The Petty-dwarves. See also Note 7. The Eldar did not at first recognize these as Incarnates, for they seldom caught sight of them in clear light. They only became aware of their existence indeed when they attacked the Eldar by stealth at night, or if they caught them alone in wild places. The Eldar therefore thought that they were a kind of cunning two-legged animals living in caves, and they called them Levain tad-dail, or simply Tad-dail, and they hunted them. But after the Eldar had made the acquaintance of the Naugrim, the Tad-dail were recognized as a variety of Dwarves and were left alone. There were then few of them surviving, and they were very wary, and too fearful to attack any Elf, unless their hiding-places were approached too nearly. The Sindar gave them the names Nogotheg ‘Dwarflet’, or Nogoth niben ‘Petty Dwarf’.20

The great Dwarves despised the Petty-dwarves, who were (it is said) the descendants of Dwarves who had left or been driven out from the Communities, being deformed or undersized, or slothful and rebellious. But they still acknowledged their kinship and resented any injuries done to them. Indeed it was one of their grievances against the Eldar that they had hunted and slain their lesser kin, who had settled in Beleriand before the Elves came there. This grievance was set aside, when treaties were made between the Dwarves and the Sindar, in consideration of the plea that the Petty-dwarves had never declared themselves to the Eldar, nor presented any claims to land or habitations, but had at once attacked the newcomers in darkness and ambush. But the grievance still smouldered, as was later seen in the case of Mîm, the only Petty-dwarf who played a memorable part in the Annals of Beleriand.

The Noldor, for use in Quenya, translated these Sindarin names for the Petty-dwarves by Attalyar ‘Bipeds', and Pikinau-kor or Pitya-naukor.

"Квэнди и Эльдар", HoME XI, стр. 388-389

Ну как вам сказать....
Если Финрод ни в чем не виноват, то получается что Серые Эльфы, (А это и Тингол и Тургон и Кирдан со товарищи)

deformed or undersized

Нол я продолжаю не понимать: эльфы что, этих Малых гномов никогда не видели? Умудрившись истребить почти подчистую? Ну, если, увидев Великих гномов, признали, что эти вот - их родня, значит, видели. Теперь глупый вопрос еще раз: ну, хорошо, мастерство Малых гномов пришло в упадок, все дела, это нам понятно. Но, еще раз: никакое животное, хоть двадцать раз хитрое, не носит одежды. Или Малые гномы голыми ходили, а у эльфов так мало знания физиологии?..

Note 7 (p. 377).
The Dwarves were in a special position. They claimed to have known Beleriand before even the Eldar first came there; and there do appear to have been small groups dwelling furtively in the highlands west of Sirion from a very early date: they attacked and waylaid the Elves by stealth, and the Elves did not at first recognize them as Incarnates, but thought them to be some kind of cunning animal, and hunted them. By their own account they were fugitives, driven into the wilderness by their own kin further east, and later they were called the Noegyth Nibin (32) or Petty-dwarves, for they had become smaller than the norm of their kind, and filled with hate for all other creatures. When the Elves met the powerful Dwarves of Nogrod and Belegost, in the eastern side of the Mountains, they recognized them as Incarnates, for they had skill in many crafts, and learned the Elvish speech readily for purposes of traffic.

1250.
$19. In this year the Norn-folk came first over the mountains
into Beleriand. This people the Noldor after named the
Naugrim, whom some Men call Dwarves. Their most ancient
dwellings were far to the East, but they had delved for
themselves great halls and mansions, after the manner of their
kind, on the east-side of Eryd Luin, north and south of Mount
Dolmed, in those places which the Eldar named Belegost and
Nogrod (but.they Gabilgathol and Tumunzahar). Thence they
now came forth and made themselves known to the Elves; and
the Elves were amazed, for they had deemed themselves to be
the only living things in Middle-earth that spoke with words or
wrought with hands; and that all others were beasts and birds
only.

$20. Nonetheless they could understand no word of the
tongue of the Naugrim, which to their ears was cumbrous and
unlovely; and few ever of the Eldar have achieved the mastery of
it. But the Dwarves were swift to learn (after a fashion), and
indeed were more willing to learn the Elven-tongue than to
teach to aliens their own; and soon there was much parley
between the peoples. Ever cool was their friendship, though
much profit they had one of the other. But at that time those
griefs that lay between them had not yet come to pass, and they
were welcomed by King Thingol.

$21. How the Dwarves came into the world the Eldar know
not for certain, though the loremasters have elsewhere recorded
the tales of the Naugrim themselves (such as they would reveal)
concerning their beginning. They say that Aule the Maker,
whom they call Mahal, brought them into being; and however
that may be, certain it is that they were great smiths and
masons, though of old there was little beauty in their works.
Iron and copper they loved to work more than silver or gold,
and stone more than wood.

Нолдор наблюдали результат.

И вообще, в Арде у нас нет эволюции.