QUESTIONS AND INFORMATION
QUESTION: Did Lothrin and Giznik immediately get along, or was there any tension between the two when they first met due to the often contentious relationship between Dwarves and Elves?
ANSWER: This is something I’ve never thought about before, so thank you for giving me this opportunity. Since this is untreaded territory for me, I’ll just talk about what my speculations are.
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Lothrin and Giznik met at an early point in both their lives, with Giznik being 61 and Lothrin close to 500. Giznik at 61 was way younger than Kili is in the Hobbit and Kili was already considered barely a young adult, mostly a teenager. Lothrin was close to 500, so she was even younger than Tauriel who at 600 was once again barely considered an adult. Through a modern equivalent, the way I imagine Lothrin and Giznik’s relationship is just two 16-year-olds getting into fun shenanigans through the mines.
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Concerning elf-dwarf relations, most of the tensions have already been ironed out since Eregion and Khazad-dum had such close trade and diplomatic ties, so much so that their lords Narvi and Celebrimbor were such bffs that they made the door to Khazad-dum together. That’s truly inspirational. If the lords of the realms were such good friends, I can totally speculate that friendships between more “commoner” dwarves and elves were also more common.
One point I would like to address is that one of the big complaints coming from the Hobbit movies was that: Kili and Tauriel’s friendship cheapens the one of Legolas and Gimli. This is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard. You don’t hear anyone saying Celebrimbor and Narvi’s friendship ruins Legolas and Gimli’s bond, or the same thing but concerning Caranthir and the dwarves of Nogrod. I stand firm in my stance that the more examples of friendships between dwarves and elves in Middle-earth, the better.
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So, by the time Lothrin left her realm and journeyed to Khazad-dum, the relations between dwarves and elves have been pretty strong for quite a while. Eregion and Khazad-dum collaborated a lot on a diverse range of projects from jewelry to construction, so the presence of a Nandor elf from Lindorinand didn’t raise any questions.
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The way the two met was quite straightforward. The elven embassy in Khazad-dum thought that who better to introduce a young elf to dwarven culture than a young dwarf? Giznik was assigned to Lothrin and that’s how their friendship started. There was however some tension coming from Giznik’s father, Asnaz. Asnaz was quite unhappy that his wife Gizna (who was a diplomat) had disappeared while en-route to Eregion some years ago and no one was able to find her or her entourage.
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Asnaz grew more bitter and bitter and blamed the elves for the disappearance of his wife. He resented that his son had an elven friend and this situation escalated to the point that right before the destruction of Eregion, Giznik and Asnaz fell out and Giznik left Khazad-dum forever, never to return. He traveled north with Lothrin and the refugees of Eregion, helped at the construction of Imladris, then moved to Ered Luin where his descendants dwell to this day.