What do dwarves eat?

[Rex Blunder]

The archetypical mining dwarves. Where do they get the food to support their population? Do they have extensive aboveground farming and hunting lands? Or do they gnaw on subterranean mushrooms, like goblins?

I think of dwarves as hard-drinkin', hard eatin' guys, with lots of feasts with beer, venison, and whatnot. I can't picture them eating lots of mushrooms, but it's conceivable. But it's pretty canonical that they drink a lot: do they keep bees for the mead? grow grain and hops? I've never seen reference to lots of dwarven farmers.

Perhaps they trade their gold and gems for human-grown foodstuffs? That conflicts a little with the isolationist dwarven stereotype, but I guess it's a possibility.

[Manticorkscrew]

For that matter, where do they get their vitamin D from if they stay underground all the time?

[Zincorium]

Supposedly, hill dwarves (as opposed to mountain dwarves, who are almost but not quite the same thing) often have settlements that are either partially or wholly on the surface that do the mundane stuff like farming and raising animals to feed the dwarves mining and crafting below.

Although honestly the idea of smelting any kind of metal in an enclosed, poorly ventilated area strikes me as the worst sort of idea, so there's another thing that is probably done on the surface rather than underground.

Anyway, the farmers of the dwarven race are probably those too bumbling or clumsy to work in hazardous or fine artisan occupations, which is why you don't get much mention of them.

As for the deep and mountain and duergar, I dunno. Maybe they do eat rothe steak and drink mushroom beer for every meal. Might explain the charisma penalty.

[VerdugoExplode]

If Terry Pratchett is to be believed then they enjoy a good rat on a stick, covered in gratuitous amounts of ketchup.

[Riffington]

I like quarry because it's crunchy.

[Captain van der Decken]

They trap insects in their beards.

[InkEyes]

Maybe their digestive tracts have specially evolved over time to allow them to eat scrap metal?

Or more realistically they farm the slopes of their mountains/keep herds of goats and sheep there.

[Ulzgoroth]

I gave mine a bunch of gnomes who do terrace farming under their protection.

In general I think they're expected to trade for food.

[goat]

Continual flames and a hydroponic farm.

[Snadgeros]

They eat rocks. You know, like Gorons. Oh, and smaller dwarves. The little ones have to keep running on those stubbly little legs. :smalltongue:

[Raolin_Fenix]

I'd go ahead and say they do a lot of trading with others.

To use possibly the most classic example, the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain spent all their time mining and crafting, and then they'd trade the fruits of their labor with the nearby Laketown... who would then distribute it to the rest of the world. Result: Laketown and Lonely Mountain both got very rich, and Dwarves stayed well fed while still keeping more or less away from the rest of the world. They were still separated from Laketown by, y'know, a gigantic mountain; their only real contact was to trade.

[Tengu]

I always assumed that dwarves have large, underground farms where they grow mushrooms. And smaller, hill colonies where they actually have human-style farms.

[Frosty]

Dwarf Battle Bread!

[Unscrewed]

I think they have a few above-ground settlements for raising food and animals. I think they must also hunt both above and below ground for food.
Perhaps they but their compost heap near the forge, so the heat from the forge encourages the growth of edible mushrooms.

[Raolin_Fenix]

Dwarf Battle Bread!

Actually, this is a valid suggestion. :P

In the Lord of the Rings, Gimli pulls a face just before taking his first bite of lembas bread, and mutters something disgusted-sounding in Dwarven. Then he eats it, and is... pleasantly surprised, to say the least. He expected it to be the same nasty travel-bread the Dwarves make when they have to walk long distances. This implies, to me, that the Dwarves have so little experience with food that they can't make anything that tastes good. When they do make their own food, it's functional -- that Dwarven battle-bread is packed with energy -- but it doesn't taste good at all.

So I'm standing by my previous post and suggesting that they go other places for most of their food. :P

[Lord Tataraus]

Actually, this is a valid suggestion. :P

In the Lord of the Rings, Gimli pulls a face just before taking his first bite of lembas bread, and mutters something disgusted-sounding in Dwarven. Then he eats it, and is... pleasantly surprised, to say the least. He expected it to be the same nasty travel-bread the Dwarves make when they have to walk long distances. This implies, to me, that the Dwarves have so little experience with food that they can't make anything that tastes good. When they do make their own food, it's functional -- that Dwarven battle-bread is packed with energy -- but it doesn't taste good at all.

