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.

Neo-Khuzdul comes to LoTRO

Well met all! As part of the updated neo-khuzdul material (that has been finished and will be available in the very near future)… lessons will be offered to all you dwarves out there that are a bit rusty on the … Continue reading

Posted in Durin's Folk Kinship, Events, Language | 3 Comments

A present for you….. at last.

After a hiatus of a few months, finally a full length post on the Dwarrow Scholar blog. Reason why I shamelessly abandoned the fabulous readers of this blog ? I was utterly consumed by a present. “A present?”, you say. … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 21 Comments

Goal! By Thorin Oakenshield

With the FIFA World Cup about to kick off I thought this might be an excellent idea for a bit of Middle Earth trivia about football.   For those of you outraged at the very idea that I dare mention … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Insulting Elves

Update: June 20th: David Salo has since published a detailed explanation of the phrase seen in the films.   Thank you for that David.   All updates in the below article are placed in italic.   As many have requested my … Continue reading

Posted in Language | 30 Comments

The Dwarrow Scholar needs you!

Well met! Those that are giving me a somewhat angry look… mercy please! *starts waving a little white flag*.  It has indeed been a tremendous long time since my last post… and I’ve kept everyone waiting for the updated materials… … Continue reading

Posted in Language | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

Kili’s Runestone

SPOILER ALERT There has been some discussion of late related to Kili’s Runestone featured in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. The Big question most have is (apart from why doesn’t WETA™ already have this in their shop?)… “what do … Continue reading

Posted in Language, Writings | Tagged , , , , , | 33 Comments

Delving the Dwarrowdelf

When the fellowship journeys through the long dark of Moria they at one point arrive at one of the Great Halls of Khazad-dûm.  This is where Gimli sings to the fellowship of Durin and the Dwarrowdelf (changed to Gandalf briefly … Continue reading

Posted in History, LoTRO, Maps | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Durin! And the winner is…

In a not so distant past I launched a contest to label a true Dwarven ale with the Deathless name of “Durin!”. I asked artists (and beer-lovers alike) to design a front and back label for this delicious ale, and … Continue reading

Posted in Food, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Queen Dís ? (Dwarven Customs of Succession)

Some time ago I asked everyone to send me any question you might have concerning the Dwarves. As a result I got a wonderful collection of questions, of which I have already attempted to answer some in previous blog posts. One … Continue reading

Posted in Characters | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Durin! Bottled

As I’ve received quite a few of emails asking for a sneak peek at our Dwarven Ale “Durin!“, I just couldn’t bring myself to disappoint you fine folks and had to drag myself to the brewery for another tasting.   … Continue reading

Posted in Food | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments