#thedwarrowscholar

Well met! After many messages, questions, and (at times not so) quiet suffering, the Excel-based dictionaries have been taken offline and replaced with a temporary online dictionary search tool.

Yes. No more scrolling. No more search issues. No more PCs freezing at 1 a.m. after loading a file for over half an hour.

The Full and Compressed Excel dictionaries are currently being updated and reworked. This will eventually result in a new, integrated dictionary tool hosted directly on the website. Until that work is finished, the online search fills the gap nicely.

The current search tool is a community contribution by Maciej Suski and is hosted on his own site, not on The Dwarrow Scholar website. It offers fast, clean access to the Neo-Khuzdul dictionary without the need to wrestle spreadsheets into submission.

Note, however, that the results still reflect the data from the existing Excel-based dictionaries. The dictionary update, along with the new integrated tool, will follow later, as mentioned. All part of the overhaul happening now on the library section of the site.

Consider this a temporary solution, but a very welcome one. And yes, I know that for some of you this answers prayers long whispered into the void of Excel.

I'm suspecting you're asking where I found the phrases for my Dwalin Has a Bad Day fic? If you're searching for Sindarin phrases or a dictionary, check out this website. It contains other elven languages too and is one of the best dictionaries around.

And if you're interested in Khuzdul - Tolkien himself hadn't developed the language fully, but @thedwarrowscholar created NeoKhuzdul based on Tolkien's writings. Here you can find NeoKhuzdul lessons, dictionary, useful phrases and so on. I use this resource every time I write my Tolkien fics. You won't find a better resource online for Dwarves and their language.

Every now and then, I receive questions that stray a bit (or a lot) from Tolkien, Dwarves, or (Neo-) Khuzdul. Nothing too intrusive—don’t worry—but more personal curiosities: “What are your hobbies?”, “What’s your background?”, and even, after the release of our semi-nude calendar (yes, that happened), “What’s your orientation?”

I’ve always made it a point to keep my personal life in the background here. Not out of secrecy, but simply because I wanted The Dwarrow Scholar to focus on the Dwarves, their language, and lore—not on the one behind the curtain. With the possible exception of my end-of-year rambles, I’ve tried to stay behind the runes, so to speak.

I never set out to make this about me. But after years of questions—and kindness from this community—I figured it was time to offer a little glimpse at the one behind the stone wall. Heads-up: if you're just here for Dwarves, Khuzdul, and the like—feel free to skip this one entirely.

📆 About that Calendar...

Let’s address the elephant in the forge.

Yes, there was a semi-nude Dwarvish calendar. No, it wasn’t entirely serious.

It started as a simple, genuine idea—I wanted to create a physical Dwarvish calendar with proper Neo-Khuzdul months, cultural motifs, the whole nine yards.

Then a friend casually joked:

“Oh, like those fireman calendars?”

And I couldn’t unsee it: Half-naked dwarves posing with hammers, anvil glistening, beard windswept. Too absurd not to bring to life. So we did. You’re welcome. Or I’m sorry. Possibly both.

🌱 Hobbies

Over the past few years, gardening has become my main thing ("obsession"?). I now live in a beautiful, hilly part of Flanders called the Flemish Ardennes—a land of rolling hills (Think The Shire—but with better beer. Truth. Deal with it, Hobbits.), known for its cycling mainly.

A look at a section of the garden I've created

Plum trees are abundant in my garden (amongst other trees), and I've even started making homemade plum liqueur from them. It’s surprisingly decent. Brewing beer has somewhat crept into the background too (when in Rome).

I don’t watch sports often, but I do have a few faithful loyalties:

As a somewhat fierce fan, I’ve resigned myself to the Toronto Maple Leafs’ yearly playoff disappointment.

Luckily, my joy levels were high thanks to Wrexham’s earlier promotion to the EFL Championship. (And no—I didn’t hop on the Hollywood bandwagon. I’ve followed Wrexham since I was a kid. Still, I’m cheering them on.)

Why these two teams, far from the Belgian coast where I grew up? Well, trips to Wales and fanatic hockey-fan uncles go a long way toward explaining that.

And I’d be remiss not to mention Lili, my white Chow Chow—a four-year-old ball of fluff and sunshine who’s easily the friendliest creature in the entire Flemish Ardennes. She supervises all garden activity with quiet dignity (and frequent naps).

These past two years I’ve also been developing a fantasy management game—a single-player project where you run a Dwarven fighting stable.

You’ll train warriors, forge gear, negotiate with sponsors, go on quests, learn the lore of the land, mine for resources, and aim to win the Emperor’s Cup. It’s a blend of tactics, unique rich lore, and stubborn Dwarven grit, naturally.

More on that when it's ready to leave the mountain.

