwarves and the Sindar, and this means more context to understand them).
All we have in the “more official” Silmarillion is this quote:
From Nogrod and Belegost the Naugrim came forth into Beleriand; and the Elves were filled with amazement, for they had believed themselves to be the only living things in Middle-earth that spoke with words or wrought with hands, and that all others were but birds and beasts. (Of the Sindar, The Silmarillion)
It does not mention the Petty-Dwarves, but, by omission, it resonates with the idea that, before meeting Dwarves, the Sindar considered themselves the only sentient beings in Beleriand - and counted the Petty Dwarves to be animals of some sort.
Another question that might come up after reading this info: if the Petty Dwarves were hunted by the Sindar in ancient times and there was such hostility between them, why does the text say they hated the Noldor more?
This quote from the Silmarillion might help us understand:
They loved none but themselves, and if they feared and hated the Orcs, they hated the Eldar no less, and the Exiles most of all; for the Noldor, they said, had stolen their lands and their homes. Long ere King Finrod Felagund came over the Sea, the caves of Nargothrond were discovered by them, and by them its delving was begun; and beneath the crown of Amon Rûdh, the Bald Hill, the slow hands of the Petty-Dwarves had bored and deepened the caves through the long years that they dwelt there, untroubled by the Grey-elves of the woods. (Of Túrin Turambar, The Silmarillion)
The appropriate conclusion seems to be: though Petty and the Sindar were extremely mutually hostile in ancient times, to the point that their number was decreased and they became fearful of elves in general, the Sindar did not drove them from, or occupied places where they had already built their dwellings. But that was the case when the Noldor came, when the Petty were evicted so that the great caves where they held their biggest dwelling could be occupied by the Noldor under Finrod.
Why do I use the passive voice in this case? Because the occupation of their caves by Finrod’s elves is also a little bit more complicated. Here’s the quote from the Silmarillion:
Finrod was filled with wonder at the strength and majesty of Menegroth, its treasuries and armouries and its many-pillared halls of stone; and it came into his heart that he would build wide halls behind ever-guarded gates in some deep and secret place beneath the hills. Therefore he opened his heart to Thingol, telling him of his dreams; and Thingol spoke to him of the deep gorge of the River Narog, and the caves under the High Faroth in its steep western shore, and when he departed he gave him guides to lead him to that place of which few yet knew. Thus Finrod came to the Caverns of Narog, and began to establish there deep halls and armouries after the fashion of the mansions of Menegroth; and that stronghold was called Nargothrond. In that labour Finrod was aided by the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains; and they were rewarded well, for Finrod had brought more treasures out of Tirion than any other of the princes of the Noldor. And in that time was made for him the Nauglamír, the Necklace of the Dwarves, most renowned of their works in the Elder Days. (...) But Finrod Felagund was not the first to dwell in the caves beside the River Narog. (Of the return of the Noldor, The Silmarillion)
This passage raises a lot of questions, but the most relevant to my post is:
If Dwarves were so aggrieved by the Sindar hunting their Petty kin that they made a point of putting it in their treaties (per semi canon information in the HoME), how could they not only consent to work with Finrod and build Nargothrond, but even to go as far as to give Finrod a Dwarvish name (per more canon-ish Silmarillion?)
We find a possible answer again in the HoMe:
Finrod had help of Dwarves in extending the underground fortress of Nargothrond. It is supposed originally to have been a hall of the Petty-dwarves (Nibinnogs), but the Great Dwarves despised these, and had no compunction in ousting them - hence Mim's special hatred for the Elves - especially for great reward. Finrod had brought more treasure out of Tuna than any of the other princes.
So what’s curious is that this seems to contradict the other semi-canon account of the Dwarves being protective of the Petty Dwarves when it came to their dealing with elves. Notice that this text above is dated from 1959; the other texts we can’t really know for sure, according to Christoper Tolkien.
So this is one more case in which Tolkien contradicts itself - or rather,
There is no canon - and it falls to the reader to interpret the information as they wish.
(Honestly, it’s stuff like this that makes me love being a legendarium fan... I love hobbies that give me homework lmao)
My personal interpretation, in which I try to conciliate:
a. the information about the Petty Dwarves’ dwindled numbers and conflict avoidance,
b. the information about Dwarves siding with them against elves on principle, despire hating them, and
c. Finrod’s diplomatic nature observed with every other single race,
is that a very reduced number of Petty Dwarves was still alive and occupying the caves by the time Finrod’s crew arrived, so, knowing themselves to be outnumbered, they fled for their lives (to Amon Rudh?).
But that’s just my take, and no matter how much Tolkien material I have or haven’t read, nothing makes it more official than anyone else’s. Nothing stops anyone from reading the clues through any other lenses - it’s what every Silmarillion fan ends up doing, due to the nature of the text :)
I finished editing my most recent fic "Shadows of Us" on Saturday!
Finrod is truamatized from the sudden responsibility thrust upon him and from crossing the Helcaraxë. When he receives a message stating the Petty-dwarves of Nargothrond plan to murder his people, he exiles them. Mîm decides to assassinate Finrod to stop him. What could go wrong?
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This AU explores the question of what might have motivated Mîm to attempt to assassinate Finrod (mentioned in NoMe), and the fallout resulting from it within the context of a traumatized Finrod. And to spice things up, I added Mîm's original power in laying curses (mentioned in HoMe).
This fic, especially the ending, is inspired by the song "Can't Catch Me Now" ; )
