Guild Wars 2

GW dwarves turn to stone, WoW dwarves can also turn into stone.

There is a similarity. I want to know where this trope came from.

Dwarves come from Norse mythology originally, in which they were also often referred to what is translated as “dark elves” (go figure). In Norse mythology, dwarves/dark elves were underground blacksmith miners who lived underground simply due to the fact that they couldn’t survive above ground. Y’see, when a dwarf wakitten directly by sunlight, they would turn into a statue – it was death to the original concept of dwarves to touch sunlight.

Then Tolkien changed it to trolls and the rest is history.

I think trolls had that trait before Tolkien. So there may be a common root between dwarves and trolls.

^— Yup. Trolls (and Jotunn) are also from Norse mythology and the whole turning to stone thing was commonly used as well.

Scandinavia has many strange geological formations that look vaguely like weathered humanoid statues, mostly due to the cold and oceanic erosion. The stories about Dwarves and other species turning to stone was probably an attempt to explain that. I don’t think we should discuss the Ancient Astronaut Theorists take on such things…

It is worth noting that in Scandinavian folklore, the distinctions between elves, dwarves and trolls were not always clear. What they were and what they did varied by time and place (e.g., Swedish and Danish folklore were different, 9th century was different from 12th century, etc.). In Christian Sweden, trolls looked exactly like human women but had tail they hid. In pre-Christian Norway, trolls were very tall, had swollen noses and fingers and did not look human as adults (troll babies looked human). Dwarves went from being taller than humans to shorter with time. Jotun were human sized and later giants. Religion and folklore are not static. Look at the changing conceptions of zombies in American folklore over the past century. What do zombies today have in common with 16th century West African vodun? They were all once not zombies, and that is about all.