Drow influenced by trow
Creative origins
The word "drow" originates from the Orcadian and Shetland dialects of Scots, an alternative form of "trow", 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". However, in the Prose Edda, Snorri Sturluson wrote about the black elves: "... the dark elves however live down below the ground. ... [and] are blacker than pitch.": 103 Gygax stated, "Drow are mentioned in 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." The form "drow" can be found in neither work. 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." 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 "