Editing Drow (section)

== Creative origins ==
The word "drow" originates from the [[Orcadian dialect|Orcadian]] and [[Shetland dialect|Shetland]] dialects of [[Scots language|Scots]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/getent4.php?plen%3D11075%26startset%3D44442733%26query%3DTROW%26fhit%3Dtrowe%26dregion%3Dentry%26dtext%3Dsnd#fhit |title=DSL-SND1: Trow |access-date=2009-11-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110526192047/http://www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/getent4.php?plen=11075&startset=44442733&query=TROW&fhit=trowe&dregion=entry&dtext=snd |archive-date=2011-05-26 }}</ref> an alternative form of "[[Trow (folklore)|trow]]",<ref name="Dark Warrior Rising" /> which is a cognate with "[[troll]]". The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' gives no entry for "drow", but two of the citations under "trow" name it as an alternative form of the word. Trow/drow was used to refer to a wide variety of evil sprites. Everything about the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' drow was invented by ''Dungeons & Dragons'' co-creator [[Gary Gygax]] except for the basic concept of "dark elves".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://geocities.com/rgfdfaq/sources.html|access-date=2023-02-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091027151422/http://geocities.com/rgfdfaq/sources.html |archive-date=2009-10-27 | title=Literary Sources of D&D|editor= Aardy R DeVarque}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=December 2013}} However, in the [[Prose Edda]], [[Snorri Sturluson]] wrote about the [[Svartálfar|black elves]]: "... the dark elves however live down below the ground. ... [and] are blacker than pitch."<ref name="Krause">{{cite book|last=Krause|first=Arnulf|author-link=Arnulf Krause|title=Die wirkliche Mittelerde  Tolkiens Mythologie und ihre Wurzeln im Mittelalter (German)|publisher=Theiss|year=2012|isbn=978-3-8062-2478-8}}</ref>{{rp|103}}

Gygax stated that "Drow are mentioned in [[Thomas Keightley (historian)|Keightley]]'s ''The Fairy Mythology'', as I recall (it might have been ''The Secret Commonwealth''—neither book is before me, and it is not all that important anyway), and as Dark Elves of evil nature, they served as an ideal basis for the creation of a unique new mythos designed especially for the ''AD&D'' game."<ref>"Books Are Books, Games Are Games" in ''Dragon Magazine'', Nov. 1979, #31</ref> Gygax later stated that he took the term from a listing in the ''Funk & Wagnall's Unexpurgated Dictionary'', and no other source at all. "I wanted a most unusual race as the main power in the Underdark, so used the reference to 'dark elves' from the dictionary to create the Drow."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.enworld.org/forum/3813928-post34.html|title=Gygaxian Monsters | page=4|website=Enworld.org|access-date=28 January 2018|archive-date=19 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319233123/http://www.enworld.org/forum/3813928-post34.html|url-status=live}}</ref> There seems to be no work with this title. However, the following entry can be found in abridged editions of Funk & Wagnall's ''Standard Dictionary of the English Language'', such as ''The Desk Standard Dictionary of the English Language'': "[Scot.] In folk-lore, one of a race of underground elves represented as skillful workers in metal. Compare TROLL. [Variant of TROLL.] trow " {{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}