 Tolkien's original conception was that all Dwarves were greedy, treacherous and unable to create works of beauty without aid.This was so different from their characteristics that evolved in later stories that he felt obliged to describe the Dwarves in these earlier stories as a separate race, the Petty-dwarves.By the time of the War of the Jewels, after the return of the Noldor, the Petty-dwarves had nearly died out.