Aslan's Army

Red Dwarfs

Dwarfs! Short, stout, but hardy and excellent at smithery (envy them, most of us don’t have a hauberk to throw on now and then).

There hasn't been much footage of red dwarfs so far. From the trailer screencaps we can gather, the dwarfs wear short sleeved tunics of red or gold and sleeveless mail shirts with red leather belts. Underneath their round pointed helmets they wear red leather caplets.

We also have one rather unreliable action figure image of a dwarf in red with gold armor.

A frontal picture of the dwarfs has been released in a couple of the companion books. They appear to be a completely different race, with reddish skin to match their red hair. See a scan here.

For a while, we could only get images of the dwarf's shield. Then we saw several dwarf weapons in the prop displays at the Narnia sneak peek! Unfortunately, my pictures didn't turn out well, but we're working with images from other sources.

The dwarfs bear bows and quivers, axes, and short swords. Their weapons are almost identical in shape to the weapons of their black dwarf counterparts, but the metals are less blackened, the leathers and woods are lighter, and the weapons have accents of gold.

Tunics

We've had it from Stansborough Fibres that the Red Dwarf tunics were made from their "Stansborough Grey" wool - the same as was used for the Lord of the Rings Fellowship Cloaks. Come back for more on the tunics later!

Armor

The red dwarfs wear sleeveless mail hauberks. The hauberks are long and taper to a point in the front and back, and they look like they are made with double rings. They also wear a mail collar of gold rings and covered with two plates, one for the upper chest and one in back. The helmets are smooth and softly pointed at the top, inlaid with gold. The dwarfs also wear red leather vambraces.

Shield

Made up of six planks of wood bound with light brown leather on the outside, this round buckler also has a strip of metal around the edges, held by eight rivets. A large metal boss is in the center, with a darker brown design surrounding it, the same as the design just inside the metal edge. The back has two leather holds riveted down, for the arm to slip through then grasp the handhold.

Sword

The dwarf sword is short and straight. The blade is a curved leaf-like shape, somewhat like Frodo's sword "Sting" in The Lord of the Rings. A deep fuller runs down the middle of the blade. The hilt is red with a gold engraved guard and pommel, and the gold guard slants back toward the hand from the handgrip. The sheath is medium brown leather wrapped with bands of dark leather and has a gold locket (mouth) and chape (tip).

Axe

The axe is almost exactly like a black dwarf's in shape. The grip is light wood, some bound with reddish-brown leather, and the blade has a gold celtic-style inlay.

Bow and Quiver

The red dwarf bows are sharply recurved. From their shape and thickness, they are meant primarily for long-range shooting. The bows are short with thick limbs and red grips.

The arrows are medium-varnished wood bound with black. The fletches (feathers) are red or very dark brown and differ in shape; some are very large, called "flu-flus" (believe it or not) meant for bird shooting, and others are a simple shield shape. The nocks are silver and the points are steel broadheads, hollow in the middle.

The quiver is stiff and rectangular-shaped, covered with dark brown leather and edged with silver.

Screencaps

Props

Action Figure