How did the Dwarves feed their Armies and People? | Lord of the Rings Lore | Middle-Earth
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ม.ค. 2021
- How did the Dwarves of Middle-Earth feed their armies and people? Could their kingdoms such as Moria and Erebor grow and sustain enough food for their people, and could they even grow crops in these dark caverns? Or did they have to trade with and rely on other lands for supplies? These question and more as we explore how the armies of the Dwarves were sustained in the Lord of the Rings.
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For those of you might have missed my community announcement, I'm currently working on a masters in Game Design and it's really taking up a lot of my free time. And so I'll be publishing once every 2 weeks for now until I catch up with my studies :) As always subtitles are available and feedback is welcome! I'd also love to hear your thoughts on this topic, especially if you can think of some other ways in which the Dwarves could have fed their people! :)
Dwarves need a beer and food. Maybe traveled to near by inns for food and drink.
Really good episode explaining how Dwarfs supply themselves with food I always wonder how they would supply themselves with food. Keep the episodes coming I love the channel. Big Fan🙋♂️
I love your work and your voice. It's soothing especially when I'm away from home. It keeps me in the geek zone lol and it reminds me of home.
@@shadowcloudspher5149 Dwarves might sell their work product for others' work product.
That's so amazing! I hope you do well and I wish you all the luck in the world.
I guess I always figured they had a Mushroom heavy diet. The caves would made an excellent place for mushroom cultivation.
Algae as well.
Smart
they still do that but its to get high😂😂
I was thinking mushrooms, and foraging. No reason they couldn't have gone out and picked berries and stuff like that.
I also don't think they would have much meat in their diet at all. Dwarves were not very fast, and thus probably not the best hunters of game like deer and rabbits. I can see them fishing some, maybe, but I think it would be mostly plant based.
That is true but not all mushrooms are safe to eat!
“Aragorn, lets find some food.”
Gimli
See, even Gimli made Aragorn find him some food 😂
The Balrog provided them with malt beer and ripe meat off the bone
Lol 😂
That would explain all the fire. He was just having a barbecue
Damn, the Balrog was just down there feasting the whole time. No wonder he stayed down there for so long.
Fuc.ker was just waiting for someone with a large enough knife(sword) and fork(staff) .. ...then he could be contained.
The Joke was on the Dwarves. The Hobbits sold them an addictive drug called pipe weed. Cut off the supply and let them go into withdrawals then the Dwarves would be falling all over themselves to make a deal for more "nicotina".
Hobbits were basically drug barons on an Escobar level of villainy.
I very much like this take on Hobbits? 🤔
@@willc1294 Until the Gondorians figure out how to cultivate pipe weeds on their lands.
I always felt that they had trade agreements with surrounding peoples. But it does bring into the discussion how they could go to war with these same people. The limited information on how many “people” lived where makes it difficult to really discuss at length.
I’d say mostly it would be with Men and Hobbits. Elves were likely much less involved in food production except for specialty items. Dwarves were wealthy from gold, silver and gems. Then also the production of iron for arms or even mass sale.
It’s the beauty and the curse that we only get tiny bits of information. It does not detract from the story but allows ample space for your imagination to wander.
The Balrog made sure that Dwarf bacon was 'crispy'.
If the dwarves just spring out of stone, then it means that they eat precious ores!
No wonder they're so fabulous!
I can't believe Gimli actually thought Balin and his company were still alive and thriving with only the food that they took with them into Moria, how did they live for years in those grim mines.
It's something from the movies. In the books, the only one who wanted to cross the Misty Mountains through Moria was Gandalf, Gloin said in the Council of Elrond that Balin's company went to Moria like 25 years before that, and kept sending messages until they recieved none sign of them, they thought the worst, and dare not enter the kingdom because they knew there was "Durin's bane".
@@alex.ann_der Nah bro I literally just read that part again a couple days ago. Even though you are right gimli wasnt too keen on going to Moria, he did have hope they were still alive and was very upset when he discovered it was true.
You're talking like Balin starved to death 🤣
The lack of vitamin D must of been a factor too 😂
They can just eat all Bilbo's food; but careful with those plates!
Video was still shorter than that musical number.
I remember comments from Gimli that covered this briefly, but rather than saying that dwarves _never_ grew their own food, it much more implied that they _prefered_ other kinds of work over farming and would _rather_ just buy it from other races, _if_ they could. The sizes of dwarven cities and realms just doesnt seem plausible without their own food sources, they were very inventive, i imagine large undeground, semi-automated fish farms and green houses heated by geological hot springs and the like.