So I'm standing by my previous post and suggesting that they go other places for most of their food. :P

Agreed. I've always seen dwarves a traders, not farmers. Though they might have a special breed of cattle that live underground...have you ever noticed how much wildlife there is down there in D&D?! Tons of stuff, and many are good to eat I assume. As for their beer, I've always had them make a mushroom-based liquor and in one campaign it was made out of mycanoids (sp?):smallamused:

[Ponce]

I think they discuss this in Races of Stone, if you want to take that as canon. Which I'm guessing you don't.

Either way, they talk about dwarves eating subterranean and similar mammals like moles or warthogs. Maybe the beer is made from lichens?

[BRC]

I imagine dwarves mostly surviving from trade, they proably are capable of surviving off lichen and the like for a period of time if they really have to, but they proably trade for most of their food.

[Hasivel]

A Dwarf's beard is not just a decoration for the face as some think. It is in fact a vast self-contained ecosystem like unto a bag of holding. Rock dust and debris enters the beard from dwarven mining operations, along with liberal influxes of spilled ale supplying water, and bacteria and small plantlike creatures metabolize this using a direct influx of magic for the energy portion. Insects feet upon the plants and rodents upon the insects and the dwarf eats the rodents.

[Wolfwood2]

I'd go ahead and say they do a lot of trading with others.

To use possibly the most classic example, the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain spent all their time mining and crafting, and then they'd trade the fruits of their labor with the nearby Laketown... who would then distribute it to the rest of the world. Result: Laketown and Lonely Mountain both got very rich, and Dwarves stayed well fed while still keeping more or less away from the rest of the world. They were still separated from Laketown by, y'know, a gigantic mountain; their only real contact was to trade.

This leaves dwarves awfully vulnerable to famine and poor harvests.

If the crops are poor this year, the farmers are going to make sure they have enough to feed themselves and only then will they trade away any excess. Some years, there will be no excess.

[Drider]

This leaves dwarves awfully vulnerable to famine and poor harvests.

If the crops are poor this year, the farmers are going to make sure they have enough to feed themselves and only then will they trade away any excess. Some years, there will be no excess.

druid/wizard gestalt permancied good harvest spells...

[Beleriphon]

This leaves dwarves awfully vulnerable to famine and poor harvests.

If the crops are poor this year, the farmers are going to make sure they have enough to feed themselves and only then will they trade away any excess. Some years, there will be no excess.

It was generally implied that the dwarves, and Laketown (really the town of Bard I think) traded for lost of different things, food among them. The dwarves weren't relying entirely on a single town as their sole food source in reality. One could suppose up until the end of the Third Age that the human settlement was trading with places like Bree, Rohan or even Gondor.

[Belteshazzar]

Don't you know what gnomes are. They're just surface dwarves. Finding a gnomish farming community is a sure way to find an entrance to the dwarvish mines.

Now the nature of this entrance could be very difficult to find of course. Sometimes it is nothing more than a one way smooth-bore drop or slide going down for a mile or more. Food is regularly pushed down the slide into the darkness below and few know what lies at the bottom.

Other times it is a mountain Arcology with terraced sides like some kind of volcanic anthill. Gnomes grow crops amid the piles of slag, ash and stone chips while an eternal smoke rises from the central cone. Entering the main chimney would be suicidal as the heat would cook a man in an instant and the metallic fumes are most noxious to breath. The large side tunnels at the base would also be best avoided as a strong wind could almost suck a halfling in and those who enter seldom return.

[Fax Celestis]

I thought it would be obvious. Dwarves only have the racial enemy of orcs and goblinoids because they're the primary food source.

[brian c]

Maybe their digestive tracts have specially evolved over time to allow them to eat scrap metal?

Or more realistically they farm the slopes of their mountains/keep herds of goats and sheep there.

Ahem

Like this guy? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsieur_Mangetout)

[Kurald Galain]

If Terry Pratchett is to be believed then they enjoy a good rat on a stick, covered in gratuitous amounts of ketchup.

