Dwarves
Shorter and stockier than Elves and Men, Dwarves are able to withstand both heat and cold. Though they are mortal, Dwarves have an average lifespan of 250 years. They breed slowly, for no more than a third of them are female, and not all marry; also, female Dwarves look and sound so alike to Dwarf-males that other folk cannot distinguish them, and thus others wrongly believe Dwarves grow out of stone. Women and men dwarves both have beards. They are great metalworkers, smiths and stoneworkers. Fierce in battle, their main weapons are axes, bows, swords, shields, and mattocks.
Elves
The first creatures in Middle-Earth. Immortal unless killed in battle, they are fair-faced, with beautiful voices, and have a close communion with nature, which makes them wonderful craftsmen. There are actually two different varieties of elves: the wood elves and the high elves. The wood elves reside in Mirkwood and, as a result, have more suspicious and less wise tendencies than their high relatives.
Humans
Humans appear in the settlement of Lake Town near the Lonely Mountain. Tolkien emphasizes their mortality, their lack of wisdom, their discordance with nature, and their rampant feuding, but he does not describe humans as inherently evil in the same way that he characterizes goblins and Wargs.
Orcs/Gobblins
A race of creatures who are used as soldiers and henchmen by Morgoth, Sauron, and Saruman. Although not entirely dim-witted and occasionally crafty, they are portrayed as miserable beings, hating everyone including themselves and their masters, whom they serve out of fear. They make no beautiful things, but rather design cunning devices made to hurt and destroy. They are believed to have once been elves.