Why are dwarves Scottish?

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by smcc360

Oddly, we've always played them as German. Stereotypically humorless, talented engineers, fond of beer...

Oddly enough there was a very famous guy with a German name, "Iron-hewer". Of course he was mostly famous for killing Germans. But as his ancestor was probably a smith one can run with that.

[RyanW]

If dwarves have such similarities to the Norse, I'm going to start having them speak with the accent of stereotypical Vikings... fans. Ooh, dat sounds like a hoot, dontcha know.

[ColBosch]

Originally Posted by RyanW

If dwarves have such similarities to the Norse, I'm going to start having them speak with the accent of stereotypical Vikings... fans. Ooh, dat sounds like a hoot, dontcha know.

Close the thread, delete the forums, and turn off the internet. We're done here. :D

I am reminded of a bit in Borderlands 2, from the Assault on Dragon Peak DLC:

Lilith: "Uh, Tina, all these dwarves look exactly like Salvador. That seems kind of..."
Tina: "Yeah, I know, Free Lilly. You think it's racist or something? I'll ask Sal downstairs if he thinks it's racist. HEY SALVADOR! IS IT OKAY IF ALL OF MY DWARVES LOOK LIKE YOU?"
Salvador: "THAT IS AWESOME!"

...though I should note that Salvadore is not Scottish.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by smcc360

Oddly, we've always played them as German. Stereotypically humorless, talented engineers, fond of beer...

I prefer them as Germanic/Teutonic myself, rather than Celtic, though I wouldn't say "humorless". A different sense of humor, perhaps, compared to American and British senses of humor.

(Think Raymond the Amish Comic for German-style humor, or at least Low German....)

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by RyanW

If dwarves have such similarities to the Norse, I'm going to start having them speak with the accent of stereotypical Vikings... fans. Ooh, dat sounds like a hoot, dontcha know.

The Dwarves in The Hobbit have Eddic names. However Tolkien did a callback of that by saying they used human names and only used their real names ceremonially. Only a fellow Dwarf or an outsider they considered extremely worthy of trust would know a Dwarves actual name.

Actually that was brilliant whether or not it was meant as such though given Tolkien's philogical skills it maybe. In any case peripatatic and diasporan peoples often are bilingual and often use their own language as a cypher (well Chinese is a Code not a cypher but it serves similarly for Overseas Chinese).

Moreover names are often given a kind of sanctity. Fraser once told how some tribes are reported as regularly changing names for things as old names get so encrusted they become sacred. Tolkien would certainly have known that.

Personally I always thought the Scottish Dwarf thing was kind of silly. But the accent sounds well. They don't seem to resemble Scots in any other way; they don't have a penchant for cattle rustling though they do kind of like blood feuds. They live in city-states not clans, or at least that is their preferred organization (the Seven Fathers sound kind of tribalistic but it is not the same thing). They like living underground which is hard to find in any human counterpart.

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

They like living underground which is hard to find in any human counterpart.

There were a couple places in Turkey and Persia where people lived underground. As I recall, in at least one of these places the sandstone was so soft it was easily scraped away to make rooms and tunnels.

I don't know enough about Turkish or Persian culture to imagine what sort of stereotypes or accents to give to such dwarves, though. Fire temples and sky burials, maybe? I guess the dwarves' beards do rival those of the ancient Persians.

Luke

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by lwcamp

I don't know eno I guess the dwarves' beards do rival those of the ancient Persians.

Luke

I'm told there are a number of Persians in America (and yes some of them actually do prefer being called Persian to Iranian), enough to form yet another ethnic clique and a rather successful one. There are also Parsees. I don't know what either of those sound like. Ancient Persians, I think, shaved square kind of like Ninevites. And you can't ride or shoot underground although you can still despise all falsehood.

[ColBosch]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

I'm told there are a number of Persians in America (and yes some of them actually do prefer being called Persian to Iranian), enough to form yet another ethnic clique and a rather successful one. There are also Parsees. I don't know what either of those sound like. Ancient Persians, I think, shaved square kind of like Ninevites. And you can't ride or shoot underground although you can still despise all falsehood.

I worked with a Persian guy for a couple years. (In fact, he gave me his XBox 360 when the X-Bone came out.) He had more of an American accent than I do.

[jason taylor]

How about Swiss Dwarves? Swiss love money, love craftsmanship, live in Mountains, have lots of tunnels and have ice axes. They are also good at war, though they have kind of given up on that. For now.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

They are also good at war, though they have kind of given up on that. For now.

They seem to be keeping up with the theory. The best technical book on the Ardennes Offensive of 1940 was written by a Swiss colonel. Obviously, there's no reason at all why the Swiss army should be interested in the best way to move a lot of mechanised troops through a mountainous forest quickly.