No, that's what they'll take if nothing better is available. However, what they'll all love is a good Dwarf Bread! Just like your mother used to hammer out.

[Doresain]

dwarves eat the children of elves...i thought this was already a well-known fact, but i guess i was wrong

[InkEyes]

Ahem

Like this guy? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsieur_Mangetout)

Awesome...

I want to be like that when I grow up...

[Iku Rex]

For that matter, where do they get their vitamin D from if they stay underground all the time?
Brewer's yeast (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewer's_yeast)

Due to its rapid metabolism, yeast contains a high concentration of the B vitamins, whose functions are related to metabolism, as well as other minerals and cofactors required for growth. It can therefore serve as a good dietary supplement of these nutrients. -- Wikipedia

[Hasivel]

Vitamin B <> Vitamin D.

Does the yeast have D too? I thought just about everything had to have some form of radiation to make D.

[Fiery Justice]

Moss is always good in sunless environments with cool air. Maybe they grow that. Mushrooms and similar are also good. Other staples could be grown in valley fields and/or imported.

[averagejoe]

For that matter, where do they get their vitamin D from if they stay underground all the time?

Tanning salons.

[Aquillion]

Plump helmets (http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Plump_helmet). At least, in Dwarf Fortress (http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/).

[....]

Vitamin B <> Vitamin D.

Does the yeast have D too? I thought just about everything had to have some form of radiation to make D.

Who says dwarves need vitamin D?

Who says they need anything besides beer to survive? They're not humans, there's no reason at all to assume they need the same things we do to survive.

I like Eoin Colfer's take on dwarves, they eat dirt and pull nutrients from the soil they eat.

[Iku Rex]

Vitamin B <> Vitamin D.Oops.
http://i8.tinypic.com/4p1ylwk.jpg

Does the yeast have D too? I thought just about everything had to have some form of radiation to make D.Yes, but apparently UV-radiation is needed.

[MrNexx]

Dragonlance's "Dragons of Autumn Twilight" went into the arrangements made by the mountain dwarves to some extent.

First of all, they were fortunate to have a cavern with a large vein of crystal which refracted sunlight down from the surface, which allowed them to do some farming indoors. They also grew beds of mushrooms and other fungi, and had some clans who were given over to farming the sides of Thorabardin, usually in secluded valleys without much exterior access (though the dwarves could, of course, come at them from the inside). These farmers also had livestock, mostly sheep and goats, who are pretty self-sufficient.

They DID trade with the humans at Pax Tharkas for food, but that was convenience; humans grew some things that they didn't, and grew it in greater amounts, and were eager for dwarven goods. If necessary, they could (and did) withdraw inside their mountain, living on domestic livestock (urquan worms and such) and the crops they could grow inside... it just wasn't as good as having full access to the outside.

As for the vitamin D issue, my bet is that the dwarves simply don't use it, or get what they need from other sources.

[Dervag]

For that matter, where do they get their vitamin D from if they stay underground all the time?Perhaps they do not need vitamin D because their biochemistry is different, or produce it in some fashion other than in sun-stimulated skin cells.


Although honestly the idea of smelting any kind of metal in an enclosed, poorly ventilated area strikes me as the worst sort of idea, so there's another thing that is probably done on the surface rather than underground.That, or dwarves are really good at ventilation.


Dwarf Battle Bread!It's great stuff, but they don't eat it.

Despite that, it can keep you fed for weeks, because you will eat anything, including stuff you would never normally think of as food, if it means staving off having to eat the dwarf bread for another day.


Ahem

Like this guy? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsieur_Mangetout)He ate a Cessna airplane!?

[MCerberus]

Dwarves can chemically create missing compounds they need using fermented cereal alcohols.

[Funkyodor]

Usually societies crave things that are not normally attainable. In our campaign we had standard Dwarf civillizations consuming Beers, Subterrainian animals & plants, insects, fungus, breads, and underground spices (mostly everything was heavily salted). What they craved were bright fruits and, to an extreme, seafood. Mostly shellfish. People could gain consideralbe wealth trading shrimp to Dwarves for gold & gemstones.

