Question Useful words

Today I went looking for a word; a word that I feel ought to exist. That may even be in limited usage, but it didn't show up on dictionary.com what word was I looking for?
Dwarven.
My definition:
Of Dwarvish origin, made by Dwarves, or having to do with Dwarves as a race.
A Dwarven army (an army of Dwarves)
A Dwarven blade (A blade made by a Dwarf, using skills learned in his community)
A Dwarven catacomb (A place where Dwarves dwelt and did other business)
Any way I imagine if there are D&D players here, they will tell me if I'm on the right path....

Wiktionary lists it, and Wikipedia even has a "Dwarven language" entry. Granted, both are by their nature descriptivists , so if you are a prescriptivist that's no big help.

The OED almost certainly lists it, but www.oed.com is not a free site, so I couldn't check.

Anne wrote: Today I went looking for a word; a word that I feel ought to exist. That may even be in limited usage, but it didn't show up on dictionary.com what word was I looking for?
Dwarven.

"dweorges-" if you really want to go old-school for the genitive.

You could go old style and say twerc....

Anne wrote: You could go old style and say twerc....

That's Middle High German ... and German is boring

null0trooper wrote:

Anne wrote: You could go old style and say twerc....

That's Middle High German ... and German is boring

But it sounds so naughty after Miley Cyrus stole it to describe what she does on stage....

Okay, while we're talking about the short and grumpy ones, would you classify the common interpretation of 'dwarves' as Alfar, as in 'Svardalfar'? Or Thursir, as in related to the various Jotun-volk?

I don't know how you would classify them. Most people here believe that they are part of the general classification of fey. But they are obviously not elves. So to me they are at least a different phenotype if not an entirely different species. To me it seems that they are sidhe in the same manner that humans are part of the ape clan... Then again, do we know for sure that the various fey are not part of the family hominidae!?

Bek D Corbin wrote: Okay, while we're talking about the short and grumpy ones, would you classify the common interpretation of 'dwarves' as Alfar, as in 'Svardalfar'? Or Thursir, as in related to the various Jotun-volk?

I tend to agree with the scholars who point out that the alfar never were strictly one thing or another. The race of dwarfs were created from Ymir's body and so were neither alfar nor jötnar. The main things important about them were their mining and metal-working skils and that they tended to be shorter than the locals. I.e., they're a kenning for La Tène culture, as opposed to remaining hunter-gatherer tribes (jötnar), or incoming farmers/pastoralists (Vanir).

Very little is said about the alfar in Norse stories, so if dwarves just have to be stuck in a box with every other supernatural it's probably better to lump them in with the Aesir and other supernatural human kin to the jötnar instead of sticking them in the middle of the Atlantean Sidhe/Drow pointy-eared shipping wars.