Chapter 17

The leading features of elvish nature seem to be the following:---

Man's body holds a medium between those of the giant and the elf; an elf comes as much short of human size as a giant towers above it. All elves are imagined as small and tiny, but the light ones as well-formed and symmetrical, the black as ugly and misshapen. The former are radiant with exquisite beauty, and wear shining garments: the AS. œlfsciene, Cædm. 109, 23. 165, 11, sheen as an elf, bright as angels, the ON. 'frîð sem âlfkona,' fair as elfin [[literally - fair as an elf-woman or elf-wife]], express the height of female loveliness. In Rudlieb xvii. 27 a dwarf, on being caught, calls his wife out of the cave, she immediately appears, 'parva, nimis pulchra, sed et auro vesteque compta.' Fornald. sög. 1, 387 has: 'þat fôlk, er âlfar hêtu, at þat var miklu frîðara enn önnur mankind.' The Engl. elves are slender and puny: Falstaff (1 Henry IV. i. 4) calls Prince Henry 'you starveling, you elfskin!' (24) The dwarf adds to his repulsive hue an ill-shaped body, a humped back, and coarse clothing; when elves and dwarfs came to be mixed up together the graceful figure of the one was transferred to the other, yet sometimes the dwarfs expressly retain the black or grey complexion: 'svart i synen,' p. 457; 'a little black mannikin,' Kinderm. no. 92; 'grey mannikin,' Büsching's Wöch. nach. 1, 98. Their very height is occasionally specified: now they attain the stature of a four years' child, (25) now they appear a great deal smaller, to be measured by the span or thumb: 'kûme drîer spannen lanc, gar eislich getân,' Elfenm. cxvi.; two spans high, Deut. sag. no. 42; a little wight, 'reht als ein dûmelle lanc,' a thumb long, Altd. bl. 2, 151; 'ein kleinez weglin (l. wihtlîn) dûmeln lanc,' Ls. 1, 378. In one Danish lay, the smallest trold is no bigger than an ant, D.V. 1, 176. Hence in fairy tales däumling (thumbling, petit poucet) indicates a dwarfish figure; the daktuloj Idaioj is to be derived from daktuloj (finger); pugmaioj pigmæus from pugmh (fist); the O. Pruss. parstuck, perstuck, a dwarf, from Lith. pirsztas, Slav. perst, prst (finger); and a Bohem. name for a dwarf, pjdimuzjk = span-mannikin, from pjd' (span). (26) In Sansk. bâlakhilya = geniorum genus, pollicis magnitudinem aequans, sixty thousand of them sprang out of Brahma's hair, Bopp's Gloss. Skr. p. 122ª (ed. 2, p. 238b); bâla, bâlaka=puer, parvulus, the 'ilya' I do not understand. There are curious stories told about the deformity of dwarfs' feet, which are said to be like those of geese or ducks; (27) conf. queen Berhta, p. 280, and the swan-maidens, p. 429. One is also reminded of the blatevüeze, Rother 1871. Ernst 3828; conf. Haupt's Zeitschr. 7, 289.

The Mid. Nethl. poem of Brandaen, but no other version of the same legend, contains a very remarkable feature. (28) Brandan met a man on the sea, who was a thumb long, and floated on a leaf, holding a little bowl in his right hand and a pointer in his left: the pointer he kept dipping into the sea and letting water drip from it into the bowl; when the bowl was full, he emptied it out, and began filling it again: it was his doom to be measuring the sea until the Judgment-day (see Suppl.). This liliputian floating on the leaf reminds us of ancient, especially Indian myths. (29)

