Dwarf Lore

Dwarfish lore is a little studied discipline. One reason for this is that dwarfs are not great ones for writing things down. They might carve a few runes on the odd tree here and there but these are usually directions rather than philosophy (although there are those who will interpret them as both) and they may occasionally be motivated to jot down a sentence or two but these are usually Wills, Documents of Title or Lists of Chattels (also know as Domesday Records).

The only dwarfs likely to put quill to parchment are the beardless runts. These dwarfs generally lack the usual skills of fighting , drinking and spitting but natural selection has favoured the survivors to adulthood with the ability to learn to read and write and has given them a little understood - after all who cares anyway - desire to write things down. One such famous runt is Snurri the Scribbler, the archivist of one of the few extant copies of the Book of Dwarf (in his words) or, "that runt wot made up the Book of Dwarf story," in the words of many less well read dwarfs.

Normally, information about the ancestors of dwarfs is to be found in the oral tradition of the Eddas or Sagas. Here any dwarf, literate or otherwise, can find all that he or she might need to know about who killed who and when (and more importantly, how). Rarely, these Sagas were written down by enterprising and highly literate dwarfs who usually had few or no battle skills. (Referred to with little affection as runts.)

Occasionally and rarely the Eddas record a little more than the history of fights and provide an interesting window onto the lives , deaths and the workings of the dwarfish mind.

The only other written record of the dwarfish world is the famous and hitherto undiscovered, Book of Dwarf. However, this extraordinary book is steeped in as much myth as the Fire Drakes of Karg. Snurri the Scribbler, an avid Kriks Krak player and renowned runt, documented what he believed was divine revelation of the Book of Dwarf that came to him in a dream. His tale is here.