But seriously, ever since Baldur's Gate, Hevery blohdie Dwarrrfh has tha saaame axe-cent!
So why the trope? Surely, UK game players would know.
So why the trope? Surely, UK game players would know.
General / Off-Topic Why is every RPG Dwarf from Scotland?
- Thread starter Robin of Spiritwood
- Start date
If they were proper dwarves they'd be called black-elves and speak Norse.
It's one of the things that happen, what other accent would you use to give an English-speaking voice to violent drunkards?
It's one of the things that happen, what other accent would you use to give an English-speaking voice to violent drunkards?
Deleted member 110222
D
I wouldn't mind being a dwarf.
Quasimodo was French, though not a Dwarf. The Black Elf theory sounds good: is "Dwarf" derived from "Svart-alf" ?
Wouldn't something like Icelandic be more fitting? It's an interesting accent when spoken English too 
This +1.
Reading the Hobbit, I'd always imagined them having Scandinavian accents (really just based on the names of the dwarfs) but John Rhys-Davies' Scottish accent put paid to that.
Broad Somerset accents would be great too.
Actually I always imagined dwarves' accents to be from Wales.
I am sure that I'm not the only one; Pratchett gave definite Welsh idioms etc to some of his dwarves and I always read the Hobbit as having the lilting edge of the valleys in those dwarves. (Similarly I always imagined the sing-song cadences of the islands in the speech of Elves.)
I am sure that I'm not the only one; Pratchett gave definite Welsh idioms etc to some of his dwarves and I always read the Hobbit as having the lilting edge of the valleys in those dwarves. (Similarly I always imagined the sing-song cadences of the islands in the speech of Elves.)
It was the Elves as 'welsh' in my mind as i read the hobbit and LotR, the names and magic and such (the Mabinogion is full of 'elf like' stuff).
I wonder when a scottish accent was first used to represent a dwarf, as it certainly seems to be thing now? I think it fits quite well. Robin of Spiritwood mentioned Baldur's Gate (as a PC first perhaps) but i wonder if there is earlier stuff like films etc?
Tolkien was obviously obsessed with the languages of Britian, and was sure to use that tradition in the stories he created.
I wonder when a scottish accent was first used to represent a dwarf, as it certainly seems to be thing now? I think it fits quite well. Robin of Spiritwood mentioned Baldur's Gate (as a PC first perhaps) but i wonder if there is earlier stuff like films etc?
Tolkien was obviously obsessed with the languages of Britian, and was sure to use that tradition in the stories he created.
The high fantasy dwarf stereotype these days is strong, writes in Futhark-adjacent runic scripts, uses weapons at least the wielder's size, and consumes alcoholic beverages in unhealthy measures; aptness for blacksmithing is almost secondary. They're Scots.
Tolkien took much of his magnum opus wholesale from what we know about Norse mythology like the Edda (check Snorri's Poetic Edda, half the names of Tolkien's LotR protagonists are straight from the creation myth) and Icelandic sagas, so Scandinavian accents would be more appropriate. In that light, it's also weird that we're today dealing with the above stereotype, since the original dwarves from the source materials were an elven subspecies and scarily good artificers working metals into miracles like hair that would hold on to a person's head and fall like the real stuff, Mjölnir, and several other implements of the Æsir.
Tolkien took much of his magnum opus wholesale from what we know about Norse mythology like the Edda (check Snorri's Poetic Edda, half the names of Tolkien's LotR protagonists are straight from the creation myth) and Icelandic sagas, so Scandinavian accents would be more appropriate. In that light, it's also weird that we're today dealing with the above stereotype, since the original dwarves from the source materials were an elven subspecies and scarily good artificers working metals into miracles like hair that would hold on to a person's head and fall like the real stuff, Mjölnir, and several other implements of the Æsir.
It's not only dwarves of course. Any character played by Sean Connery (regardless of supposed origin) has a Scottish accent too
Gary Gygax, in his novels, gave them an accent somewhere between Russian and German. The online comic Our Little Adventure prefers something closer to cleaned-up inner-city urban American.
Now i have this image of VERY short Samurai's with long flowing black beards and speaking japanese...