The âlfar are a people, as the Edda expressly says (Sn. 21), and as the Alvîsmâl implies by putting âlfar, dvergar, and helbûar (if I may use the word), by the side of men, giants, gods, âses and vanir, each as a separate class of beings, with a language of its own. Hence too the expressions 'das stille volk; the good people (p. 456); huldu-fôlk;' in Lausitz ludki, little folk (Wend. volksl. 2, 268), from lud, liud (nation), OHG. liut, Boh. lid; and in Welsh y teulu (the family), y tylwyth têg (the fair family, the pretty little folk), conf. Owen sub v. tylwyth, and Diefenbach's Celtica ii. 102. Whether we are to understand by this a historical realm situate in a particular region, I leave undecided here. Dvergmâl [[echo; literally - dwarf talk]] (sermo nanorum) is the ON. term for the echo: a very expressive one, as their calls and cries resound in the hills, and when man speaks loud, the dwarf replies, as it were, from the mountain. Herrauðssaga, cap. 11, p. 50: 'Sigurðr stilti svâ hâtt hörpuna, at dvergmâl qvað î höllunni,' he played so loud on the harp, that dwarf's voice spoke in the hall. When heroes dealt loud blows, 'dvörgamâl sang uj qvörjun hamri,' echo sang in every rock (Lyngbye, p. 464, 470); when hard they hewed, 'dvörgamâl sang uj fiödlun,' echo sang in the mountains (ibid. 468). ON. 'qveðr við î klettunum [[kveðr við í klettunum - cry out from in the rocks]],' reboant rupes. Can grœti âlfa (ploratus nanorum) in the obscure Introduction to the Hamdismâl (Sæm. 269ª) mean something similar? Even our German heroic poetry seems to have retained the same image:

Dem fehten allez nâch erhal,................To the fighting everything resounded,

dô beide berg und ouch diu tal.............then both hill and also dale

gâben ir slegen stimme. .....................gave voice to their blows.

(Ecke, ed. Hagen, 161)

Daz dâ beide berg und tal

vor ir slegen wilde wider einander allez hal. (ibid. 171)

The hills not only rang again with the sword-strokes of the heroes, but uttered voice and answer, i.e., the dwarfs residing in them did. (30)

This nation of elves or dwarfs has over it a king. In Norse legend, it is true, I remember no instance of it among âlfar or dvergar; yet Huldra is queen of the huldrefôlk (p. 272), as Berchta is of the heinchen (p. 276), and English tradition tells of an elf-queen, Chaucer's C. T. 6442 (the fairy queen, Percy 3, 207 seq.); I suppose, because Gallic tradition likewise made female fairies (fées) the more prominent. The OFr. fable of Huon of Bordeaux knows of a roi Oberon, i.e. Auberon for Alberon, an alb by his very name: the kingdom of the fays (royaume de la féerie) is his. Our poem of Orendel cites a dwarf Alban by name. In Otnit a leading part is played by künec Alberîch, Elberich, to whom are subject "manec berg und tal;" the Nob. lied makes him not a king, but a vassal of the kings Schilbung and Nibelung; a nameless king of dwarfs appears in the poem of Ecke 80; and elsewhere king Goldemâr (Deut. heldensage p. 174. Haupt's Zeitschr. 6, 522-3), King Sinnels and Laurîa (MS. 2, 15ª); 'der getwerge künec Bîleî,' Er. 2086. The German folk-tales also give the dwarf nation a king (no. 152); king of erdmännchen (Kinderm. 3, 167). Gübich (Gibika, p. 137) is in the Harz legends a dwarf-king. Heiling is prince of the dwarfs (no. 151). (31) These are all the kings of black elves, except Oberon, whom I take to be a light alb. It appears that human heroes, by subduing the sovereign of the elves, at once obtain dominion over the spirits; it may be in this sense that Völundr is called vîsi âlfa (p. 444), and Siegfried after conquering Elberich would have the like pretensions (see Suppl.).

The ON. writings have preserved plenty of dwarfs' names which are of importance to the study of mythology (loc. princ. Sæm. 2b 3ª). I pick out the rhyming forms Vitr and Litr, Fili and Kili, Fialarr and Galarr, Skirvir and Virvir, Anar and Onar, Finnr and Ginnr, as well as the absonant Bivor and Bavor. Nâr and Nâinn are manifestly synonymous (mortuus), and so agrees Dâinn (mortuus again); with Oinn (timidus) Moinn; Dvalinn, Durinn, Thorinn, Fundinn, show at least the same participial ending. Alfr, Gandâlfr, and Vindâlfr place the connexion of elves and dwarfs beyond doubt. Ai occurs twice, and seems to mean avus, as in Sæm. 100ª; Finnr and Billîngr are like the heroes' names discussed on pp. 373, 380. Nýr, and Niði, Nýr and Nýrâðr have reference to phases of the moon's light; a few other names will be touched upon later. In Sæm. 45b and Sn. 48. 130 all dwarfs are said to be 'Ivalda synir,' sons of Ivaldi, and he seems identical with the elvish Ivaldr, father of Iðunn, Sæm. 89ª, just as Folkvaldr and Folkvaldi (AS. Folcwealda), Dômvaldr and Dômvaldi = Domaldi, are used indifferently. Ivaldr answers to the Dan. Evald and our Ewald, a rare name in the older documents: we know the two St. Ewalds (niger et albus) who were martyred in the elder Pipin's time (695) and buried at Cologne, but were of English origin. Beda 5, 10 spells it Hewald, and the AS. tansl. Heáwold (see Suppl.).

Of the dwellings of light elves in heaven the folk-tales have no longer anything to tell; the more frequently do they describe those of dwarfs in the rifts and caves of the mountains. Hence the AS. names bergœlfen, dunœlfen, muntœlfen. ON. 'bý ec for iörð neðan, â ec undr steini stað,' I dwell underneath the earth, I have under stone my stead, Sæm. 48ª. 'dvergr sat undir steininum,' Yngl. saga, cap. 15. 'dvergar bûa î iörðu oc î steinum,' Sn. 15. Elbenstein, Elphinstone, are names of noble families, see Elwenstein, Weisth. 1, 4. In the Netherlands the hills containing sepulchral urns are vulgarly denominated alfenbergen (Belg. mus. 5, 64). Treasures lie hidden in graves as they do in the abodes of elves, and the dead are subterraneans as these are. And that is why dwarfs are called erdmännlein, erdmanneken, in Switzerland härdmändle, sometimes even unterirdische, Dan. underjordiske. (32) They scamper over moss and fell, and are not exhausted by climbing steep precipices: 'den wilden getwergen wære ze stîgen dâ genuoc,' enough climbing for wild dwarfs, says Wh. 57, 25, speaking of a rocky region. (33) The popular beliefs in Denmark about the biergmand, biergfolk, biergtrold, are collected in Molbech's Dial. lex. p. 35-6. The biergmand's wife is a biergekone. These traditions about earth-men and mountain-sprites all agree together. Slipping (34) into cracks and crevices of the hills, they seem to vanish suddenly, 'like the schwick,' as the Swiss tale has it, and as suddenly they come up from the ground; in all the places they haunt, there are shown such dwarf's holes, querlich's holes. So the ludki in Lausitz make their appearance out of underground passages like mouseholes; a Breton folk-song speaks of the korred's grotto (Villemarqué 1, 36). In such caves they pursue their occupations, collecting treasures, forging weapons curiously wrought; their kings fashion for themselves magnificent chambers underground, Elberich, Laurîn dwell in these wonderful mountains, men and heroes at times are tempted down, loaded with gifts, and let go, or held fast (see Suppl.). Dietrich von Bern at the close of his life is fetched away by a dwarf, Deut. heldens. p. 300; of Etzel, says the Nibelungs' Lament 2167 one knows not 'ob er sich verslüffe in löcher der steinwende,' whether he have slipped away into holes of the rocks (35): meaning probably, that, like Tannhäuser and faithful Eckart, he has got into the mount wherein Dame Venus dwells. Of this Dame Venus's mount we have no accounts before the 15-16th centuries; one would like to know what earlier notions lie at the bottom of it: has Dame Venus been put in the place of subterranean elf-queen, or of a goddess, such as Dame Holda or Frikka? Heinrich von Morunge sings of his beloved, MS. 1, 55ª:




ENDNOTES:

24. In Denmark popular belief pictures the ellekone as young and captivating to look at in front, but hollow at the back like a kneading-trough (Thiele 1, 118); which reminds one of Dame Werlt in MHG. poems. Back

25. Whether the OHG. pusilîn is said of a dwarf as Graff supposes (3, 352; conf. Swed. pyssling), or merely of a child, like the Lat. pusus, pusio, is a question. The Mid. Age gave to its angels these small dimensions of elves and dwarfs: 'Ein iegelich engel schînet alsô gestalter als ein kint in jâren vieren (years 4) in der jugende,' Tit. 5895 (Hahn); 'junclîche gemalet als ein kint daz dâ vünf jâr (5 year) alt ist,' Berth. 184. Laurîn is taken for the angel Michael; Elberich (Otnit, Ettm. 24) and Antilois (Ulr. Alex.) are compared to a child of four. Back

