Author Archives: The Dwarrow Scholar

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About The Dwarrow Scholar

My fascination with Tolkien began early, with a battered copy of The Hobbit given to me by my uncle. I read it obsessively, then reread it, and when I was old enough to own a Walkman, I even recorded my own cassette version so I could listen to it while cycling to school. Long before the internet made information easy to find, I spent countless hours in libraries, hunting down anything I could about Tolkien and, in particular, his Dwarves. That early fascination never really went away. Over the years it developed into a sustained and structured engagement with Tolkien’s legendarium, especially the Dwarvish languages and cultures. Under the name The Dwarrow Scholar, I focus primarily on Neo-Khuzdul, Tolkien’s notes on Dwarves, and the careful expansion and teaching of those ideas in a way that respects both the source material and linguistic plausibility. Through www.dwarrowscholar.com , I publish articles, reference material, and language resources, and I also give structured lessons in Neo-Khuzdul to students. What began as fandom gradually grew into long-term research, teaching, and writing. When I am not working on Neo-Khuzdul or answering questions from fellow Tolkien enthusiasts, I enjoy time with my wife and son, revisiting well-worn Tolkien paperbacks, learning languages, watching a good film, or unwinding with games like The Lord of the Rings Online and other Dwarf-adjacent distractions.

Slow to Be Born, On Dwarven Reproduction

A Reconsideration of Dwarven Gestation Length It has been a long while since I last posted on this blog, as I have mainly been writing through Tumblr in recent years, often in the form of replies to questions rather than … Continue reading

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SSG, let’s talk Dwarves!

Last week I had the distinct pleasure to talk with Standing Stone Games’ Jerry Snook (LoTRO Community Manager) and Chris Pierson (LoTRO Lead World Builder) to muse about dwarves in LOTRO (being The Dwarrow Scholar… what else, right?). After last … Continue reading

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Honouring those that fell

As a few of you may know, when I’m not working on the dwarvish dictionary, replying to some of your wonderful Tumblr questions, or posting other material available through http://www.dwarrowscholar.com, I greatly enjoy roaming LOTRO, Middle Earth as created by Standing Stone Games. So, … Continue reading

Posted in Language, LoTRO, Writings | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

“TDS Dwarvish” a free new font to make writing in dwarvish runes easier.

Writing in Khuzdul, while not transcribing it in Latin characters but using the proper runes can be a big challenge, especially given the fact that most runic fonts seem to have the character mappings wrong.  Meaning that if you type … Continue reading

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The Return of Durin! / Tumblr Contest

UPDATE 31st May: Please confirm your entry via message on tumblr (more info here)   Brewing ale has always been a passion of mine. Yet for many years it was only something that happened in books for me, and occasionally … Continue reading

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Khuzdul in the Battle of Five Armies Movie

Hello my friends, Many people have asked me over the past year or so to translate the Dwarvish lines spoken in the Battle of the Five armies movie. Though it took a tremendous amount of time to translate these (for … Continue reading

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Tolkien Language Haiku Contest on Middle-Earth News

It is with great pride and excitement I can announce that I will be one of the judges at the first ever Tolkien Language Haiku Contest on Middle-Earth News, as part of the Tolkien Week celebrations. As Middle-Earth finds its … Continue reading

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Translation Tool, Updated Dictionaries… and a tired Dwarrow Scholar

Hail friends! Firstly, I fear this will be a long post, so bear with me. Here’s the short version for those eager to get started in all that is new. Quite a few people have been very appreciative about the … Continue reading

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Fancy LotRO RP in Neo-Khuzdul? Now you can!

Update: The plugin-in should actually work on a Mac. Hail! Remember I spoke about a tool for LotRO Dwarf RPers, allowing them to speak Dwarvish with the click of a button (or two)…. well, without further ado, I present to … Continue reading

Posted in Language, LoTRO | 12 Comments

Updates to come

As some of you may have noticed, David Salo (the linguist responsible for the Neo-Khuzdul in the Hobbit movies) has recently released (and continues to do so) much of his notes related to these films on his wonderful site midgardsmal. … Continue reading

Posted in Language, LoTRO | 6 Comments