Fear of Little Men
Posted by:
Platypus (IP Logged)
Date: 28 July, 2023 06:05PM
FEAR OF LITTLE MEN
I. INTRODUCTION
Here’s a list I made of stories dealing with scary “little people”. Please help add to it. I was inspired to make it primarily by reading the “little people” stories of Arthur Machen, and wondering about its sources. Criteria for inclusion on the list is that they must be (1) either below normal human height as adults OR identified with the duergar or svart-alfs of Scandinavian/Germanic mythology; (2) not human, or at least, of their own weird distinct race of humans; (3) malevolent, or at least scary and dangerous; (4) figures of an actual story, in prose or verse.
The stories are arranged in chronological order, according to the time they were first published in English. I do this primirily so I may avoid reliance on secondary sources, and also trace the influence of such stories on my own English-language culture. Particularly in the case of folk-tales and translations, the original stories may in fact be far older than the date I have used to order the stories..
I have a supplemental “reject list” at the end, as well as a list of “non-story sources” going back to 1770. This post is arranged as follows:
— I. This introduction
— II. Main List - includes cross-references to the two “reject lists”.
— III. Reject List: list of stories rejected for not having the right kind of “little people”.
— IV. Non-Story Sources: Material relevant to “little people” that does not qualify as a “story”.
As in my previous lists, I am primarily focused on public domain sources. But this time I have no formal cut-off year. There seems no particular need for one, as interest in scary little people seems to have waned in modern times.
Some general background. It is unclear that the “duergar” of Scandinavian myth were originally a kind of little people. Certainly it is hard to imagine that the 4 dwarfs who, like Atlas, held up the sky, were originally imagined as tiny beings. But they were entities of the earth, and associated with metal-working, and may have been originally analogous to the one-eyed cyclopes of Greek myth. A similar diminishment is possibly seen in the Scandinavian “trolls”, who seem gigantic in old Icelandic sources, but have become smaller in more modern mainland Scandinavian folklore, and who are sometimes identified with the duergar.
The English word “dwarf” is derived from “duergar”. However, it seems that by the time this word, or its early variants, entered the English language, it had lost any association with any mythological being, big or small, and had come to refer primarily (if not exclusively) to a small adult human being, such as those who were kept as curiosities and status symbols at courts. This process, it seems, began to partially reverse itself only in the 1700s, when folklorists and antiquarians began translating foreign folklore and myth, thereupon reintroducing the old Norse concept of “dwarf” as a kind of mythic or supernatural being.
II. MAIN LIST
- “The Story of the Yellow Dwarf” (1708) by Mme d’Aulnoy adapted as “The Yellow Dwarf” (1885) by Andrew Lang, abridged as “The Yellow Dwarf” (1896) by Sabine Baring Gould. Literary fairy tale. Features an evil dwarf, with yellow skin, who wants to make off with a woman’s daughter as his bride. From the French (1697)
- “Travels through Germany [etc.]” (1756), by John George Keysler - See NON-STORY SOURCES, below.
- “The Seventh Fable” (1770) - See NON-STORY SOURCES, below.
- [Dancers of Kae-kaled Field] (1780), first-hand account by Mr. E.W. (letter writer) and Rev. Edmund Jones (collector). In 1757, when E.W. was only 7, he and 3 older children saw some red-garbed dwarfish dancers in a Welsh field. One, with a grim, old, copper face, breaks off and pursues with slow long strides. The children flee in terror, and escape over a stile. E.W., arriving last, is pulled over by his 11-year old sister just as the dwarf grabs at him. Jones explains that a reddish/copper face (such as this dwarf had), or a black one, indicate that it is a bad spirt. In Jones’ A RELATION OF APPARITIONS .... (1780).
- [Barn Dancers of Trevethin] (1780), second hand account by Rev. Edmund Jones (collector) and P.W. (source). P.W., when a young girl in Wales would meet fairy dancers going to and from school, and would dance with them, being attracted by their music. She meets them under a crab tree, but later, at her suggestion, they dance in a barn She describes them as dressed in blue-and-green aprons, and of small stature, but looking “oldish”. After 3 or 4 years, she stops dancing with them, whereby they retaliate by dislocating her leg. In Jones’ A RELATION OF APPARITIONS .... (1780).