Greenhouses underground? Where does photosynthesis enter into that equation?
@@cerberus6654 in LOTR online rpg they solve this problem with fluorescent crystals and reflecting mirrors enabling an underground greenhouse.
@@7Coolpablo They did? Well, maybe I'm being too real-world. The crystals don't convince and the reflected light... Seems dubious. But thanks for the lead.
A random farmer lives in peace...
The dwarves move into the mountains next to him...
The Farmer: STONKS
Isn't it obvious? Orcs! That's why abandoned Dwarven Holds are filled to the brim with Orcs: the Dwarves are farming them for food but when they are gone there is no one to cull the Orcs' numbers. That's also why Orcs hate Dwarves.
Alright I am joking, but it could be a neat idea for a high fantasy parody.
So that's how Gimli knew what orc blood tasted like 😆
@@torianholt2752 R I P E M E A T O F F T H E B O N E!
True Orcs were pig men in every other franchise so that works.
I hear the salted pork is particularly good __
Yes! And smoking!
I would think they could grow mushrooms underground. You should do a video about how come the dwarves are not bothered by sunlight after living so many centuries underground.
They come out to trade, train, build, etc. with the other races. The ones that never come out, would probably have sunlight sensitivity.
Yep, Shrooms and Taters are my beliefs regarding Dwarf chow.
-how did the dwarves feed their armies and people?
-by having them eating rocks ofcourse. ROCK! AND. STONE!
Like Singapore, trade treasure for food, like the mediaeval Swiss, trade warcraft for food.
That first dwarf in the video is from a Magic the Gathering Card but he fits lotr dwarves quite well
I was watching the Hobbit the desolation of smaug and wondered what dwarves ate and how they made food lmao, thanks for the vid!
Dwarves ate the same thing men ate.
Everyone knows that first thing you plant in your dwarf fortress is a nice indoor crop of mushrooms :P. Mushroom roasts, mushroom soup, mushroom brew
not being able to make their own food is a very odd occurance. It can only really happen if two races are created out of nothing at once
Lol, "forge a bond with your allies" is the perfect way to put it if youre trying to convince a dwarf to be cooperative, they cant resist a good forging :P
Dwarves are legendary in our hearts.
I love the dwarves innovation and craftsmanship if the lonely mountain under king Diane's rule did it right the dwarves and men could live in a industrial revolution in a state of growth and progress the lonely mountain has the resources and tool machines to mass produce gold , silver gems for currency , iron hills for steel and iron mass production and the city of Dale producing food and trading goods, if they utilize the iron hills to mass produce iron railroads to expand to new areas and colonizing new empty lands building more cities and make railcars pulled by those big goats they have cuz those things are strong and fast and if pulling railcars on a track it would be easier and faster to trade and travel place to place , the dwarves could make musket guns sinse black powder exist in middle earth and just invent muskets and cannons and bombs and with a huge system if railroads everywhere the dwarves and men could be mechanicist infantry mobilizing faster to different parts of their empire , the dwarves can build more mountain cities connected by railroad and men build a city next to each dwarf city to accommodate each other , if they build it right a person in Dale or white city could take a train ride to one end of each land with in a day or so, lonely mountain could have a huge trade empire having tons of gold and silver to trade for goods etc and live in a advance revolution lol
Of all the races in Middle Earth. I love the Dwarves most of all.
Me too I love the dwarves innovation and craftsmanship if the lonely mountain under king Diane's rule did it right the dwarves and men could live in a industrial revolution in a state of growth and progress the lonely mountain has the resources and tool machines to mass produce gold , silver gems for currency , iron hills for steel and iron mass production and the city of Dale producing food and trading goods, if they utilize the iron hills to mass produce iron railroads to expand to new areas and colonizing new empty lands building more cities and make railcars pulled by those big goats they have cuz those things are strong and fast and if pulling railcars on a track it would be easier and faster to trade and travel place to place , the dwarves could make musket guns sinse black powder exist in middle earth and just invent muskets and cannons and bombs and with a huge system if railroads everywhere the dwarves and men could be mechanicist infantry mobilizing faster to different parts of their empire , the dwarves can build more mountain cities connected by railroad and men build a city next to each dwarf city to accommodate each other , if they build it right a person in Dale or white city could take a train ride to one end of each land with in a day or so, lonely mountain could have a huge trade empire having tons of gold and silver to trade for goods etc and live in a advance revolution lol
How did you forget to mention "SALTED PORK"?