[Grynning]

I have lately adopted a "Dwarves are Scandinavian" stance on their fluff (mainly because I'm tired of everyone doing Scottish accents for their dwarves - thanks, WoW), so in my games, they eat lots of pickled food, eggs and bland bread, and drink mead and vodka. I would think that root vegetables like potatoes would be fairly easy to cultivate in most environments, so they would be fairly common to all races (assuming they exist, a crop that versatile would spread quickly in any low-tech world).
As a side-note, if you ever want to have some fun, bring some Lutefisk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutefisk) to a game and dare your players to eat it. Make sure you have some liquor on hand for them to wash it down with :smallamused:

[Zincorium]

As a side-note, if you ever want to have some fun, bring some Lutefisk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutefisk) to a game and dare your players to eat it. Make sure you have some liquor on hand for them to wash it down with :smallamused:

I still refuse to believe anything made with Lye was intended to be edible. Lutefisk is the progeny of some horrible prank.

[Ralfarius]

I was under the impression that the amount of vitamin D metabolized from sunlight was actually pretty small, and that as humans we get considerably more from, say, drinking milk and eating things like fish and eggs. Therefore, a lack of sunlight could be simply replaced with more consumption of Vitamin D rich foods.

[Gralamin]

I was under the impression that the amount of vitamin D metabolized from sunlight was actually pretty small, and that as humans we get considerably more from, say, drinking milk and eating things like fish and eggs. Therefore, a lack of sunlight could be simply replaced with more consumption of Vitamin D rich foods.

Sources for Vitamin D include: Sunlight, Cod Liver Oil, Fatty Fish, Mushrooms (If left in the sun for 5 minutes), Eggs, and possibly Yeast. Most Milk Companies artificially add Vitamin D to drinking milk these days.

[Clementx]

I was under the impression that the amount of vitamin D metabolized from sunlight was actually pretty small, and that as humans we get considerably more from, say, drinking milk and eating things like fish and eggs.
Then you have no idea how vitamin D works, then. You get none of it from sunlight. Your body must refine all of the D you eat using a UV-catalyzed reaction in your skin cells, along with two other steps, before it is transported to your small intestine to allow calcium absorption. So you can just say that dwarves don't need sunlight for calcium absorption, or that they all have rickets all the time, but their bones are so thick that it doesn't matter they are rather soft. You can't bend a 5 inch dictionary that is made of paper, after all.

[Leon]

Gnomes.
Why else would they put up with the lil buggers

[Lord Tataraus]

As a side-note, if you ever want to have some fun, bring some Lutefisk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutefisk) to a game and dare your players to eat it. Make sure you have some liquor on hand for them to wash it down with :smallamused:

That is the most disgusting food I have ever heard of, and people actually eat that?!?!

As for the vitamin D thing, why can't dwarves be less than midgit humans and just not need it?

[Fuum Bango]

I like to think of dwarves as masters of industry and construstion, so I think they'd do all sorts of crazy things to keep their people feed, like;

- Diverting rivers into underground channels that flood "farm-chambers" every month to grow edible fungus.
- Trapping surface animals and then breeding them for underground life. Horses have been known to help in mines before.
- Herding groups of underground animals. If the animals are dangerous perhaps they lead them to chasms and knock them off the edge, gathering the bodies when they need to eat.
- Mining underneath a forest and sending gathering parties weekly.
- It's a fantasy world, perhaps birds and fish and a whole host of animals live down the mines.
- Stealing from goblin and orc outposts, taking a foes means of survival and feeding the kids? Priceless.

[Iku Rex]

Then you have no idea how vitamin D works, then. You get none of it from sunlight. Your body must refine all of the D you eat using a UV-catalyzed reaction in your skin cells, along with two other steps, before it is transported to your small intestine to allow calcium absorption. I doubt if that's true. Cite?

[Iku Rex]

That is the most disgusting food I have ever heard of, and people actually eat that?!?!
Speaking of disgusting food: Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hákarl .

It's shark-meat left to rot for a few months, then dried out. For some reason it's usually accompanied with strong booze...

[Lord Tataraus]

Speaking of disgusting food: Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hákarl .

It's shark-meat left to rot for a few months, then dried out. For some reason it's usually accompanied with strong booze...