- “Passing-Fair” (1780), literary fairy tale by Mlle. de la Force. Tiresome imitation of d’Aulnoy. Features the curious idea that a queen of the fairies has grown so withered with age that she is now diminutive, as well as malicious. Other fairies in the story, however, are of normal size and great beauty. In Porny’s NEW AND COMPLETE COLLECTION OF INTERESTING ROMANCES ... (1780).
- “The Cout of Keeldar” (1803) by John Leyden; a/k/a “The Cout of Keilder” (1853). Folk ballad. The “Cout” (or Count) is a legendary English nobleman engaged in some English-Scottish border hostilities near certain Northumberland moors. Though his armor makes him invincible, he offends the little “Brown Man of the Muirs” by hunting without the little man’s leave. This leads to his death at the hands of Scottish enemies. Leyden, in his notes, identifies the Brown Man with the “duergar” of Scandinavian legend. In the tale, the Brown Man has the power to retreat underground, and speak out of the ground, and the Cout’s hounds howl and flee in terror of him. Brown Man has red grizzled hair, brown clothes, skin of swarthy hue, and has a hedgehog hanging on his arm. He also haunts the Keeldar Stone [Kieldar Stone], associated, in the poem, with human sacrifice.
- [Gilpin Horner] (1805). Third-hand account by Walter Scott (collector) and “Old Anderson” (source). Moffat and another man meet a short deformed being near the Scottish border. Thinking him a goblin, they flee. He pursues them to their dwelling, where he stays some time, terrorizes the children, eats, drinks, speaks English, makes mischief and appears to be flesh and blood, only to finally “disappear” after someone, presumably his master, is heard calling “Gilpin Horner”. In Scott’s“The Lay of the Last Minstrel” (1805) as an explanatory note..
- “[The Brown Man of the Muirs]” (1810). A pair of hunters (it seems) the same character from Leydon’s “The Cout of Keelder” (1803), above, minus the hedgehog. He inflicts one of them with a fatal curse. It was originally published (without a title), and credited to Surtees (collector) and Elizabeth Cockburn (contributor) in Walter Scott’s footnote to his “The Lady of the Lake” (1810). I also found it (with title) in Richardson’s LOCAL TABLE BOOK OF LEGENDS (1842), where it is credited to Surtees’ HISTORY OF DURHAM (1823).
- “The Secret Commonwealth” (1815). See NON-STORY SOURCES, below.
- “Rip Van Winkle” (1819), by Washington Irving. Story set in the Dutch Catskills. Illustrating the power of little people to cause people to disappear for many years. Their bowling balls are associated with the sound of thunder.
- “The Dwarf-Sword Tirfing” (1828). Excerpt from the Poetic Edda. A king convinces two Dwarfs, Dyren and Dualin, to make him a sword, but the sword turns out to be cursed, so that it becomes an agent of murder every time it is drawn. From Robert Keightley’s THE FAIRY MYTHOLOGY (1828).
- “Kallundborg Church” (1828). Danish Folk Tale, by Robert Keightley (translator). Esberne Snare makes a sort of devil’s bargain with Fin the Troll to help him build a church, at the price of his heart and eyes unless he can guess Fin’s name. The editor identifies trolls with dwarfs, and claims that Scandinavian trolls were diminutive. The details of this particular story suggest that Fin the Troll is more likely to have been large, at least in original conception. Fin does however live underground, and has some obvious parallels with “Rumpelstiltzkin”. In Keightley’s FAIRY MYTHOLOGY (1828).
- “Diarmid Bawn, the Piper” (1828). Irish folk tale, by T. Crofton Croker (collector). How a little red man (“fir darrig” or “fear dearg”) turned Judy’s grandpa Diarmid into a horse, so he could take him on campaign against foreign fairies. Diarmid is returned safely with only modest battle wounds, paid with tobacco, praised for being an excellent warhorse, but with an ominous promise of using him again if ever the fir darrig again needs a horse. Played more for laughs than horror, but “fear of little men” is a theme, nonetheless. In Croker’s FAIRY LEGENDS OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND, vol. 2 (1828)
- “The Changeling” (1831), by Joseph Ritson (collector) in FAIRY TALES (1831). When her ill-favored child cannot “talk or go” after 7 years, its mother suspects it is a changeling. She follows the advice of a beggar magician, who tricks the child into speaking, whereupon it reveals that it was already 4 years old, 7 years ago, when her own child was born. On the advice of the magician, she leaves it on a dunghill and ignores its piteous cries, whereupon it disappears into the air, and her own true child appears in its place.
- “The Silver Bell: A Story of the Rheingau” (1832), by Roger Calverley (collector?). Set in Germany. During a storm, Sir Sibol von Lorich refuses hospitality of his castle to a gnome with a long grey beard, later identified as King Kobold, only to have his little daughter Garlind abducted as vengeance by the gnomes of the nearby mountain. Those who try to rescue her from the mountain are slain by rocks. 4 years later, young Ser Ruthelm attempts a rescue. King Kobold’s younger siblings, pretending less malevolence, offer Sir Ruthelm aid, but it seems this is only to lure him into a trap. Story features a high mountain, a creepy haunted mine, and a massive horde of gnomes. In THE OLEO (June, 1932). If there is a German original for this tale, I could not find it.
- “Wild Adventures. Traditions of the Simonside Hills” (1842), by Robert Bolam (contributor) and M.A. Richardson (collector), originally in Richardson’s THE LOCAL HISTORIAN’S TABLE-BOOK (1842). Two stories from the Simonside Hills in Northumbria, about malicious dwarfs, also called “duergar”, who mislead travelers with false lights and illusions. Later reprinted, generally without attribution, under such titles as “The Northumbrian Dwarfs” or “The Simonside Dwarfs”. As printed, it gives the impression that “duergar” is a Northumbrian term, which I doubt.
- “Nose, the Dwarf” (1844) - see REJECT LIST, below.
- “Bruin and the Dwarf” (1845) a/k/a “Snow White and Rose Red”, by the Bros. Grimm. Folk tale. A wicked, ungrateful dwarf with the power to cast curses and turn people into bears. He is one of a group of wicked dwarfs who live in a forest. He lives underground, the entrance being a hole under a stone. From the German (1818).
- “The Elfin Mound” (1847) by Hans Christian Anderson. Literary fairy tale. An Elf King holds a feast in his mound/hill to which the Mountain Elfs (also called gnomes/trolls/goblins depending on the translation) from Norway, and many other weird entities, are invited. This is whimsy, not horror; but one of the delicacies at the feast is an adder’s skin filled with children’s fingers, and it is curious as a Who’s Who, and What’s What, of supernatural lore. A/k/a “The Elf Hill”, “The Elfin Hill”, or “The Elf Mound”. From the Danish (1845).
- “Hop-Frog” (1849), by Edgar Allan Poe. Short story. I’m not sure this belongs, but there are suggestions that Hop-Frog is of a different race, rather than merely being an ordinary man with deformities. Hop-Frog is susceptible to alcohol, which drives him to a state of malevolent madness.
- “Rumpelstiltzkin” (1853), by the Bros Grimm. Folk tale. This dwarf is helpful, at first, until he demands a firstborn child. From the German (1812).
- “The Fairies” (1855), by William Allingham. Poem. Featuring the lines “We dare not go a-hunting / For fear of little men”. Mainly scattered bits of fairy lore, but one verse tells a very brief story, of the nabbing and death (and possible anticipated resurrection?) of Little Bridget.
– “Phantastes” (1858) by George MacDonald. Novel. While traversing tunnels, the narrator encounters malicious goblin creatures, between 1 and 4 feet tall, who mock him, taunt him, throw pebbles at him, and try to seize him. He is able to get them to back off by saying the right words. They are able to form pyramids with their bodies like serpents; and have all the hideousness of extreme old age, but “unfortunately” no corresponding loss of vigor. The narrator compares them to “Kobolds” of German tales (evidently a reference to Germanic mine goblins). MacDonald will revisit such creatures in “The Princess and the Goblin” (1872), below.
