The Myths Just Keep Coming

This story is part of the same myth sequence as Lighting Up The Night. It tells the story of Hurin’s creation of the dwarves. Enjoy.

Steel Forged Souls

One day, Hurin became weary of his one room workshop deep in the earth. He decided to carve himself a true home. The god of earth and stone expanded tunnels into rooms. He created galleries of statues of fantastic beings, both real and imagined. Vast bas-reliefs covered the walls; each one a magnificent scene of nature or the heavens. Twenty bedrooms graced the first floor alone. The festhall could hold a hundred. The kitchen could feed that and more.

Hurin lost himself in the act of creation. In a trance he tunneled into a massive cavern and just kept going. Dwellings and workshops came into being. He tapped a spring, which fed fountains, a canal system and a massive bathhouse. The stalags, both mite and tite, where hollowed out and connected by graceful bridges. Marble of many colors paved the streets and the cavern ceiling was illuminated by enchanted stones. He created parks and even a labyrinth.

Hurin stopped to survey his work. The cavern had been transformed. What had started as a house became a city. The city was marvelous, every structure a study in excellence. And yet…Something was missing. The city was an empty vessel. The only sounds that could be heard was that of water flowing. Without people it was little better than a life-size model. To be a true city it would need people.

Searching for inspiration, he returned to his workshop. Two blocks of brown granite caught his attention. Already he could see the true shape of the stone; he only had to release it. Hammer and chisel in hand, he removed the extraneous stone as another would unwrap a gift. The blocks were soon transformed, two figures stood in their place. A man and a woman made in his image, short in stature but powerful of limb. They embodied the power of the earth.

Their basic form completed, Hurin worked to make them unique. The man was given a mane of burnished copper and a beard of like material. The woman was gifted golden tresses. Searching through his hoard of gems, Hurin selected an emerald and a garnet. The stones were split in twain and polished to perfection. The garnets became the woman’s eyes. The emeralds were likewise given to the man. Their physical forms complete, Hurin started on their souls. He took two blocks of the purest steel and heated them in a pool of magma. Once heated, he started on the long process of forging. The steel was flattened and folded over and over. When it would start to cool it would be thrust back in the magma. The other would then be removed and treated the same way. As he hammered the steel, Hurin invested it with a small spark of his divinity.

Hurin flattened, folded and reheated the steel for three days. When he finished, the steel was once again in two block shapes. The shape didn’t matter, only the tempering. The blocks hummed with inner power, the power of life and intelligence. Carefully, Hurin pressed the blocks to the foreheads of his creations. The steel entered without resistance and disappeared without a mark. Hurin willed his creations to life. Both statues quivered as his will was done. The stone became flesh and blood; still chests moved with breath. The two now living beings gasped their first breaths and looked upon their creator in awe.

Hurin examined his creations, his children. Their flesh possessed the earth’s strength. Souls of tempered steel granted them unbending will. Their eyes of stone cut through the gloom.

Proud of his children, Hurin named them Dwar’un and Dwar’a, man and woman. His creations in turn named him Soulforger. They would be the progenitors of his chosen people. He would teach them the secrets of the earth and forge. In a few short centuries, the city he made would bustle with life and purpose. Lar-ise became a little less empty.