North Germanic languages

The North Germanic languages, Norse or Scandinavian languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages, along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages like Gothic.

In a letter to Naomi Mitchison, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote that:

Most of the non-English names in The Hobbit are Norse (mostly from a list of Dwarves found in Voluspa and the Gylfaginning) although anglicized, such as Gandalfr, Durinn, Dvalinn, Þrór, Eikinskjaldi, Jarknasteinn, Beorn, Bard, Smaug and Golfimbul.

In the backstory developed for The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien explained that Durin's Folk, after migrating to Erebor, adopted the language of Dale for their names when interacting with Men because their secretive nature prevented them from using Khuzdul. Names in The Lord of the Rings like Gimli, Narvi and Forn are also Norse.

Tolkien never gives the "original" Dalish forms, however the Norse translations fit conveniently their meaning; for example Dwarf relations - like father-son or brothers- have rhyming or similar names (cf. Glóin-Gróin-Óin, Thrór-Frór-Grór, Fíli-Kíli etc) possibly reflecting a similar relationship in their original forms.

Norse used Runes for a writing system, however Tolkien in The Hobbit used Old English runes.