26. When we read in a passage quoted by Jungmann 4, 652: 'mezi pjdimuzjky kraluge trpasljk' (among thumblings a dwarf is king), it is plain that a trpasljk is more than a pjdimuzjk. Can this trp- (Slovak. krpec, krpatec) be conn. with our knirps, knips, krips, gribs (v. infra), which means one of small stature, not quite a dwarf? Finn. peukalo, a thumbling, Kalew. 13, 67; mies peni, pikku mies, little man three fingers high 13, 63-8. 24, 144. ---For dwarf the MHG. has also 'der kurze man,' Wigal. 6593. 6685. 6710; 'der wênige man,' Er. 7442. Ulr. Alex. (in Wackern.'s Bas. Ms., p. 29b), in contrast with the 'michel man' or giant. One old name for a dwarf was churzibolt, Pertz 2, 104, which otherwise means a short coat, Hoff. Gl. 36, 13. Roth. 4576. Conf. urkinde (nanus), Gramm. 2, 789. Back

27. Deutsche Sagen, no. 149; I here give a more faithful version, for which I am indebted to Hr. Hieron. Hagebuch of Aarau.---Vo de härdmändlene uf der Ramsflue. Hinder der Ärlisbacher egg, zwüschenem dörfle Hard und dem alte Lorenzekapällele, stoht im ene thäle so ganz eleigge e grüsle verträite flue. se sägere dRamsflue. uf der hindere site isch se hohl, und dhöle het numme e chline igang. Do sind denn emol, me weiss nid äxact i wele johrgänge, so rarige mändle gsi, die sind i die höhle us und i gange, händ ganz e so es eiges läbe gefüehrt, und en apartige hushaltig, und sind ganz bsunderig derhär cho, so wärklich gestaltet, und mit eim wort, es isch halt kei mönsch usene cho, wer se denn au seige, wohär se cho seige, und was se tribe. ämel gekochet händ se nüt, und würzle und beeri ggässe. unde a der flue lauft es bächle, und i dem bächle händ die mändle im summer badet, wie tüble, aber eis vonene het immer wacht gha, und het pfiffe, wenn öpper derhär cho isch, uf dem fuesswäg: denn sind se ame gsprunge, was gisch was hesch, der bärg uf, dass ene kei haas noh cho wer, und wie der schwick in ehre höhle gschloffe. dernäbe händ se kem mönsch nüt zleid tho, im gägetheil, gfälligkäite, wenn se händ ebönne. Einisch het der Hardpur es füederle riswälle glade, und wil er elei gsi isch, het ers au fast nid möge. E sones mandle gsehts vo der flue obenabe, und chunt der durab zhöpperle über driese, und hilft dem pur, was es het möge. wo se do der bindbaum wänd ufe thue, so isch das mandle ufem wage gsi, und het grichtet, und der pur het überunde azoge a de bindchneble. do het das mandle sseil nid rächt ume gliret, und wo der pur azieht, schnellt der baum los und trift smandle ane finger und hets würst blessiert; do foht der pur a jommere und seit 'o heie, o heie, wenns numenau mer begegnet wer!' do seit das mandle 'abba, das macht nüt, sälben tho, sälben gha.' [Swab. 'sell thaun, sell haun,' Schmid p. 628. More neatly in OHG., 'selbe tæte, selbe habe,' MS. 1, 10b. 89ª] mit dene worte springts vom wage nabe, het es chrütle abbroche, hets verschaflet und uf das bluetig fingerle gleit, und das het alles ewäg puzt. do springts wider ufe wage, und het zum pur gseit, er soll sseil nume wider ume ge. Mängisch, wenn rächtschafne lüt durn tag gheuet oder bunde händ und se sind nit fertig worde bis zobe, und shet öppe welle cho rägne, so sind die härdmändle cho, und händ geschaffet und gewärnet druf ine, bis alles im schärme gsi isch. oder wenns durt dnacht isch cho wättere, händ se sheu und shorn, wo dusse gläge isch, de lüte zum tenn zue träit, und am morge het halt alles gross auge gmacht, und se händ nid gwüsst, wers tho het. den händ erst no die mändle kei dank begehrt, numenau dass me se gern hät. Amenim winter, wenn alles stei und bei gfrore gsi isch, sind die mändle is oberst hus cho zÄrlispach: se händ shalt gar guet chönnen mit dene lüte, wo dert gwohnt händ, und sind ame durt dnacht ufem ofe gläge, und am morge vortag händ se se wieder drus gmacht. was aber gar gspässig gsi isch, si händ ehre füessle nie vüre glo, händ es charlachroths mäntele träit, vom hals bis ufe bode nabe. jetzt hets im dorf so gwunderige meitle und beube gha, die sind einisch znacht vor das hus go gen äsche streue, dass se gsäche, was die härdmändle für füessle hebe. und was händse gfunde? sisch frile wunderle: änte und geissfüess sind in der äsche abdrückt gsi. Aber vo sälber stund a isch keis mandle meh cho, und se sind au nümme uf der Ramsflue bliebe, i dkräche händ se se verschloffe, tief id geissflue hindere, und händ keis zeiche me von ene ge, und chömme nümme, so lang dlüt eso boshaft sind (see Suppl.).---[Substance of the above. Earth-mannikins on the Ramsflue: lived in a cave with a narrow entrance; cooked nothing, ate roots and berries; bathed in a brook like doves, set one to watch, and if he whistled, were up the hills faster than hares, and slipt into their cave. Never hurt men, often helped: the farmer at Hard was alone loading, a dwarf came down, helpted to finish, got on the waggon, did not properly run the rope over the bind-pole, it slipped off the pole flew up and hurt him badly. Farmer: 'I wish it had happened to me.' Dwarf: 'Not so; self do, self have.' Got down, picked a herb, and cured the wound instantly. Often, when honest folk cut hay or tied corn, dwarfs helped them to finish and get it under shelter; or in the night, if rain came on, they brought in what was lying cut, and didn't the people stare in the morning! One severe winter they came every night to a house at Arlisbach, slept on the oven, departed before dawn; wore scarlet cloaks reaching to the ground, so that their feet were never seen; but some prying people sprinkled ashes before the house, on which were seen the next morning marks of duck's and goose's feet. They never showed themselves again, and never will, while men are so spiteful.] Back

