JRR Tolkein who, as an OED editor, knew better and said in his foreword to his books that the 'v' form was correct but he was using 'f' when he pluralised it for some reason I can't remember now
From my dim memory I think the suggestion was that the Tolkein's creatures were his own invention and not the same as dwarfs/dwarves described by any dictionary - so he was free to give them their own name (and plural thereof) - any similarity of the name being purely coincidental. I think there was a similar argument with Elves/Elfs - and the typesetters for an American version of one of the books 'correcting' the original spelling - much to JRRT's annoyance.
JRR Tolkein who, as an OED editor, knew better and said in his foreword to his books that the 'v' form was correct but he was using 'f' when he pluralised it for some reason I can't remember now
From my dim memory I think the suggestion was that the Tolkein's creatures were his own invention and not the same as dwarfs/dwarves described by any dictionary - so he was free to give them their own name (and plural thereof) - any similarity of the name being purely coincidental. I think there was a similar argument with Elves/Elfs - and the typesetters for an American version of one of the books 'correcting' the original spelling - much to JRRT's annoyance.