🎭 Background

Believe it or not, my background has nothing to do with linguistics, fantasy, or Tolkien studies. I actually studied the arts, and ended up in a completely unrelated career. But languages? That’s been a passion since childhood.

Long before I knew the word “conlang,” I was creating imaginary languages in my notebooks for fun. I grew up in a multilingual family and country, which helped—but really, I just enjoyed puzzling through grammar systems like some people enjoy crossword puzzles.

I speak Dutch, English, French, some German, and have dabbled in Japanese, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, and Hebrew.

🪓 Why Khuzdul?

Khuzdul pulled me in not just because it’s the language of the Dwarves, but because it’s very unlike anything else in Middle-earth.

It’s Semitic in structure—structured, yet mysterious and methodical. There’s beauty and hidden meaning in every root. Yes, it can be daunting at first—especially without a Semitic background. But you don’t need to be a trained linguist to enjoy or explore it. Curiosity and patience go further than any degree.

🌈 The Other Question...

Some asked about orientation—fair question, given the tone of my calendar. I’m a straight fellow, with an open and accepting mind. Been happily married to my wife for nearly ten years (together for twenty), and I deeply respect the spectrum of identities others bring to this community. You're all welcome here.

✨ Fun Fact Speed-Round!

First Dwarvish word I ever coined? Honestly, I can’t recall—it’s been thirty years...

Favourite Khuzdul root? Probably [KhGR], which is one of the rare winks to my local childhood dialect. A “kegge” is West-Flemish for “big nose,” and that’s exactly where KhGR came from—it’s now the Neo-Khuzdul root for “nose.” Most personal Khuzdul word I’ve coined? That would be ugloriskhûna—meaning “wise woman known for kindness, humour, and the ability to enjoy life.” The word (and its meaning) was inspired by the nickname of a dear friend of mine.

Most surprising moment? When I visited HobbitCon in Bonn, Germany. I dropped by the booth of the German Tolkien Society to say hello to a kind acquaintance—only she wasn’t there. Instead, someone had a full-on fan moment and asked for a picture with me.

Most moving request I’ve ever received? Someone once asked me to translate a poem for the funeral of their brother.

Best compliment I’ve received? I get more praise than I feel I deserve—but one that truly warmed my heart was:

“You would have made Tolkien proud.”

Most ridiculous runic request? Well, aside from someone asking me to translate The Hobbit in its entirety (which would take me years), nothing truly “ridiculous.” Folks ask because they’re curious—and that’s never a bad thing. That said... the biggest chuckle? A tattoo request for “Meat is back on the menu”—to be inked on a very private part of the body.

And just so you know who’s been rambling behind the beard all this time—here’s a noble mashup a friend made of me, in full Gimli regalia. (Yes, that’s me. No, I don’t imagine I swing an axe nearly as well.)

If you’ve read this far—thank you. Thank you all for being part of this strange and wonderful journey. Your curiosity, kindness, and shared love for Dwarves have kept the forge warm. I hope this answers some of the more personal questions that found their way into the queue. Now, let’s get back to the runes, shall we?

Hello there, As I get this question rather regularly I decided to post this one publicly instead of the usual private answers to tumblr requests. Some folks ask the full movie quote: "Loyalty, honor, a willing heart…I can ask no more than that." So, if you don't mind, I'll translate/transcribe that, this way I'm as complete as I can be (and you can always cut the bit off that you don't need). Note that there are a few ways of translating "willing heart", but I believe the most fitting translation of this full quote would be:

"Amnâs, akrâg, kurdu mandur, kâziri lakmi tada."

Literally meaning: Loyalty, honour, heart containing-will, can-(I)-ask no-more-than that. Rendered in runes this would be:

I’m actually having a LOT of fun translating various bits and pieces to khuzdul, be they relevant to Blomma or not. Here’s a few: (cw mestruation) 

 Short stuff:

Orcrist: Rukhsabrak (straightforward, ‘orc-cleaver’) 

Sting: Mahabdak (stinger, non-person-form) This wasn’t in dwarrow scholar’s dictionary as is, so it might be off. (root B-D-K, relating to shooting, and mah- seemed to be the prefix for 'to sting’ verbs) 

northern lights! I have the literal 'lukhûd fuhmâ’, 'tharkhkund'arus’ from Finnish *revontulet* 'fox fire’, and then the one I think I’ll use: 'uhrâs Mahalul = great flames of Mahal. Like Durin’s Crown of Stars, northern lights could also be seen as a result of Mahal/Aule’s forge (forgive me for leaving the ümlaut out but I’m too tired to check where it belongs and I’ll rather leave it out than put it in the wrong place) 

 Sentences: 

