Why are Dwarves Scottish?

[Whisper72]

IIRC, the dwarves in the gord the rogue novels spoke 'german'. I do not recall them yodelling however...

The beer drinking and dour moods are definately more german then scottish AFAIAC.

 

[MonsterMash]

Way long ago, before many of you were born, I recall a person referring to dwarfs' lives as being "british and short". That be the case I would think being Scottish would be an improvement.

British and short pretty much describes a lot of scots!

Anyway my Dwarves come from yorkshire by eck! (helping to prolong the prototype of the penny pinching yorkshireman).

The beer drinking and dour moods are definately more german then scottish AFAIAC

I've met plenty of scots that drink beer and a decidedly dour, but what would you expect with a dreich climate like that

 

[Whisper72]

Hmm.... yeah... the hoarding of monetary treasure is more scottish then german... hmmm.... tough to decide how to characterize my dwarves...

 

[jinx crossbow]

The stereotypical Dwarf speaks with a Glaswegian accent. He drinks, a lot, and headbutts people.

What of these descriptions but 'speaks with a Glaswegians accent' shows yout that
they are Scottish?
It sounds fore me as a Bavarian
Bavarian accent in Germany is like Glaswegians accent in English.

Is there anybody out there who says the dwarves speak 'Glaswegians accent' ?

I think they are Bavarians
And Orcs are the Schwabians

 

[Darkness]

oh imc Dwarfs are Bravarian (which my German friend Hilde took pains to explain is VERY different to German)

Yeah, Bavaria is not quite like (most of?) the rest of Germany.

"Der" Ring der "Nibelungen", please

Unless he's referring to Wagner's ring cycle, which is called "Der Ring Des Nibelungen" IIRC.

 

[Desdichado]

Blame Tolkien.

Hobbits - English
Elves - Welsh
Dwarves - Scottish

Humans...um...humans...?

Huh? Tolkien did no such thing. Salvatore was the first time I'd seen a dwarf with a written accent that was definately Scottish. I've yet to hear one on screen. The Jackson dwarves aren't very Scottish, IMO, although every once in a while Gimli will sound vaguely Scottish.

I like doing something else, though. I've done dwarves with Russian accents before. But that's because I can pull off a pretty good Russian accent. In that same campaign I had halflings that spoke with a Mexican accent. Maybe more of a L.A. lowrider Hispanic gangster accent, but I've heard real Mexican's too, and the accent is pretty similar.

 

[Desdichado]

Depends on the humans. Rohan is vaguely Germanic, Gondor is arguably Norman France, the Easterlings are obviously Sino-Indian, the Southrons are definitely Moorish, and the Dunlanders are fairly Pictish/Gaelic.

Rohan isn't vaguely Germanic, it's Anglo-Saxon on horses, almost to the last detail. Vaguely my ass.

Gondor isn't very Norman French, IMO (and it would be extremely unlikely; Tolkien hated the Norman French, and blamed them for "ruining" the English language); in fact Tolkien himself once described them as having something in common with the Egyptians or the Romans, although I think that was more in regards to the longevity of their culture and their relationship to the more "barbaric" neighbors than to anything else. The Easterlings aren't "obviously" Sino-Indian, as they are portrayed much more like Scythians or Huns, IMO, and the Southrons aren't definitely Moorish as I've always thought thought they were very easily identifiable as an Arab/Indian hybrid as described. The Dunlendings as vaguely British Celtic I can see, though.

 

[DM_Jeff]

Warcraft

Can't beleive no one yet brought up Warcraft from the early/mid 90's. That's where I first got the idea of a dwarven Scottish accent, all the dwarves in the original had one. Of course I don't know where Blizzard got it from, but it precludes LotR movies and Order of the Stick.

-DM Jeff

 

[ShrooMofDooM]

Maybe they already gave accents to the other races, so all they had left was the Scottish one and the Dwarves. This is the awesomest question ever.

 

[trollwad]

You have it backwards! Why are Scots dwarves? After all, dwarves came first...