On Dwarves and Mountains

Every Dwarf, according to popular art, lives inside a mountain. One wonders where painters believe the bread comes from. The oldest and largest Dwarven settlements are indeed subterranean or semi-subterranean, frequently extending enormous distances into mountains and large hills. Such cities are engineering achievements of the highest order and deserve the attention they receive, though they do not represent the totality of Dwarven habitation.

Dwarves have maintained farms, ports, surface towns, military colonies, roadside settlements, and commercial districts above ground for longer than several Human kingdoms have existed. Entire Dwarven populations have lived for generations without sleeping beneath more rock than an ordinary tiled roof.

The misconception persists because mountain cities are impressive and villages are not. A traveller may pass through six Dwarven farming communities without writing home about them. He then sees a gate forty feet high cut directly into a granite face and immediately publishes a travel memoir entitled Among the Mountain Folk, which is how stereotypes acquire footnotes.