Sophia Nomvete On The Groundbreaking Female Dwarven Representation In Rings Of Power - Exclusive
Dwarves are a major part of "The Hobbit" story. They outnumber Bilbo 13 to one, and the entire quest revolves around the recovery of their ancient home. Once you get to "The Lord of the Rings," the short-statured people are less prominent, but there's still a solid dose of Dwarvish presence, primarily in the form of Gimli, son of Glóin. Throughout all of those stories, though, there's one group of Dwarves that is conspicuously missing from the conversation: Dwarven women.
The only mention of Dwarf-women in the movies is when Gimli provides some comical context for the backstory of the women of his people in "The Two Towers" extended edition. In the books, the primary mention comes in the appendix of "The Return of the King" (which Prime Video happens to have the rights to adapt into their story). It says that "Dís was the daughter of Thráin II. She is the only Dwarf-woman named in these histories. It was said by Gimli that there are few Dwarf-women, probably no more than a third of the whole people." It adds that they look much like Dwarf-men, and their scarcity impacts the Dwarvish population — adding, "Not all the women take husbands: some desire none; some desire one that they cannot get, and so will have no other."
Information is light regarding Dwarf-women, but it's a gap that the folks behind "Rings of Power" have had to fill in order to get their story to work. We had a chance to sit down with Sophia Nomvete, who plays the dwarf-woman Disa in the show, to see what kind of effort went into the first serious appearance of a female Dwarf on the silver screen.
Rings of Power's Dwarf-women are inspired by a combination of factors
We asked actress Sophia Nomvete how the folks at "Rings of Power" came up with a female Dwarven character with the handful of factoids Tolkien actually wrote. The answer that the actress gave pointed to the need to build a character from the ground up.
"It's been absolutely incredible. It's been a complete joy because we have those small little trinkets and pieces of information, but it also means that we've been able to work from the ground up and to be able to shine a light on all the strengths and necessities of the female Dwarves within the world of Tolkien."
The British actress added that shaping the character took a unique combination of drawing information from both the source material and the real world. "We have drawn on everything that we know about strong, empowered women," she said, "and we have been able to draw on everything we know about Middle-earth, Dwarves, and Khazad-dûm and create an explosion that is Princess Disa."
From the footage seen so far, there's no doubt that Disa is a powerhouse character that represents a strong, empowered, and explosive Dwarven personality. It's an appropriate image for the better half of a race that is famously strong-willed and independent.
Check out "Rings of Power" on Amazon Prime. The first two episodes of the first season are available September 2, followed by weekly single-episode releases.