Dai kamadarafai mi bulumrathkhshumr. (Eng. “She could be killed with a glove”) from that 'rukkasellatapettava’ post earlier this month

Tafradi azafr bark ni durzu = 'Fits like an ax in the face’ another corruption of a Finnish saying (sopii kuin nyrkki naamaan, 'fits like a fist in the face’, ie. like a glove in hand) Then of course there already exists the idiom 'maznaslâtdurzu’, 'a face badly in need of a fist’

Tagshari kuzde’ Nûlukhkhuzd duzi khuzdul? = 'What (kind of) Petty-dwarf taught you Khuzdul?’ I’m not certain of the word order here, though. I also went through a *lot* of variations for this, as it was one of the first sentences that I translated, but I think this one is closest to what I’m looking for.

Birashagammi tada abligi khuzdul, khama ma ashbati asjârlagb. = 'I’m sorry I’m speaking Khuzdul, but I don’t speak Westron.’ Whoops, is this spoilers for Blomma? Oh well. This one was also written a few times in various forms. Did you know the khuzdul word for westron means literally 'trade language’?

Malgibruki bibînlagb tada lanz ni Ubsatzahar, lô? Oh god this was a fun one. What’s it say? Well, I think about “we spoke english that one night in Healer’s Den, didn’t we?” An exercise in creative khuzdul, note my 'bibînlagb’ for 'english’ (lit. angle-place-language) and 'healer-home’ for “Healer’s Den” (“Parantajain Pesä”, a *Finnish* warrior cats fansite, which is why speaking english was worth mentioning. 'healer-home’ formed after 'zunshzahar’ bird-home, ie. nest) Also I’m not certain 'lô?’ can be used that way. Don’t take this one seriously, it happened because my head was concocting a discussion between myself and the others that went something like “lay off the khuzdul already” and I’d reply with this. 

 Insults:

 Now, I wanted something else than the “Ish kakfe…” thing for Thorin to say to Thranduil, so I did some thinking. Dwarves value children (and women) because their numbers are so low. Thus, the gravest insults are probably aimed at women, but not in the slut-shaming sense we humans tend to do. (Dwarves would likely see sex in a very positive light)

“May all your women die!”: Imridî shankhâna-mêzun! (traitor-ladies) aimed at elves, using … more impolite wording for women. Note the 'your’ which means that I wrote this to be aimed at a specific individual (or well, a group, bc plural -n) So if I’m thinking right, plain 'Imridî shankhâna!’ would be “Die you traitors” aimed at a group of females

Izrih ni damum naddan-mêzu! = 'I hope you drown in the blood of your children’ (go drown…) I wasn’t quite yet ready to translate what I wanted, so this was a milder form. Drowning in the blood of one’s children means pretty much the end of a family line, so it’s pretty bad for dwarves anyway. (Aimed at a male individual. Can you see I’m aiming all these at Thranduil?

Izrih ni madrdammu yusthûna-mêzu = … “Drown in your wife’s periods!” Aye, I went there. This was the one that took me a while, because ofc 'periods’ aren’t in the dictionary (and there no indication in canon this way or that regarding how exactly dwarves reproduce so this stuff comes down to headcanons) so I had to form that word first. madrdamâm = womb-blood. Avoiding all moon or month related terms, since they’re dwarves and it’s medieval times so periods would NOT be a monthly affair any way (I wrote this thinking that having constant (like literally constant) periods = not able to get pregnant, so that would be another insult, but *technically* you can still get pregnant during your period so even that’s not true. A more proper insult then would be to just wish infertility on said wife.) Of course, this one being aimed at Thranduil is kinda adding insult to injury.

And of course finally I went back to the immature 'ish kakfe’ territory and *had* to write down this one:

An Elf, a Dwarf, a Hobbit, and a Man all sat down at a table in a tavern and decided to have a friendly drinking contest to see who could hold the most ale before passing out.

It was only a three rounds in before the Hobbit, not used to such strong drink, fell out of his chair. The Dwarf laughed, proclaiming himself only amlâkmagathlul. It was only another two rounds before the Man conceded, bowing out of the contest before he completely lost his wits. The Dwarf chided him, calling him a shâlakugthal.

Many more rounds passed, with both the Elf and Dwarf seeming to hold strong. But after nearly 20 rounds of the tavern's finest ale, the Elf closed his eyes and did not open them again, leading the crowd to believe he had passed out. Thew Dwarf, realizing himself the victor, stood up to let out a cheer, but given he was durharuhakmâth, no intelligible words came out. He enjoyed a few more drinks that other patrons bought him to celebrate his victory, before finally he collapsed on the floor, snoring loudly.

bekhazsatf - traditional dwarvish dance conducted during weddings or other celebrations (festivals, new year, or informal gatherings).