Dwarves and bagpipes...

[GRWelsh]

One of my players has a dwarf thief named Balul who plays the bagpipes. Another has a dwarf fighter name Krak Makkenak. I just can't fight the Scottish stereotype anymore... I had always envisioned the dwarves of the World of Greyhawk to be more Germanic or Norse, but the Scottish influence is too pervasive to fend off. I don't know how or when dwarves got Scottish accents, but I think it happened in the 1980's (?)*. I noticed that even in the Hobbit movies they had Dain Ironfoot played by Billy Connolly, a Scottish actor, so that seemed to put a capstone on it in popular culture... In the earlier LOTR trilogy, John Rhys-Davies, a Welsh actor, leaned into the Scottish accent when playing Gimli, so that laid the foundation. Perhaps, in the context of the World of Greyhawk, there are dwarves of different regions and cultures, and that they have also interacted with various human cultures to have certain leanings to explain this... It's probably not worth overthinking it. However, I had an idea for how to lean into it for comic relief and also for some gaming details. In THE HOBBIT (the book) many of the thirteen dwarves have musical instruments! People tend to either love bagpipes or hate them... They are often associated with funeral processions, so perhaps dwarves use them often in that context. Also, since dwarves are highly resistant to magic, perhaps they use bagpipes and other instruments at times to resist forms of sonic magic, such as the singing charm magic of harpies and satyrs! They may even develop a skill to help others counter or resist such spell effects. It's just a thought...

*In retrospect, the Scottish accent may have come from Poul Anderson's THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS (1961 novel expanded from 1953 novella) which had a dwarf named Hugi. EGG was quite fond of this book and it was a strong influence on AD&D, and thus could be considered the origin of the Scottish accent for dwarves in general in AD&D.

[grodog]

Feb 18, 2024 20:04:43 GMT -5 GRWelsh said:

I had always envisioned the dwarves of the World of Greyhawk to be more Germanic or Norse, but the Scottish influence is too pervasive to fend off. I don't know how or when dwarves got Scottish accents, but I think it happened in the 1980's (?)*.

Hengal, the dwarf Gord buys his magic dagger from in Leukish in Saga of Old City really sounded (overly ) Germanic as I recall.

Allan.

[Scott]

I remember Hugi the dwarf from Three Hearts and Three Lions being written with a kind of Scottish accent, but it’s been a while and the Scottish dwarf thing might just be creeping in.
P.S. I just saw your ‘in Retrospect’.

[geneweigel]

From THE HOBBIT (1937) Chapter One AN UNEXPECTED PARTY:

"Of course!" said Thorin. "And after. We shan't get through the business till late, and we must have some music first. Now to clear up!"

From Wikipedia - GLOSSARY OF BRITISH TERMS NOT USED IN THE UNITED STATES

shan't
A contraction of shall not, considered archaic in American English (US and UK also: "won't").[145] Rarely used in Scotland.

All the Scotch dwarf players:

Dwarves can speak like pirates!

[GRWelsh]

Yeah, I don't think EGG portrayed dwarves as particularly Scottish himself. Gygaxian dwarf names collected from different sources:

Chahlor was a PC dwarf in Gary's LA campaign (Hall of Many Panes playtest)
Corond Olinstaad - WoG '83 campaign setting.
Delver Oldcavern [SEA OF DEATH]
Dobfur - Lakofka timeline
Ergwhi - AD&D Coloring Album
Flemin - Tsojcanth (tourney character created by Howard Dawson)
Golbi - Fortubo's hammer, said to be a gift from Moradin (Lakofka in DRAGON #88]
Gutboy Barrelhouse - DMG
Grimfast - [Slayers Guide to the Undead]
Hengel - Gord the Rogue
Holgi Hirsute, Dwarfking of the Iron Hills [DRAGON #57]
Ibli - Coloring Album
Issenglas - [Slayers Guide to the Undead]
Ludfast - [Slayers Guide to the Undead]
Mibo - Necromancer games reference - non-Greyhawk.
Nulfyke - Expedition Into the Black Reservoir
Obmi - Against the Giants
Olgar Obsidian [Slayers Guide to the Undead]
Redmod Dumple - Against the Giants tournament character
Rudd [Slayers Guide to the Undead]
Stubbin [Artifact of Evil pp. 115-16]
Teldroll Storis - Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun
Trelli Gray-sides [AD&D Coloring Album]
Ukeli [AD&D Coloring Album]
Ziggby [EGG PC, one of the Citadel of Eight]

[geneweigel]

I was thinking about it and their is the roleplaying enthusiasts leaning towards easy impersonations Scot, Irish, Welsh, border English, Elizabethan, "Pirate" as an English speaking country.

Can you imagine an Italian-sounding Dwarf? It would easily sound like "Mario the Dago Pizza Guy" and doesn't lend itself to lifting the fantasy.

Half the players of D&D were "STAR TREK Scotty" fans and he was a false Scotsman done over and over and over to the point of easy doable sound bites.

[GRWelsh]

The Italian-sounding Dwarf would definitely be the laziest of stereotypes... Probably Italian-American slang of the sort that makes native Italians roll their eyes: Gabagool!

[geneweigel]

I had made a lost video in like 1983 around when "BOOK OF LOST TALES" came out. My cousins (Bill and Heather) asked me to do it as a D&D character so I grabbed the book that was sitting on a pile of comics and modules that I just bought. And I said that I would do it like a dwarf. I recall my attempt was somewhere between 1977 Thorin-ish (Hans "Captain Hook" Conreid) and 1978 Gimli (David Buck) because I certainly wasn't going to do voices of the Disney dwarves as they seemed like goons of the 1940s.

[geneweigel]

I just checked it was "THE COTTAGE OF LOST PLAY" was the story that I read from that. Not the commentary though but I do recall the poems.