- “Goblin Market” (1862), narrative poem by Christine Rossetti. Concerns wicked goblin men, described as small, who tempt people with fruits, which cause them to pine away and die. The are of variable appearances, and some have the faces of animals, or other animal features.
- [Story of Sigurd and the Dragon]” (1866), by Anonymous. Prose/Poetry translated from Old Norse texts of the Poetic Edda [c. 1000?]. The “Lay of Regin” and the “Lay of Fafnir”, in particular, tell the story of Andvari the Dwarf, who curses his gold when it is taken from him by Loki. Loki gives the gold to Hreidmar, to pay for having accidentally slain Hreidmar’s son Otr. Fafnir, Hreidmar’s son, then slays his father to take the gold, and then turns into a venom-spewing dragon to guard it. Fafnir’s brother Regin, a skilled smith, then instigates Sigurd to slay Fafnir, forging the sword Gram for that purpose, while plotting to betray and murder Sigurd to take the gold for himself. Hreidmar & sons are never directly said to be of Dwarf race, though it is easy to reach this conclusion. Regin is called a “Dwarf in stature”; and Odin’s birds refer to both Fafnir and Regin as “jotunn”, suggesting that they are something apart from gods and ordinary mortals (“giant” in this case would probably mistranslate). Many of these being have shapeshifting powers (Andvari can become a pike; Otr an otter; and Fafnir a dragon). This story is also featured in “The Saga of the Volsungs”, where, however, there is less to suggest that Regin and Fafnir are Dwarfs.
- “The Fairy Nurse” (1866), by Patrick Kennedy (collector) and Mrs. K (informant). Irish folk tale. Little people abduct a farmer’s wife to breast-nurse a fairy child not yet born. The Dark Man, a being of seemingly normal height, then briefly recruits/abducts a local midwife to assist at the birth of the boy . The midwife accidentally anoints her eye with a magic salve, sees through the illusions of the “good people”, sees that the magnificent castle is actually a dank cave (etc. etc.) and secretly learns how the wife may be rescued. After the wife’s rescue, the midwife again encounters the Dark Man, who spitefully curses the midwife with blindness in the eye that saw through the illusions. Collected in County Wicklow, and apparently set, in the Wicklow Mountains of West Ireland. The phrase “fairy ointment” as a metaphor for the dashing of pleasant illusions (like the removal or rose colored glasses) dates back in English to at least 1815, so variants of this tale must be at least that old. In Kennedy’s LEGENDARY FICTIONS OF THE IRISH CELTS (1866). Reprinted/Adapted in Andrew Lang’s LILAC FAIRY BOOK (1910). Lang’s version removes all references to breastfeeding and childbirth, and calls the midwife a “nurse” to explain the title.
– “The Spriggan’s Child, as Told by a Cornish Droll” (1870), folk poem, by Robert Hunt (collector). When Janey realizes her babe was stolen and replaced by a changeling, a wise woman advises her to abuse it severely, ultimately resulting in the return of her own infant. In fairness to her, she is not entirely without evidence. In “Popular Romances of the West of England” (1870).
– “The Fairy Tools; or Barker’s Knee” (1870), Cornish folk tale by Robert Hunt. Barker tries to spy on the “bucca” or “knockers” who are supposed to be subterranean miners of Cornwall. He never does manage to see him, but they injure his knee in retaliation for his prying. Very short. In “Popular Romances of the West of England” (1870).
- “Nursing a Fairy” (1870) - See REJECT LIST, below.
– “Laura Silver Bell” (1871) – See REJECT LIST, below.
- “The Princess and the Goblin” (1872), by George MacDonald. Novel. These murderous creatures live inside a mountain, and their King wants to abduct the young princess to be his bride.
- “Tom Tit Tot” (1878), by A.W.T.; adapted as “Tom Tit Tot” (1890), by Joseph Jacobs. English folk tale. Variant of Rumpelstiltzkin, but the imp is small, black, and has a long tail that he likes to twirl; and the bargan is that he will carry of the girl herself, and not her firstborn child.
