What if Dwarves but...Tolkien?

   Everybody with the itch to worldbuild has done it. Heck, I've done it...you take the D&D standard races, and then add that twist:
  "What if elves but...Vulcan?"
  "What if halfings but...savage?"
  "What if orcs but...beast-men?"
​  Most of these portrayals are riffing on a mental image of the given species that owes a lot of the Lord of the Rings, more the movies than the books but the books too. Gygax's own adventures owed a lot more to Howard than Tolkien, but his fantasy races were straight out of Middle Earth. Tropes aren't bad, but it's also fine to vary things up...but then there's the poor dwarves. All dwarves are always the same.
  I think the real problem is that in Lord of the Rings we have multiple hobbits, multiple elves, and even multiple orcs, but the only dwarf that makes any impression at all is Gimli, son of Glóin. Now don't get me wrong, I like Book Gimli, he's a deep and dynamic character, and I have a lot of fondness for John Rhys-Davies' performance in the movies even as cartoonish as it is...but it means every fantasy dwarf is riffing off of one particular character; axe-wielding, elf-suspecting, battle-loving, and boastful. This tends to flatten them out. Why not add more depth from the stereotypical dwarves with...Tolkien. 
  Tolkien's dwarves were not typically warrior folk, for all that Gimli was a fighter. In the earlier ages we see dwarves that are treacherous curse-smiths, dwarves that are haughty merchants, and more than anything else dwarves as craftsmen of wonder and art. Rather than dank and dim halls seen in Fellowship, dwarves live in places of astonishing brightness. From their own Song of Durin, they lived in a place:
With golden roof and silver floor,
And runes of power upon the door.
The light of sun and star and moon
In shining lamps of crystal hewn
Undimmed by cloud or shade of night
There shone for ever fair and bright.
  Dwarves boast of halls that are more consistently bright and well-lit than the dark halls of men or elves (who are also often dwelling underground). The distinctive instrument of the dwarves? The harp. Far from the Klingon-esque "standard" dwarves of fantasy, Tolkien's dwarves seemed to be obsessed with making the most beautiful instruments imaginable, always singing songs. Most dwarves aren't axe-wielding berserkers in full plate; in Tolkien they're Germanic craftsmen more passionate about making beautiful things than silly steampunk/mechanical contraptions. And most of them use swords and bows, as is only sensible. 
  Entering dwarven territories (which aren't just underground, but also mountainous pasturelands and villages), why not fill the hillsides with resonant songs and the sound of harps? When bringing the party to meet the King Under the Mountain, why not have him be surrounded in crystals so bright that the PCs have to squint? And when they offend him (because they're players, of course they'll offend him), maybe he'll spit out a curse in song?

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