Why is it spelled "dwarfs" instead of "dwarves"? Explain, Tolkien

Why is it spelled "dwarfs" instead of "dwarves"? Explain, Tolkien.

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Originally it was going to be just one dwarf but then he added some more and had to add an s in some places while hoping nobody would notice.

That explanation will not appease my aunt, the grammar nazi. She is pissed.

See the appendixes of Return of the King

My grandma also got pissed when she saw the "Seven Dwarfs" ride at Disneyland.

Why would it be dwarves?

That is typically how words ending in f are pluralized.

You're backwards: Tolkien fought for "dwarves" against his editors, because only "dwarfs" was accepted traditionally. In a foreword to The Hobbit, published in 1937 he writes: "In English, the only correct plural of 'dwarf' is 'dwarfs' and the adjective is 'dwarfish'. In this story 'dwarves' and 'dwarvish' are used, but only when speaking of the ancient people to whom Thorin Oakenshield and his companions belonged."

In appendix F to The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien gives a further explanation: "But in the Third Age something of their old character and power is still glimpsed... these are the descendants of the Naugrim of the Elder Days... in whose hands still lives the skill in work of stone that none have surpassed. It is to mark this that I have ventured to use the form 'dwarves', and remove them a little, perhaps, from the sillier tales of these latter days."

So, "dwarves" was coined by Tolkien about 80 years ago to give his dwarves a dignity that dwarfs could hardly attain. So successful have his stories been that "dwarves" seems to be superseding "dwarfs" as the regular plural of "dwarf". Whether "dwarvish" will oust the insulting word "dwarfish" is doubtful.

Meanwhile, let us at least be consistent and not mix dwarves and dwarfs in the same paragraph. And let us also remember that the title of the 1938 Disney movie is and remains Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

what were they riding?

Me.