I like how you had torbran from mtg in the opening.
The underground cave water system as seen in the hobbit with gollum could provide some fish/food
Under ground cavern fisheries! That be a great idea honestly!
I find it beautiful that this video has no dislikes, it is what a video like this truly deserves. Even tho in my eyes it deserves more views, the people that do see it appreciate it like it should be.
Wait I thought the dwarves just lived off of their love of gold and hate for elves and orcs with some acasional beer thrown in there
I always look forward to these uploads, especially now that there are fewer of them. Just wanted to say that they are appreciated!
I’ve missed this! Great video! Thank you for another great video! Can’t wait for the next one.
How on earth does this video only have 4,800 views!?! Great video, GeekZone. Keep up the good work. I don't have any answers but I love these types of questions.
Perhaps they could have used reflective mirrors to bounce sunlight into the caves and designate a concentrated sun reflect area to grow just about anything?
Thanks mate. Hope your Christmas and new year went well . Great work as usual karl
It is clear that Dwarves don't need to eat... they only need to DRINK!
Carl, the art work is sensational 👏 WOW 👏 added with your wisdom love, love, love it! Great job my friend
Never knew about the root, that’s awesome! I also love how the background music is the background music in third age total war, miss playing that game.
Amazing job! I love the content and thank you for expanding my knowledge of the lord of the rings world.
So I always figured these roots to just be potatoes. Its never explicitly named, but with the way they were described it sounded like them
Do you remember the quote about those roots or where I can find it?
Also here is a quote where dwarves farm: "The Dwarves had an agriculture - which in early times they practiced when isolated and unable to buy grain etc. by barter. They had invented a “plough” of some sort - which they dragged as well as steered themselves: they were tough and strong - but they did not delight in such labour of necessity." - Nature of Middle-earth
@Bewaids24 I believe it's in story of Hurin
@@stevereed2472 Thanks I will take a look.
@@skjold224 particularly when it comes to the sections with mim and the petty dwarfs
@@stevereed2472" In the waning of the year Mîm the Dwarf and Ibun his
son went out from Bar-en-Danwedh to gather roots in the wild for their winter store; " - Sil
Dwarves needed the long bottom leaf from the hobbits.
Food is eaten once, but tools and weapons and armor and objets d'art last for a very long time. No society can last without producing its own food. They carved "windows" into some of their inner mountain chambers, so that natural sunlight could get in. So they may have had indoor "greenhouses" of a sort. They may have even had some outdoor farms and ranches in the valleys and canyons adjacent to their mountains. From there, they can easily retreat into the mountains when defense was needed. You could call these "backyard gardens".
I didn't know any of this and had always wondered. Great stuff.
The artwork in this video is 👌 *chefs kiss*
Gimli would eat rocks and stones when he got hungry while searching for the hobbits, I thought just it was a weird quirk, but if he did it, then could all dwarves just eat rocks if they got hungry?
Idk I’ll ask him sometime 🤷♂️
Tell me when you find out.
Never trust an elf!
@@faramirofgondor7358 I will
@@jacobhoover1654 I can tell by your accent that your a dwarf, so I take no offense
Well, according to your people they are what they eat then.
Hey man really love you content
Yep, Shrooms and Taters are my beliefs regarding Dwarf Chow.
Great video! I love them all!! And If I can just throw in my two cents here, I think they may have had some kind of huge oil supply too, to keep the lights on.
Other way that occurred to me was of they may have developed some sort of mirror system so they could have a reflection of the sunlight, if not mirrors maybe gems or metals, and maybe just maybe they could have had the sunlight needed necessary to allow them to have a maybe small fields where they could grew some crops so they wouldn't rely solely on their allies bonds.
I mean hey, deep underground they may have had a better soil quality, and for the water I understand there are underground natural water sources from which they could have taken advantage of.
Hello buddy! Today a nagging question started to bother me - what if the Fellowship never broke up? What if Gandalf didn't die and Boromir wasn't killed? What if they actually managed to get through the forests, down the river from Lothlorien and towards Mordor? What came to my mind was - where would they enter the dark lord's land? The black gate would be impassable and they certainly wouldn't take the route through Minas Morgul. Would they keep travelling North-east? Are there any other passages apart from the valleys in the far east?
I would love a video on that :D
I always figured it would be easy enough to grow crops underground with some kind of bioluminecent fungi that could imitate the sun's light. That or perhaps a magical stone or rune that could change the properties of certain gems to do the same.
