I saw this post on Facebook the other day and it spurred a few thoughts.
First, I think it’s a humorous comparison and agree the resemblance is a little striking, down to the unique lip curls, thin upper lip, thick lower lip, furrowed brow, spiky hair on a huge dome of head. The nose ain’t too far off either.
Second, I thought I’d take a page from Bill’s book and look into the etymology:
Dallin = of the dale
Harris = son of Harry/Henry or son of a ruler
Oaks = oaks
This all made be think of Thorin Oakenshield who was also “of the dale” (we could cite the city of Dale near the Lonely Mountain or his connections to the Dimrill dale at Moria where he earned the Oakenshied moniker), son of a ruler (his king father), and associated with oak. And of course I suspect a lot of the early Mormons and their descendants are Gentiles and therefore dwarves. This would in theory be doubly true of Mormon leadership such as Oaks.
But what of the sun stone? There are no serious connections with dwarves and the Anor or sun stone palantir that I can find. However, there is a connection between Oakenshield and the Arkenstone which seems to be somewhat sun-stone-like. In fact, there are theories that the Arkenstone is the silmaril that was thrown deep into the earth at the end of the FA, although Tolkien apparently rejected that idea in a letter.
Regardless, the arkenstone was buried with Thorin at Erebor so perhaps it could have significance in a latter day Gentile prophecy. It was said the arkenstone would lie there “until the mountain falls” which sort of suggests it would then come out again. Maybe like a stone cut out of a mountain without hands. And maybe looking rather like a sun of sorts.
This gets me thinking of Nauvoo temple imagery which featured, crescent moons at the base, then the more famous and more obviously anthropomorphized (although the crescent moon seems to show a side profile face) sun stones well above. Slightly further are star symbols.
This looks to me like the basic set up of Moria. As a reminder, here is the side profile showing the doors of Moria on the left at the base of the mountain.
The most well known image of those doors is this
No moon. But let us not forget that the doors were illuminated by moonlight and in fact were invisible in sunlight. And the original drawing was this next image which has two crescent moons. And in fact you can see on the right side a revised drawing that shows the moon more attached to the featured trees.
Going back to the Silvertine drawing, on the right side of the mountain you have the sunlight shaft and Great Gates known as the Dawn Gates that faced East and bathed the interior kingdown in sunlight. The Dawn Gates are obviously higher up than the doors of Moria so we’re still in good order with the celestial bodies.
And lastly far at the top, you have Durin’s Tower. Durin is famous for having peered into the Mirrormere and saw a constellation of 7 stars forming a crown which is featured prominently on both drawings of the doors of Moria. That’s a solid link to stars. But I think better proof is that Gandalf cites stars in the ruin of Durin’s Tower after defeating the Balrog:
“There I lay staring upward, while the stars wheeled over, and each day was as long as a life-age of the earth.”
So Gandalf experiences the stars at the top of Moria’s peak.
Anyway, it doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch to match the order of celestial bodies depicted on the nauvoo temple to the order represented at Moria.
Let us not forget the endless stair shown on the Silvertine drawing, a very long spiral staircase. Well wouldn’t you know, the Nauvoo temple was famous for its spiral staircases:
The way it’s designed looking from the bottom, it sorta looks…Endless…doesn’t it?
In Gandalf’s experience at Moria we see a fulfillment of what the Nauvoo temple experience was supposed to be. Gandalf enters at ground level, descends to the depths, is baptized, then ascends a winding stair, encountering and confronting the devil as he goes, once he reaches the top, he encounters God. That is, after all, what Joseph Smith clearly had in mind for his Saints. Too bad they failed to build the temple before JS was gone I guess.
Not sure how it all ties back to Dallin Oaks. Is he possibly Oakenshield reborn? Returned to reclaim Moria? Will he get his arkenstone back? Does it even matter anymore?
Who knows, man. Probably not. But I still can’t shake this idea that the Dwarves=Gentiles=OG Mormons. That staircase kinda seals the deal for me.