WHY???? Why do people eat this stuff when it is so disgusting? Sure somethings have acquired tastes, but this is almost poison!

[Tor the Fallen]

The archetypical mining dwarves. Where do they get the food to support their population? Do they have extensive aboveground farming and hunting lands? Or do they gnaw on subterranean mushrooms, like goblins?

I think of dwarves as hard-drinkin', hard eatin' guys, with lots of feasts with beer, venison, and whatnot. I can't picture them eating lots of mushrooms, but it's conceivable. But it's pretty canonical that they drink a lot: do they keep bees for the mead? grow grain and hops? I've never seen reference to lots of dwarven farmers.

Perhaps they trade their gold and gems for human-grown foodstuffs? That conflicts a little with the isolationist dwarven stereotype, but I guess it's a possibility.

Trade?

asgdgagafhdhafdafhd

[MrNexx]

I still refuse to believe anything made with Lye was intended to be edible. Lutefisk is the progeny of some horrible prank.

Realize there is a Norwegian dish, attested to in historical sources, which consists of rotted shark liver.

When the sun doesn't shine for 3 months, and then doesn't set for 3 more, you do what you can for nourishment.

[Rex Blunder]

Trade?

asgdgagafhdhafdafhd

i'm not sure what you mean. My guess is either
"Trade? [gagging noise] No dwarf would trade"
or
"I cast my vote in with the people who think dwarves trade for food. Now, how to meet the post-length minimum?"

[Stormcrow]

Maybe they have Rothe, underdark cattle. :)

[Beleriphon]

i'm not sure what you mean. My guess is either
"Trade? [gagging noise] No dwarf would trade"
or
"I cast my vote in with the people who think dwarves trade for food. Now, how to meet the post-length minimum?"

There's a minimum post length so the extra characters are meant to fill that out.

[Laurellien]

All those dwarven clerics just keep up the castings of create food and water, and heroes feast.

[Prophaniti]

the Vitamin D issue: Dwarves have a different physiology than humans. Obviously they produce vitamin D naturally. the vitamins we are familiar with are simply the amino acids that HUMANS need from outside sources. We make plenty of others internally, so why shouldnt dwarves produce D and instead need vitamin G or W from a food source?

If you've read RA Salvatore you know that most dwarves are open to trying anything to eat, and while giant brains(!) may not taste so good, they've likely found some other creatures they regularly fight to be pretty tasty. There are quite a few underground denizens to choose from. I'll bet barbacued roper is a hit with them!

Likely, though, they do get a lot of their foodstuffs through trade. They are miners, after all, and have precious metals and rare stones coming out their ears in the same manner that a human farmer has corn potatoes and salted pork. Dwarves thrive on trade and it seems logical that one of the hot imports would be foodstuffs ordinarily inaccessible to them, such as the aforementioned seafood.

[AslanCross]

He ate a Cessna airplane!?
Bit by bit. I think he was touring the world lugging along the dismantled plane. He finished it eventually.




If you've read RA Salvatore you know that most dwarves are open to trying anything to eat, and while giant brains(!) may not taste so good....

Ugh, I remember that. Bruenor wiped it straight off his axe. >_<

[Prometheus]

Trade mostly
Subterranean cattle/rodents
Anything that you find in the Monster Manual with environment listed as underground and isn't humanoid or undead.

[Manticorkscrew]

Well, there are animals that only live underground in real life, but they tend to be blind, pale, wormy things.

I think the descriptions of Dwarves have been exaggerated over the years. They were originally great miners and smiths, yes, and that aspect of them has been greatly emphasised. In the Lord of the Rings they have entire underground fortresses, but there are extracts from the Fellowship of the Ring that suggested to me that the Dwarves of Moria gathered most of their food above ground (or was it just that "red meat" line from the film?) I'll find some citations. I think the idea that Dwarves only live in the dark and get all their food underground is a result of Flanderization (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Flanderization).

[Renrik]

Anyway, the farmers of the dwarven race are probably those too bumbling or clumsy to work in hazardous or fine artisan occupations, which is why you don't get much mention of them.


