Our inhouse Voyager reading club recently decided to go back and re-read ( or read for the first time- *gasp!* ) Raymond E. Feist’s original classic fantasy epic Magician, published in 1982. Upon reaching the introduction of Feist’s Dwarves, and the character Dolgan in particular, it struck me that I assumed the ‘deep, rolling burr’ of the Dwarven accent was Scottish. The names of their mines ( “Mac Mordain Cadal”), Dolgan’s frequent use of ‘lad’ & organisation into clans didn’t help either.
So I got to thinking: when, exactly, did the Dwarf become synonymous with Scotland? Despite being responsible for much of the modern fantasy concept of Dwarves as an imagined race, Tolkien never gave them any distinctively Scottish traits. They were based much more on nordic myth I thought. One of our Sales Managers pointed out that a possible source for aspects of dwarvish culture for Tolkien may have been the archetype of the “rough & hearty” working class miners of Cornwall or Wales, which would certainly fit with his stated goals of creating a modern mythology for the British Isles.
Wikipedia argues that the modern version of the ‘Scottish Dwarf’ originates from the book Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson (published in 1961, but originally a novella from 1953 ) which featured a Dwarf named Hugi with a Scottish accent and a man transported from WWII to a parallel world under attack by Faerie. The book was a major influence on Dungeons & Dragons, which introduced Dwarves as playable race in 1974 and helped disseminate a “standard” idea of what Dwarves were like.
From there it seemed to become a self-perpetuating idea. The parallels 
between the bearded Dwarves as warlike mountain dwellers and long-haired Scottish Highland warriors are fairly obvious, and perhaps this was Anderson’s starting point too. The love of drinking, feasting and fighting has perhaps more Viking or sterotypical “working class miner” associations. A recent animated film, How to Train Your Dragon ( based on a children’s book of the same name ) features Vikings with scottish accents ( though all the children & teenagers mysteriously have American accents ) who also look a lot like oversized Dwarves. The enormously popular Warcraft universe has steampunk Dwarves with Scottish accents.
It all came full circle with the film version of The Lord of the Rings having Gimli sport a very Scottish accent. It will be interesting to see how far they take this with The Hobbit film though. From the little we’ve heard in the trailers they don’t seem particularly Scottish, but time will tell …! What do think? Do you usually associate dwarves with Scotland or is it just me?
Filed under: Commentry, Fab films, Fab Games, Fab TV, Fan work, J R R Tolkien, Popular culture, Raymond E. Feist, World building | Tagged: Dungeons and Dragons, Dwarves, How to Train Your Dragon, J R R Tolkien, Magician, Poul Anderson, Raymond E Feist, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, Three Hearts and Three Lions, Warcraft |
Voyager Online 
It’s weird, isn’t it? I kinda like dwarves – I certainly like them a lot more than elves! (Elves always seem to have this obnoxious superiority complex).
I do remember a British reviewer who once remarked that he didn’t understand why all dwarves were Scottish, since “most Scots I know are tall buggers”. Heh.
As for me, I have no clue, but by now it just “feels right”.
Your headline reminded me of Introduction to Logic at University.
“All Scots are Protestants.
Jack is a Scot.
Therefore Jack is Protestant.
True, but still doesn’t do much.
True, but the point of the post was more WHY are Dwarves Scottish, as the more interesting question would be is why all scots are protestants. The headline was just a way of highlighting the common (?) assumption that they should be Scottish.