Scottish Norse/Dwarves

Not sure why I thought of it, but does anyone have an idea where the idea of having dwarves and/or Norse (and Fantasy Counterpart Culture versions of them) have Scottish accents. I'm assuming the two go together- dwarves come from Norse Mythology- ergo, if the Norse were given Scotish accents, dwarves should have them too.

I've read Dasent's translation of Asbjornsen and Moe's Norwegian Folktales uses some Scottishisms (lassie and bairn and that kind of thing), but that's pretty obscure, so I was thinking there must be some more well known work that started the trend.

I don't know a lot about this trend, but it's useful to note that Scots English contains more Nordic loanwords than the Queen's English, because of Scotland being more exposed to Viking raids. For example, "bairn" comes directly from Scandinavian words meaning "child".

Dwarves are Scottish because a/ they sound better with a Scottish accent, even a bad one, and b/ because Scots have traditions of being great engineers, (and never get tired of telling the English that) and great miners. Both of which pop up as traits for Dwarven kind throughout most fantasy works.

I always thought the "Norse Dwarves" thing came from the fact that Norse Mythology was the biggest source for most of the stereotypes about dwarves. In other words, they act like the culture that spawned them.

For the Scottish accent... my guess would be that there was some British production that, to give them a sense of a distinct identity, made all the dwarves have Scottish accents instead of some variety of English for the humans. But that's just a stab in the dark; wouldn't surprise me to learn that I was off-base.

I've seen plenty of dwarves with Scottish accents, but no Norse or counterparts with the same accents. What example were you thinking of?

The first time I heard a dwarf with a Scottish accent it was Magnus from Arcanum.

edited 9th Mar '12 4:38:49 PM by Martello

Because dwarves are drunkards and that's how a lot of Westerners depict foreign countries? I'm betting it was popular in England at the time of popularization and Scotland wound up being the wipping boy of choice.

I don't have anything to back this up other than my gut feeling, but I think it has to do with OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame. Namely, I think someone made some kind of audio production of the Lord of the Rings(radio, theater, etc., and I remember something about an animated movie version made in the 60's or 70's) where the Dwarves, or just Gimli, was cast as someone with a Scottish accent. After that, Scottish seemed to become the default. Possibly because it just sounds right.

The Lord of the Rings is actually a particularly interesting case of this, since Tolkien's dwarves are not Scottish at all.

And Gandalf is named after a dwarf, which is even funnier as it means "wand elf".

Dwarves originate in Norse mythology, but from what I gather they were very different, more like modern vampires in appearance. Living underground is the most obvious commonality.

Part of today's dwarves come from pre-industrial miners: when mining was practised on much smaller scales, the favoured miners were men with certain forms of dwarfism that made them short but thickly muscled, the better to crawl in those cramped tunnels. Coal mining in Britain is in Scotland, Wales and Northern England, which is likely part of this.

Another part is doubtless that Tolkien's Shire and Hobbits were intended as an idyllic vision of rural England, so it is natural to mark the contrast between the races by giving educated, urban accents to the Elves and Gondor, and Scottish accents for those stout, enterprising visitors from far away.

Not completely true— Snorri describes the dokkalfar or dark elves (another name for dwarves) as "black as pitch."

edited 20th Oct '13 3:37:33 AM by MorwenEdhelwen

Uh, that post is a year old...

Could you explain your objection? RJ Savoy makes three points in his post, and your reply doesn't mention which one you're objecting to.

edited 25th Oct '13 1:42:13 AM by AndrewGPaul

It's not from old audio Tolkien: in the 1981 radio LOTR, surely the most influential version before the films, Gimli is southern English, while old audios of The Hobbit have Yorkshire/Lancashire dwarves.

I'm inclined to credit the Noggin The Nog story "Noggin and the Ice Dragon". While Ronf technically isn't a dwarf, he is a very short, hot-tempered, bearded warrior in a Norse by Norsewest culture... With a Scottish accent. And that was in the early Sixties.

EDIT: I was wrong, that's not the first. Hugi in Poul Anderson's 1953 novel Three Hearts and Three Lions is a Scots-speaking dwarf, and apparently the book was a huge influence on first generation D&D. So that'll be the source of the trope.

edited 13th Feb '16 11:56:27 PM by Makhno

Some reason you waited three years to bump this?