Oh, yeah, because obviously farmers are bumbling, clumsy, country bumpkins. Completely unskilled of course. God only knows how much harder it is to swing a peice of sharpened metal at a rock until it breaks then to plow a feild, hoe the ground, plant a bunch of seeds, weed the feild, set up an irrigation system, tend the plants, and harvest the crop, not to mention animal husbandry or marketing of the crop. Don't insult farmers with your mouth full.

As for what dwarves eat?

babies, of course.

[Bluelantern]

I don't think that trading is exactly a good source, food is a too basic survival element, no matter how good the weapons that dwarves do they would likely to be slaved. My vote is for underground farms with fungus or maybe semi-magical underground plants. :smallannoyed:

[Enlong]

Why, they eat Yumyuck Moss (http://goblinscomic.com/d/20060310.html), of course!

[Zincorium]

Oh, yeah, because obviously farmers are bumbling, clumsy, country bumpkins. Completely unskilled of course. God only knows how much harder it is to swing a peice of sharpened metal at a rock until it breaks then to plow a feild, hoe the ground, plant a bunch of seeds, weed the feild, set up an irrigation system, tend the plants, and harvest the crop, not to mention animal husbandry or marketing of the crop. Don't insult farmers with your mouth full.

*kicks strawman when he's down*

I didn't like him much either.

IF dwarves do not ever talk about farmers (and thus there is no mention of them), and sing the praises of a wide spectrum of other manual, even unskilled labor (everything from miners) THEN it is perfectly reasonable to assume that farmers are considered a lower class of dwarves by their society than those other professions. This has no bearing on the actual value of the professions.

However, a dwarf who is above average in skill or talent is far more likely to go into a profession where those skills will earn him praise (weaponsmith, say) than one that will lead to his name being forgotten in the songs of the dwarves.

So I find it quite reasonable to theorize that the only dwarves which remain among the ranks of the unmentionable farmers and shepherds are those who cannot win their way out of the ranks somehow or are somehow perversely proud of their status.


As a side note, farming is not that complex of a task when compared to, say, scouting out new mineral finds, which requires a significant bank of knowledge in the field of geology and to be successful the dwarven surveyor would also need to be able to examine the area itself and determine whether it can be safely and profitably excavated.

A poorly trained farmer can still, on good land, raise a consistent crop year after year with just a basic knowledge of how it works. With dwarves, this probably consists of 'mess up dirt, stick seeds in dirt, water occasionally, and then harvest'.

[Kultrum]

Dwarves don't eat they are reverse-photosynthetic. They take in darkness and CO2 to make simple sugars from it.

[Neek]

As a side note, farming is not that complex of a task when compared to, say, scouting out new mineral finds, which requires a significant bank of knowledge in the field of geology and to be successful the dwarven surveyor would also need to be able to examine the area itself and determine whether it can be safely and profitably excavated.

A poorly trained farmer can still, on good land, raise a consistent crop year after year with just a basic knowledge of how it works. With dwarves, this probably consists of 'mess up dirt, stick seeds in dirt, water occasionally, and then harvest'.

A skilled farmer is no less skilled than a miner. It took 3000 years from the discovery of agriculture to form civilizations built on this concept. Being a farmer is a miserable job, anyway. You work far harder than hunter-gatherers, but your yield is greater; you can produce more food than your family could possibly ever eat. By using a collective grain surplus, you can afford specialized work forces that don't farm all day.

Devoting an entire nation to mining requires a large basis in agriculture to feed the amount of people. You can accomplish this in two ways: the unspoken way trade of farming of dwarves, or the fact that the dwarves have subjugated so many other nations, that they produce the grain necessary to feed the populace.

Generally, mining is such a back-breaking, hazardous job, it was traditionally left to slaves. There is no skill to being a miner. There is, however, skill in knowing where the veins lie, and what metals are worth smelting and what is not are. Smelting that into a workable material is a skill, and forging that into workable material is.

In my campaign world, I treat the dwarves and mining the same way the Romans were about pastoralism: The dwarves glorify it, but hardly ever have their own hands in it. They mostly use orc or goblin-based slave labor to gather food and mine, while they enjoy the profit it's made them. The lower class mines and makes their own food themselves, quite creatively too (one session I ran them through an goblin infested, abandoned mining camp, it featured a greenhouse built in, but enjoyed the trade from others for food).