Simple question: who came up with the idea/created for the tough, height stunted, bearded, axe and hammer wielding race that appears in almost all fantasy novels and games, we all call a dwarf?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_%28Germanic_mythology%29

But I think it was Tolkien who brought them into high fantasy, you know with elves and wizards and such.

Basically Tolkien is a god.

The mythological basis is largely Norse, and that's where many of the standard tropes come from. Although Norse dwarves were highly magical, and a large number of their references involve them creating enchanted items.

Tolkien is probably the one who really brought us the modern fantasy dwarf, having very openly and purposefully used mythologies when developing his work. While much of what makes up a fantasy dwarf existed beforehand I believe he really popularized the model. His friend and fellow inkling, C. S. Lewis, also had a number of fantasy dwarves appear in his works - off hand I'm not sure if they predate Tolkien's work but Narnia involved mythologies even more directly than Middle Earth.

I thought it was Tolkien, and I knew it came form sort of mythology background but wasn't quite entirely sure. Thanks a lot guys!

*nod*

Since the time of cavemen there have probably been stories of mythological creatures due to things that couldn't be explained. People would have tricks played on them and wouldn't be able to explain it thus they invented folklore. The tales of the dwarves have existed for some time however I think Tolkien was the one that revolutionized it bringing it into the modern age with his stories.

For those curious about some thingshttp://www.the-atlantic-paranormal-society.com/articles/articles.html#angelology to info on The Atlantic Paranormal Society "TAPS" website. (The people on Ghost Hunters on the SyFy network)

It's a little known fact that Vikings were actually extremely short: most were under 4' tall. Erik the Red is actually an abbreviation of Erik the Reduced Stature. So there you have it, modern-day fantasy dwarves are just a representation of Vikings, in much the same way that garden gnomes are another celebration of those feisty axe-wielding chappies.

That's bull. Eiríkur Torvaldsson (Eirīkr Tōrvaldsson if we use old Norse rather than the Icelandic language) or Eiríkur (hinn) Rauei (Erik (the) Red) was named "(The) Red" because he was ginger, that is he had red hair.

Dwarfs exists in old folklore from the Nordic countries but not because the people were so short, yes they were short but the folklore around dwarfs isn't there because of that, especially if you consider said stories were written by them but not by people from other countries. And the "Red" part most certainly has nothing to do with being short. The only way for Red to be anything even closely related to just being a short for "Reduced" would be if he was first named in English and then his name got translated to the Nordic languages, which it was not.

As for more info on Dwarfs I'm gonna go take a quick look into the Snorra Edda to refresh my memory about how they are explained in there.

I think that the other poster was being facetious (i.e. intending the comments to not be taken literally but in jest).

:P Well if so I've made myself look the fool but for others like myself who are a little ahem, slow to catch onto the tone indicated by others through text on the internet I will keep my post up for clarification on the matter.

Edit: Oh and smileys were invented to display emotion on the internet, his post could do with at least one of them (granted it would deprive him the amusemant of watching people like me post in response to his jests).

I haven't seen many of their illustrations, but I think the Brothers Hildebrandt were also influential in creating the look of Tolkien's creations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_Hildebrandt

Just to be clear, I was being facetious (possibly); I guess being deadpan doesn't always translate well in terms of text, but figured smilies would spoil it...

I screwed up before, I thought the first Narnia novel was published around the same time as the Hobbit - it was actually published around the same time as the Fellowship of the Rings, so Tolkien's dwarves pre-date Lewis' by over ten years.


:rofl:

Originally from Nordic mythology I think, brought into the fantasy world be Tolkien.

Easy. A bunch of bad-ass tall midgets that grew their beards out, got piss drunk and beat the hell out of everything with hammers and axes.

Garrus Vakarian.

That would make a great movie.

Then Moorcock is the anti-christ

Too be completely serious, Norse mythology predating the 1000s had dwarves before 'Ragnarok'. Which is pretty much saying they thought of dwarves hundreds of years before anybody else.

I wonder if Dwarfism (the medical condition) was what inspired the mythilogical/fantasy Dwarves in the first place.

Disney.

I heard a rumor that there are nomadic people that are like dwarves, all midgets, living in some forest areas, and their not very nice people. When people from a radio station were trying to find them, they weren't able to, but when they came back to their van it was completely destroyed. It sounds crazy, but I really heard about this.

Ah yes, pygmies. There are a number of ethnic groups with unusually short average heights, averaging at around 4' 11'' or less.

Stop trying to make this serious.

http://youtu.be/7jYANWR5XTM?t=18s

We have our answer. It's these guys, they just grew their beards out later.

This is all academic. Everyone knows dwarves are really Scottish.