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I was at a tourney today playing my slayer cult list and ruminating on the Dwarfs book.

Single dwarf = dwarf.
Plural for dwarf by GW is Dwarfs (not Dwarves as everyone thinks)

So would you descibe an object made by a GW dwarf as 'Dwarfen' or 'Dwarven'

I guess Dwarfen, but I just can't get behind Dwarfs instead of Dwarves... It sticks in my throat. Not sure why they decided to do it that way...

RZ

I did some research and apparently Dwarfs is the correct use of the word.
Dwarves is a modern fantasy writing variation (I'm sure Tokein can take responsibility for it)

Same as elven vs elfin.

Tolkien did in fact have a hand in this debat, but I forget which way he did it at the moment.

Edit: if memory serves correctly I believe he was behind the dwarven/elven movement.

Correct, Tolkien always used dwarven/elven in his writings. The correct english spelling is dwarfen/elfin.

The intruiging thing is that Tolkien was a professor of Anglo-saxon at Oxford. Also, he was good friends with the 4 senior editors of the Oxford english dictionary (he even referrenced them in his comedy Farmer Giles of Ham as 'the four wise clerks of oxenford') and was known to have composed some definitions for the dictionary.

I'd like to know why he used the spellings he did - but its testament to the influence of his writing that everyone assumes he's right and the dictionary is wrong!

it could be that he was using the old english spelling

I think I can explain why Tolkien refused to acknowledge "Dwarfs/Elfs" as the proper plural form in two words.

Dwarfish.
Elfish.


Personally I mounted my large mouth dwarfish on a plaque in my rumpus room.

Dwarves sounds better because in all other cases (excludeing elves) in the English lanuage, placeing a suffix after a f turns the f to a -ve (Knife- Knives, wife- wives) though that may be because ther is an E at the end. If anyonewants an explanation of Tolkiens thoughts, p.415 in The Return of the King second edition supposedly holds Tolkiens thoughts.

I say Dwarfy, not because thats what I should say, but because I like the sound of it

Count me in as to 'dwarves'!
As a side note, I hate slayers as units. Should be a 5-10 sized unit with skirmish. Who was the lame slayer that showed up with a tuba? "Been luggin this around for 30 years!"

Chimera_Calvin wrote:I'd like to know why he used the spellings he did - but its testament to the influence of his writing that everyone assumes he's right and the dictionary is wrong!

Tolkien wanted to distinguish the races in his work from the elfs and dwarfs of popular mythology and indicated it using the odd spelling. Tolkien Dwarves are by no means dwarfs of the Snow White ilk, and his Elves are cetainly not diminutive elfin waifs hanging around in gardens.

The irony now of course is, that popular modern mythology regarding Elf and Dwarf archtypes in fantasy is almost universally Tolkien-esque in nature.

I'm pretty used to "Dwarves".

It was in Tolkein's writing, but it's a bit less awkward to say than "Dwarfs".

r_h_knight: I think it's because Tolkein's works are possibly the most renown works of modern fantasy to this date. It's like Shakespere's several additions to the English dictionary, the word changed based on the works it's associated with. But yes, I think it's primarily to do with my favorite fantasy book ever (excluding WHFB army books ) setting a precedence.

it was tolkien. not certain why he used it the way he did, but it is the first case of the use i know of

Chimera_Calvin wrote:Correct, Tolkien always used dwarven/elven in his writings. The correct english spelling is dwarfen/elfin.

Not always. Originally, he used Dwarfs/Elfs, etc, but latter revised his view on this. This was one of the things he changed when he rewrote The Hobbit. I know I have something on the reasoning somewhere, but I cannot remember which book, let alone where in that book.

In the foreward to the LOTR book (by his son, I think) I have, it mentioned that the publishers at the time went on a hatchet job changing "elvish" to "elfish" and so on, so older editions may spell it out that way.

From what I gathered, it was his intention to distinguish his terms from the traditional ones.

ZF-

dwarfs annoys me, I much prefer Dwarves.

But that's just me.

dwarvish/elvish

i much prefer these words over the others

getting back to Waaagh Gonads' original question about what the correct adjectival form of Dwarf would be - in the context of GW, I think it's almost certainly Dwarfen/Dwarfish - In Malekith, Gav Thorpe uses the term "Dwarfen" to describe equipment and mines, so I'd imagine that would be canon for WHFB?