Why in all fantasy works do small people (halflings, dwarves) always cook food magnificently?
Why in all fantasy works do small people (halflings, dwarves) always cook food magnificently?
26 comments
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Because Tolkien said they do, and everyone’s copying Tolkien. Yes, I’m no fun at parties.
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“J.R.R. Tolkien has become a sort of mountain, appearing in all subsequent fantasy in the way that Mt. Fuji appears so often in Japanese prints. Sometimes it’s big and up close. Sometimes it’s a shape on the horizon. Sometimes it’s not there at all, which means that the artist either has made a deliberate decision against the mountain, which is interesting in itself, or is in fact standing on Mt. Fuji.” - Terry Pratchett
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I don't think dwarves are known for their food in any setting, only their alcoholic drinks
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Dwarf bread is rock-hard (and indeed contains various rocks such as gravel), never goes stale, and is terribly sustaining. A traveller can go for miles, just knowing there's dwarf bread in their pack. A traveller can think of just about anything to eat rather than dwarf bread, including their own foot.
Various forms of dwarf bread can be used as weapons, e.g. battle muffins and drop scones.
Proper dwarf bread has to be not just baked, but forged and dropped in rivers and dried out, and sat on and left, and looked at every day and then put away again. For preference, its use as a cat's litter box is also recommended.
Dwarfs generally devour it with their eyes, because even dwarfs have trouble with devouring it any other way.(from various Discworld novels)
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Wasn't original beer more of a grain soup that lasted longer? I'd imagine drawven alcohol to be basically a protein shake in a way
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Honey and butter mead. The gods' nectar.
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A guinness a day, keeps the doctor away..?
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A cider a day keeps the doctor away
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Yeah, I'm not aware of any "dwarves make good food" tropes.
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Dwarves are not small in the first place anyway. Small races are below 1,20m tall. Dwarves are around 1,30-1,50m tall. They are short, but not small.
In comparison, humans are only 10-30cm taller on average with their 1,60-1,80m heights.They may appear smaller because they are stockier and wider. So unless you see them next to a human, you won't realize they are only about a head or so sorter.
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You're probably right. I've never seen them next to a human before.
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"You're the best, Lloyd!"
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When your size requires constant caloric intake, you eat 5 meals a day. You eventually get really good at it.
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It's actually reproducable in british fiction, even when Terry Pratchett writes fantasy the good food is foreign (Klatchian)
I made Klatchian food once, mixed noodles with curry.
Turned out great.
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Tolkien was actually around before (post)wartime rationing decimated British food standards.
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Tolkien was actually around before (post)wartime rationing decimated British food standards.
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No idea. My uncle Joe has dwarfism and he makes a mean bowl of Count Chocula.
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Small folk in fairy tales are the yeomen of the worlds. People of the land. Makes sense they are more focused on earthly pleasures than world domination, like most regular folks naturally are.
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I mean.. it is universally agreed upon that the best food in the real world is from people in tropical regions (India, Mexico, etc.), where people are generally shorter..
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haven't you heard about all the cuisine around the Mediterranean or was it included in the "etc"?
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26 comments