Why are dwarves Scottish?

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by William

I've always pictured Dwarves as closer to Norse, drawing mainly on the Tolkien interpretation of the Scandinavian sources.

Of course, in a fair amount of popular entertainment, the Norse are also Scottish. I mean, really, what's with that?

Luke

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by lwcamp

Of course, in a fair amount of popular entertainment, the Norse are also Scottish. I mean, really, what's with that?

Luke

Well, quite a lot of Scotland was colonised by the Norse - arguably as much as by the Scots IIRC.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by lwcamp

Of course, in a fair amount of popular entertainment, the Norse are also Scottish. I mean, really, what's with that?

Luke

I heard that in Gobber's voice, so well played.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

I always understood Tolkien's Dwarves to have a strong Jewish theme to them... no idea where the Scottishness came from.

The Welshness would work considering the miner aspect. Of course the Dwarves could have been Travellers, and like all Celtic Traveller clans, the Scottish ones were tinkers (local farming and ranching clans often could only train so many specialists in high technology so the arrangement made sense in the past). However that is to obscure.

They could be Jews, being clannish, exiled from their homelands and pining after it and good with crafts. The Dwarves emphasize the artisanal rather then the commercial aspect of Jewish stereotypes. They are also more warlike then the stereotypical Jew, but on the other hand, there surely was at least one Zionist club at Oxford at the time and Tolkien would have been familiar: he might even have had a student who was a member.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

They could be Jews, being clannish, exiled from their homelands and pining after it and good with crafts. The Dwarves emphasize the artisanal rather then the commercial aspect of Jewish stereotypes. They are also more warlike then the stereotypical Jew . . .

Tolkien acknowledged these influences, and based the dwarven language on Semitic roots.

[Black Leviathan]

Games Workshop? I mean the stereotype works for them. They drink they're hostile and prideful. If you asked a Londoner who that describes it's an easy pick for them.

All of our Dwarves are Germans or just bellowing madmen.

[Þorkell]

Now because of the mention of the Scandinavian/Norse angle I have visions of Dwarves with a Swedish accent.

Bork, bork, bork.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by Black Leviathan

Games Workshop? I mean the stereotype works for them. They drink they're hostile and prideful..

The dwarves or G-dubs? ;-).

We also notice that it's the stereotyped angry Glaswegian drunk* that seems to be the default dwarf, but even within "dwarves are Scottish" you could have a variety of tropes: posh dwarves from "Mooorrningside" (prestigious part of Edinburgh - for some reason most of the Scots I meet find the idea of the place hilarious), McAndrew, dwarf engineer ... dwarf border reivers...

*possibly crossed with whatever it was that Mel Gibson was trying to be in Braveheart...

[Evil Roy Slade]

I would say that the film most heavily populated with dwarves is the Hobbit trilogy which has very few Scottish dwarves (Balin, Dwalin, maybe Gloin?) Most seem to be from the north of England (or of Ireland, in Bofur's case), while Thorin is absolutely a Midlands voice.

I asked an Edinburgh-based friend once about what Scottish viewers thought of the choice of accents in The Hobbit after the first one was released. Quoth he:

"The general thinking seems to be that dwarves, being the salt of the earth and all that, are from the grim and gritty north, while southern English accents are reserved for hobbits (if the accent is vaguely rustic) and orcs and trolls (if Cockney) ... and of course dragons and necromancers, although they haven't spoken yet."

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

Now because of the mention of the Scandinavian/Norse angle I have visions of Dwarves with a Swedish accent.

Bork, bork, bork.

Based on an older stereotype, I thought that maybe the Scottish accent was because having the dwarf king say, "Ya, I ban hit the Great Goblin with my axe" would just sound too silly to be heroic.