Dwarves and the Scottish accent

[freknu]

I just came upon an unusual yet highly intriguing question on — drum roll, please — youtube, of all places.

Why do dwarves in fantasy almost ubiquitously speak with a Scottish accent? I guessed it had something to do with Dungeons & Dragons, and someone pointed out that one of the creators of D&D was apparently influenced by a novel called "Three Hearts and Three Lions", in which there were dwarves with a Scottish accent. Apart from that, it seems to be an utter mystery.

Why DO dwarves in fantasy almost ubiquitously speak with a Scottish accent?

Any thoughts?

[MalFet]

Oddly enough, Tolkein used his philology chops to design a language for his dwarves that resembled Semitic. The Scottish thing must have come later.

Fantasy races and monsters have long been a way for people to process the ethnic landscape of their time. My hunch would be that Scottish dwarves find their roots somehow tied to post war ambivalence about the British Union, but that's entirely a guess. It's an interesting question! Let us know what you find.

[Daniel]

I can't answer this, but I am amused by the question

I wonder if it has something to do with the beards and look (although that might be circular).

This google search seems to bring up images of people who resemble the cultural image of 'dwarves' in fantasy:
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=scottish+man+beard