Creepy fact: The old Germanic tribes associated dwarves with spirits of the dead--short, shriveled, and inhabiting the earth, like buried bodies. Many of Tolkien's names for dwarves actually have rather morbid connotations: Dain = corpse; Nain = buried one; Dwalin = one in a death-like trance. We're glad that Tolkien's dwarves are so much more lively than their ancestral namesakes!
Published on December 04, 2014 19:41