Question: Dwarves and beards.

[Rath Darkblade]

So ... quick question. I'm writing a story in which a dwarf blacksmith is a secondary character, but there are three twists:

1. The dwarf is female, but hides her gender from humans, because of EVERYBODY assumes that dwarf blacksmiths are male, and she can charge better prices that way ... but she is not happy being a blacksmith, or a warrior, and wants to be a bard instead;
2. My (female) protagonist comes into town, and encourages my dwarf that she can be anything she wants to be. My dwarf is shy about that - sing in public? People will laugh! But, thanks to my protag's encouragement, the dwarf promises to think about it -- and ...
3. My dwarf plucks up her courage and shaves her beard off. That beard was too itchy, anyway. She keeps her moustache, though. It's one thing to declare you're not a dwarf anymore, but another to lose your moustache, since a moustache to a dwarf is a sign that you're not a child anymore!

Oh, and one more thing: my dwarf is very proud of her facial hair, and uses her smithing experience to create a pair of tweezers and grooming scissors, and her (limited) knowledge of herbals to create shampoo from animal fats and plant/herbal infusions. (This is what the Vikings did for their facial hair).

What do you think about this? Can a dwarf be a dwarf even if he/she has a shave?

[BBP]

I know just the viewing for you!

[Rath Darkblade]

Yes! Or this one:



But my question is different: it's not about how a dwarf would create a beard, but whether a dwarf would still be a dwarf even without a beard! What do you think?

[BBP]

Cue image of Dopey.

If you're writing your own novel about dwarfs and it's set in your own world, you can do what you want about the beards. if you're following Tolkien please give all the dwarves beards. You could make a nice coming-of-age ritual about the first braiding of the beard.

For dwarves, I think a young dwarf should be able to put off a beardless face. An elder one without beard I've never seen, it would be interesting to see one.

[Tawmis]

What do you think about this? Can a dwarf be a dwarf even if he/she has a shave?

It's your world where you create the rules.

In my D&D campaign - there's a tribe of Dwarves, who shave their beards, are showing a symbol of shame (like a "Scarlet Letter") that they wear to show their shame, with the hope of redeeming themselves, to be able to once again, grow their beards out.

[Rath Darkblade]

Hmm. I think I might have to give up my idea of a beardless dwarf, at least for now. :-\ It's a good idea, but if I wanted to incorporate it, it would be a major distraction ... especially at a time where the heroine of my story needs to move quickly and rescue her party. *shrug* Oh, well.

By the way, why are there two plurals for "dwarf" (i.e. both "dwarfs" and "dwarves")? I googled this, and some people say "dwarfs" is the only right correct plural. Others say that both "dwarfs" and "dwarves" are fine.

So, I'm curious. Grammatically speaking, "dwarves" is correct, because any noun that ends with "f" gets a "v"-ending when it becomes plural: leaf and leaves, wolf and wolves, knife and knives, etc. (It's a lot easier to pronounce it that way, rather than "leafs", "wolfs", "knifes" etc.) So why is "dwarfs" the one exception?

[Tawmis]

Hmm. I think I might have to give up my idea of a beardless dwarf, at least for now. :-\ It's a good idea, but if I wanted to incorporate it, it would be a major distraction ... especially at a time where the heroine of my story needs to move quickly and rescue her party. *shrug* Oh, well.

By the way, why are there two plurals for "dwarf" (i.e. both "dwarfs" and "dwarves")? I googled this, and some people say "dwarfs" is the only right correct plural. Others say that both "dwarfs" and "dwarves" are fine.

So, I'm curious. Grammatically speaking, "dwarves" is correct, because any noun that ends with "f" gets a "v"-ending when it becomes plural: leaf and leaves, wolf and wolves, knife and knives, etc. (It's a lot easier to pronounce it that way, rather than "leafs", "wolfs", "knifes" etc.) So why is "dwarfs" the one exception?

Dwarves is the correct way.

There's a heavy metal band called "Killer Dwarfs" which is pretty cool/fun.

[Rath Darkblade]

Fair enough. *nod* I've seen both spellings, e.g. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". But in Tolkien and other fantasy novels, it's "Dwarves". So I wasn't sure which one was right. Thanks.