OT again: Tolkien

[Oyvind J. Karstad]

> Looking up the word at www.m-w.com, it would appear that, indeed,
> "dwarves" is an accepted form of the plural for "dwarf". However,
> I remember reading, and a bit of internet search seems to confirm
> this, that in Tolkien's time "dwarfs" had been the only correct
> spelling, and that Tolkien made up the plural "dwarves" to set
> his dwarves apart from other kinds of dwarfs.

In addition to writing books, Tolkien was a respected professor in philology.
I seem to remember, that when Tolkien's editor told him 
that the right form should be "dwarfs", and referred to the dictionary, 
Tolkien replied (something like):
"Well, I wrote that dictionary, and now I've changed my mind".
:-)

Oyvind J. Karstad