I always figured dwarves would farm mushrooms, get food in trade as much as possible, also hunt, trap and gather in the forests.
However, I also suspected that they'd terrace hidden folds in the mountains, and raise grain and vegetables there.
Take a look at the old Inca terraces. Those things still have dirt and drainage centuries after they were built. And some areas of terrace are extremely inaccessible to an invading army.
Anyway, this is how I've rationalized it.
This video brought to you by My Patriot Supply, official supplier of emergency food for the dwarven kingdoms.
Just bought the Moria expansion for LOTRO and was literally asking myself this very question two days ago, so thanks for the timely upload Geekzone! (sidenote, pretty sure that's Geralt of Rivia @4:40 )?
Moria is one of my favorite parts of the game.
Fish from underground rivers, mushrooms which grow in the dark and damp, goats and other wild animals that live on mountain ranges, and growing hardy root vegetables in small patches of flat ground where possible.
I was just thinking about this!
i think its like in the games... Dwarfs loved pork so they had lots of pigs taking care of, aside from trading with the Northmen
also, in the North they had goats, porks, fish... lot of eatble stuff
seems legit
Great video! Could you make a video where you actually compare the power of Sauron and Voldemort? I had this idea because of your merch. Or would that differ too much from your normal content?
Please, make a video about the strength of the dwarves. Are they stronger than a man? What advantages and disadvantages do they have? Their proportions and body.
they eat rocks of course. ;) man, those arts in your video are freaking great. kudos to whoever made them. but back on topic, you do can grow rice in mountains. lot of work, and it has to be a rainy area but it is possible.
My dear fellow, I have to say that this video was excellent. I wanted to ask, which Tolkien works did you use for references? Did you look into any of the histories of middle earth?
Well, I had brought up this issue last year - perhaps a bit sarcastically - but you have answered the question with complete authority and success! Though mushrooms have no nutritional vale. Also, Carl, I've always wondered why there are no Half-Dwarven of any kind.
Mushrooms tend to have very little nutritional value, a good supplement, but hardly a staple. I imagine they would have entrances to their halls in areas where they could deploy hunting and gathering parties above ground. In times of war, you can always eat the enemy...
Here’s a question… how did the haradrim get their war elephants… were they gifted them because they served Sauron ( did Sauron make them or did they already exist) or did they have them long before that… and how/what did they feed them
I always thought dwarves would be decent huntsman and have large fields of fungus farms.
Also, they make ale and beer so I'd imagine either they found some way to do it with mushrooms or had hop farms somewhere.
Since there were instances of great skylights; It us more than likely possible that the Dwarves had gardens in a very specific area of the halls. 🤔
I was looking forward to your next video, thanks! :)
You're welcome buddy, I hope you enjoy it :)
I have a question that i can't seem to find an answer to. Who's playing the drums in the deep? When the Balrog of Moria fell, the drums still played in the deep. So who played them?
I always figured Moria atleast used the water works to push water to the Upper Deeps of the 7 levels going up using sun light cut through the rock it would make sense keep it warm with blaring fires on the middle levels
Finally
A real question
I kind of assumed that if beings are made to live in an environment, then it must be possible for them to find food there without trade.
For example, farming large mushrooms with more diversity and nutrients. Or other underground foods which don't exist on Earth.
a video on athelas or kingsfoil would be cool..
No, I didn’t know some of this fascinating. Where did you get the information about the dwarves and Hoberts trading?
I always imagined they could use terraced gardens--like having a garden on their roof.
Hey Karl, Gigi here!
Like first, then watch
Goats , lots of goats , cheese milk, and meat. Especially because the dwarves are derived from Nordic mythology which is filled though old goats
Terrace farms on the mountainsides are possible as well. No evedince but possible.
In 1697 SA when the Dwarves of Moria shut their gates and cut themselves off from the outside world for roughly 3,724+ years. There's no way they would have or could have stocked up that much grain and food through trade and stockpile. So they would have been living "off the grid" and been more self sustainable. Like you said, roots, mushrooms, fish and other methods never written down would be required.
I think fed up those dwarven kingdoms only with trade would be impossible. I think they had something like mushrooms or other type of food. Maybe even they fed animals like pigs with plants that could grow in caves.
Idk dude. I think dwarves involved in food production were probably shepherds, tending flocks of sheep and goats and cows in protected mountain dales and valleys. I can imagine great flocks covering all of Dimrill Dale during the height of Khazad-Dum’s power and that’s where they’re getting the red meat off the bone!
