Talk:Dwarf

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Mission[edit]

I fail to see the mission value of this article. The unbusinesslikeman of business 01:23, 22 July 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, I don't see anything either. ArchieGoodwin (talk) 12:34, 17 September 2011 (UTC)
Nor I. Blue (pester) 20:25, 19 September 2011 (UTC)
Shall we burn it then? TyTy 18:51, 20 September 2011 (UTC)
Why, it's a relevant as all the other folklore stuff we have. Leave it unless you have a good reason for it to go. this "not mission" suggest we should look at the ENTIRE folklore/myth set. and maybe we should, but I'd leave it till we look at all the articles in total.Pink mowse.pngGodotThe Peyote God awaits 18:58, 20 September 2011 (UTC)
Dwarfism, its causes, and the little person community could certainly use an article.--User:Brxbrx/sig 19:01, 20 September 2011 (UTC)
Are there any pseudoscientific beliefs about dwarfs? Are there any cranks who make claims about them? Does anybody still believe they have magic powers? Are they considered to be "cursed" by any fundamentalists? Any of these would bring it on-mission.--BobSpring is sprung! 19:17, 20 September 2011 (UTC)
Here is something from the Daily Mail in the UK. (For American readers - if it's in the Daily Mail and is about cancer (well about anything really) it has a potentially high garbage rating).--BobSpring is sprung! 19:23, 20 September 2011 (UTC)
Well Bob, there probably is. We could write about discrimination against little people. We could write about quack cures, and people making up BS causes for chondroplasia and other diseases that cause dwarfism. We could look at the dynamics within the litte person community. I remember watching some dumb cop show where they had a little person mother who wanted to make sure her child would inherit her condition. Maybe that had a real world parallel? Certainly that's something to write about.--User:Brxbrx/sig 21:13, 20 September 2011 (UTC)
Some people in Iceland still believe in elves, which include dwarves, but that is all I know about it. However, the link to mythology is enough to justify keeping the article. Mjollnir.svgListenerXTalkerX 21:27, 20 September 2011 (UTC)
No, not just for mythology. It'd be better to have a big article with stubs about various mythological creatures in each mythos--User:Brxbrx/sig 21:32, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

Tolkien's plural[edit]

The plural of "dwarf" was "dwarfs" (see here for example) until J.R.R. Tolkien indulged in a bit of hypercorrectionWikipedia and wrote "dwarves" in his fiction. Being a philologist, he should have known better, and lived to regret his error. To my philistine ear, "dwarves" is more mellifluous than "dwarfs," so I have no great desire to fix this article. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 14:23, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Doesn't one of the many, many, many appendices to one of the books go on at great length about how it's "dwarves" not "dwarfs" or vice versa? Then again, what else do you expect when someone writes an entire fictional universe only for the purpose of having a place to host his made-up languages... Scarlet A.pngbomination 15:03, 10 April 2014 (UTC)
Possibly. I haven't porn over the entire oeuvre. Probably should have said "pored" instead. I have willingly read the novel subtitled "There and Back Again" several times, but when someone gave me a copy of "The Silmarillion", I choked after a few pages. Have seen scraps of some of the movies on television, am willing to wait for the Simon Pegg & Nick Frost "geeks at a con" version. Let them speak elvish or klingon if they wish; I will be content to read subtitles. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 15:24, 10 April 2014 (UTC)
Oh, I do remember reading such an appendix (or pre-word, can't remember...). In it Tolkien tried to make very clear that there is a difference between how he uses "dwarves" as opposed to the normal "dwarfs", highlighting the fact that Tolkien's rough and tumble 'dwarf(1)' is a new and different thing from the 'dwarf(2)' as characterised in common folklore. The same with 'elfs' and 'elves', where Tolkien's high and fair 'elves' are entirely different to the little mythical creatures called 'elfs'. Nullahnung (talk) 16:06, 10 April 2014 (UTC)
The article is rather a mess, starting with Tolkiens' dwarves before mentioning as an afterthought that dwarfs exist IRL. If this is even relevant to us at all (which I'm not convinced of), it would be much better to start by explaining what dwarfism is & why it occurs, then noting how dwarfs have long been associated with the macabre and the occult in many cultures, including their appearance in fairy tales and folklore, and that this has indirectly inspired the concept of dwarf peoples in Tolkien & other fantasy. WēāŝēīōīďWeaselly.jpgMethinks it is a Weasel 17:08, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

If There is a page on Dwarfs/Dwarves Should there be for other Races?[edit]

For example Elves, orcs, etc?173.235.40.25 (talk) 19:15, 20 February 2019 (UTC)

Dwarf tossing[edit]

Perhaps this is of relevance to this article? VeeMeow? 21:36, 2 March 2023 (UTC)

It's a perfect thing to use in the "external links" section. —cosmikdebris talk stalk 21:43, 2 March 2023 (UTC)
Huh, that is a really interesting discussion actually. SolPyre (talk) 21:45, 2 March 2023 (UTC)