November 28, 2002

Dwarves and Horses
Felagund

In the "Lord of the Rings," poor Gimli has a distate for horses. He rides only out of the neccessity of speed and then he does so on the back of a horse with his encouraging elf-friend Legolas. In LOTR, this distaste seems to be a characteristic of all dwarves.
However, in "The Hobbit," the dwarves ride horses or ponies with no problems whatsoever.
So, is the fear of horses, a Gimli-thing or a dwarf-thing? Is this a Tolkien inconsistency from "LOTR" to "The Hobbit?"