Idk, Maybe they hired human shepherds, but I don’t see why. There must have been poor or outcast dwarves who could not dwell for one reason or another in dwarf holds. I imagine they could bamboozle some humans out of some sheep in exchange for a trinket or two and make a decent living out of being a shepherd, feeding the mansions of their more well to do kin.
My guess was right and they did have some sort of magic food or root you could say! Or something specialized to them. Like a route that was start you like a potato and easy to store and prepare! Lucky guess
When will the subtitles be available
Cool accent man, are you from Malta or have you moved there?
You gave away your spark, red. Torbran has no place in the Misty Mountains....
Knowing that the dwarves were created because Illúvatar wanted to come true Aulë's desire to create a new life form feels like if a father gave life to his son's toys
I think the Dwarves knew the common speech before the the Second Age, i mean, they were already trading with elves and humans during the First Age.
I'm sure you're right about the mushrooms, the fishes and the roots (i think i even remember it being mentioned but i don't remember where) but that shouldn't have been great food or not very varied since the Dwarves always prefered the food of the outside world.
My view is that the Dwarves where self contained with underground food source (mushrooms and fungi) but traded for better tasting / interesting foodstuff. I couple this with the belief that goblins and orcs also had access to these underground food sources. Maybe even animals that graze on these. After all the Dwarves had to have food before trade with the other races.
Did they drink mushroom beer? To borrow from Spartan lore, that would explain why they didn’t fear death.
What if gandolf went to meet the company instead of going to dol goldur and went into the mountain to fight Smaug?
Who was stronger or more feared the balrog or Smaug? Differences?
I think they got a lot of food through trade, but i don't think they'd be dependant on other races for that. Don't forget, Khazad Dum in the Second Age closed their gates for a looooooong time. We also know that the Alliance between the Dwarves and the Northmen in the dark years when Sauron ruled most of Middle Earth.
Now if we think about how good dwarves are in construction and architecture, i'm sure they're skilled enough to bring light into their halls from the outside. Glass and mirror should be something they can create. With wholes in the mountainsides, which they could create from within, they could bring light through mirrors into the mountain. If you have soil and earth and water there, you can hold farm animals and crops. You would actually better off than outside probably, because you could hold the place at a good temperature all year long. So actually, if the Dwarves would do something like this, they could sell food to others, especially in autumn and winter times.
Something like this can and is done on our world in structures beneath the earth as well.
What about hydroponics? There would be a problem with light but they could reflect it from the surface if they couldn’t find anything better.
Even more Cram! 1 Month just on Cram! Couldn’t the lake men make some tastier food?
It doesn't sound very appetising either :)
Maybe they could've brought in and harvested fish from an underground lake(s)
Dwarven crafts, straight from Orzammar
Egads I remember this
@@ManDuderGuy best game ever lol
Have you ever heard about minecraft underground automated farms ? :D
Mushrooms in caves? Nah that doesn't work. They grow where there are dead things to grow on, i.e. the woods and grasslands.
If the dwarves ever run low on food, they can always eat the children of the poor! lol
I love dwarves
Best merchants of middle earth
Love your videos
Thanks William!! :)
This can actually help us establish how the governments of middle earth work because in the past nearly all of the populus were farmers because of the heavy food taxation the royals placed upon them however since there aren't that many farmers that we know of most people in Gondor seem to be soldiers forge workers ect so they produce enough food to sustain a population of a million or something but also have enough to trade with dwarves so the government would have to tax the populus of something else possibly even service in the army
We only see Minas Tirith is a time of war so many people left - naturally soldiers and smiths will stay behind - but even then we read descriptions about the farms and orchards of the Pelennor Fields to feed the city. Even Mordor had an enormous agricultural economy around the Sea of Nurn to feed their armies. So when reading that, I don't think you can claim most Men weren't farmers. We just don't see the most populated areas.
@@MasterBombadillo the type of farms those would be are wheat farms or other cereal crops which can be produced in mass quantities very easily for farms of that scale if it took the majority of minus tirth to farm that would just be pitiful
for me it was always utterly baffling how armies marched from lets say italy all the way up to the english channel , which kinda ties into the whole food and provision thing
They sent foragers out to collect food. From stores kept by farmers if possible or from fields or wild grain. Berries and nuts and a lot of things we don’t normally think of eating.
But it is incredible how they could support even a few thousand soldiers much less 10,000+
So the Dwarves were basically Arms Dealers.
thanks for giving me ptsd with your opening image