The word “dwarves,” was (more or less) invented by J. R. R. Tolkien. The “proper” spelling is “dwarfs,” but the Professor had his own secret purposes.

Someone posted the following video on Facebook, and it interested me enough to share it here. Armorer Tony Swatton creates a replica of Gimli’s axe from the “Lord of the Rings” movies, but does it in a traditional Damascus style. The results are impressive.

This particular axe (John Rhys-Davies actually carries three) is a stylized version of a Viking bearded axe (“bearded” refers to the extended lower horn of the cutting edge). The technique used here, however, is not the sort of damascening the Norse did. Viking pattern welding involved twisting together bundles of rods with differing carbon content, so that strength and flexibility would be maximized (or so they hoped).

I inserted a dwarf into Hailstone Mountain, in a scene I like quite a lot. My dwarves (dwarfs?) are a little different from Tolkien’s, though.