"It is told that in their beginning the Dwarves were made by Aulë in the darkness of Middle-Earth; for so greatly did Aulë desire the coming of the Children, to have learners to whom he could teach his lore and his crafts, that he was unwilling to await the fulfilment of the design of Ilúvatar."

Therefore Aulë made the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves in his hall under the mountains of Middle-Earth. But although he kept them hidden, Ilúvatar soon found out what Aulë had done, and he said to him :

"Why hast thou done this ? Why dost thou attempt a thing which thou knowest is beyond thy power and thou authority ? For thou hast from me as a gift thy own being only, and no more, and therefore the creatures of thy hand and mind can live only by that being; moving when thou thinkest to move them and if thy thought be else where standing idle. Is that thy desire ?"

Aulë was sad now and already wanted to destroy the dwarves again, but Ilúvatar had compassion with him. He allowed Aulë to keep the dwarves but he also told him that the Dwarves should sleep until the Children of Ilúvatar would awake. Then the dwarves would awake, too.

Aulë now laid the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves down to sleep and returned to Valinor. There he told Yavanna what had happened and Yavanna said to him:

"Eru is merciful. Now I see that thy heart rejoiceth, as indeed it may, for thou hast recieved not only forgiveness but bounty. Yet because thou hiddest this thought from me until ist achievement thy children will have little love for the things of my love. They will love first the things made by their own hands, as doth their father. They will delve in the earth and the things that grow and live upon the earth they will not heed. Many a tree shall feel the bite of their iron without pitty !"

Aulë now answered that also the Children of Ilúvatar would eat and build and that Ilúvatar will give them dominion over all things that Yavanna had made. Yavanna, hearing this, was sad and asked Manwë if that was true. Manwë admitted that Aulë was right. He asked Yavanna what she would reserve if she had a choice and she answered:

"And among these I hold trees dear. Long in the growing, swift shall they be in the felling and unless they pay toll with fruit upon bough little mourned in their passing. So I see in my thought. Would that the trees might speak or behalf of all things that have roots, und punish those that wrong them !"

Manwë thought about that for a long time and he finally answered that when the Children of Ilúvatar would awake, also Yavanna's thought would awake and it would call spirits which would live among the trees and guard them. These spirits would be the Sheperds of the Trees. Manwë also said that even before the Children of Ilúvatar would awake, the Eagles would raise.