28. Blommaert's Oudvlaemsche gedichten 1, 118b. 2, 26ª. Back

29. Brahma, sitting on a lotus, floats musing across the abysses of the sea. Vishnu, when after Brahma's death the waters have covered all the worlds, sits in the shape of a tiny infant on a leaf of the pipala (fig-tree), and floats on the sea of milk, sucking the toe of his right foot. (Asiat. Res. 1, 345). Back

30. The Irish for echo is similar, though less beautiful: muc alla, swine of the rock. Back

31. A curious cry of grief keeps recurring in several dwarf-stories: 'the king is dead! Urban is dead! old mother Pumpe is dead!' (Büsching's Wöch. nachr. 1, 99. 101); the old schumpe is dead! (Legend of Bonikau), MHG. schumpfe, Fragm. 36c; conf. Bange's Thür. chron. 49ª, where again they say 'king knoblauch (garlic) is dead!' Taking into account the saying in Saxony, 'de gaue fru ist nu al dot!' with evident allusion to the motherly goddess (p. 253), and the similar phrase in Scandinavia, 'nu eru dauðar allar disir!' [NF: All the dísir are dead!] (p. 402); all these exclamations seem to give vent to a grief, dating from the oldest times, for the death of some superior being (see Suppl.). Back

32. I cannot yet make out the name arweggers, by which the earth-men are called up in Kinderm. 2, 163-4. [erd-wihte? v. ar- for erd-, p. 467, 1.3; and weglin, p. 449]. The ON. árvakr [[early awake]] is hardly the same (see Suppl.). In Pruss. Samogitia 'de underhördschkes'; the tales about them carefully collected by Reusch, no. 48-59. The Wends of Lüneburg called subterranean spirits görzoni (hill-mannikins, fr. gora, hill), and the hills they haunted are still shown. When they wished to borrow baking utensils of men, they gave a sign without being seen, and people placed them outside the door for them. In the evening they brought them back, knocking at the window and adding a loaf by way of thanks (Jugler's Wörterb.). The Esthonian mythology also has its subterraneans (ma allused, under ground). Back

33. Other instances are collected in Ir. Elfenm. lxxvi. 'den bere bûten wildiu getwerc,' wild dwarfs inhabited the hill, Sigenot 118. Back

34. Sliefen is said of them as of the fox in Reinh. xxxi.; our subst. schlucht stands for sluft (beschwichtigen, lucht, kracht, for swiften, luft, kraft), hence a hole to slip into. Back

35. Conf. Deutsche sagen, no. 383, on Theoderic's soul, how it is conveyed into Vulcan's abyss. Back