- “Guleesh Na Guss Dhu” (1890), folk tale by Douglas Hyde, adapted as “Guleesh” (1892) by Joseph Jacobs. Irish Folk tale. Fairies, in the form of little people, abduct the princess of France for a bride; only to spitefully curse her with dumbness after Guleesh, a good Irish lad, rescues her. From the Irish.
- “Fairy Ointment” (1890), folk tale by Joseph Jacobs. English variant of “The Fairy Nurse” (1866) above, in which a midwife ends up cursed with blindness in one eye. Here, the fairy-man (called a “pixie”) who recruits the midwife is described as strange, small, old, ugly, and “squinny-eyed”, but still apparently large enough to pass for human. He rides fire-eyed black horse. The infant is also “squinny-eyed”; and the older children are flat nosed imps with pointed ears. The “wife”, however, is a magnificent beauty, but apart from this, the tale fails to hint that she is a kidnapped human. In ENGLISH FAIRY TALES (1890).
- “The Hobyahs” (1891), by S.V. Proudfit, adaped as “The Hobyahs” (1894) by Joseph Jacobs. Folk tale from Perth, Scotland. Monsters, implied to be small, who devour old people and carry off a little girl. “Hobyah” is perhaps related to “hob” an old term for “elf”.
- “Yallery Brown” (1891), by M.C. Balfour, adapted as “Yallery Brown” (1894), by Joseph Jacobs. Folk tale from Lincolnshire. A truly malevolent being who resembles a creepy hairy bearded baby.
- “The Time Machine” (1895) by H. G. Wells. Features the “morlocks”, future descendants of people driven underground by the upper class, and who have become small, ugly, hunched, animalistic, fearful of light, and cannibalistic. A sci-fi variant of the idea that goblin legends are derived from humans.
- “The Three Impostors” (1895) by Arthur Machen. Novel, which includes “The Novel of the Black Seal.”
- “The Red Hand” (1895) by Arthur Machen. Short story. London murder mystery, which, by chance, points to a horror in the hills.
- “The Shining Pyramid” (1895), by Arthur Machen. Short story. Dyson, from the previous 2 stories, finally encounters Little People directly. They have abducted a young woman to be used for human sacrifice.
- “No Man’s Land” (1899), by John Buchan. Novella. Hairy, murderous Little People in Scotland who kidnap humans for procreation and human sacrifice.
- “The Princess in the Chest” (1901) – See REJECT LIST, below.
- “Ancient Lights” (1912), by Algernon Blackwood. Surveyor takes a shortcut through a reputed fairy wood, and is tormented by its illusions, whose creators are briefly glimpsed as short men. Maybe not so malicious, notwithstanding their terror tactics.
- “The Goblins Turned to Stone” (1918), Dutch folk tale by William Elliot Grifis (adaptor/collector). Not much of a tale, but it has much lore on the nature of dwarfish goblins who live underground, including an ability to turn invisible using red caps and pass through cracks, a vulnerability to sunlight (which turns them to stone), and an ability (of the females) to transform themselves into horses who sit on men’s chests at night, so they can neither move nor breath, apparently inspiring the term “nightmare”. In “Dutch Fairy Tales for Young Folks” (1918).
- “Rattle Rattle Rattle and Chink Chink Chink” (1919), by Parker Fillmore (collector). Czechoslavak folk tale; variant of “Mother Huldra”. There’s a moral here. Nonetheless, what Dwarf Long Beard does to the lazy step-sister, for minimal provocation, is quite gruesome. Dwarf Long Beard lives in the mountains, can shift shape, and hands out gold to those who please him. In CZECHOSLOVAK FAIRY TALES (1919).
- “The Horror Horn” (1922), by E. F. Benson. Dwarfish hairy abominable snowmen in the Swiss Alps, with a reputed habit of kidnapping women (and men) for procreation.
- “Polaris” (1920), by H.P. Lovecraft. Dream-tale of prehistoric pre-ice-age warfare between the tall, grey-eyed men of Lomar; and the squat yellow fiends called “Inutos”. Apparently inspired by the “Turanian theory”.
- “The Turanians” (1924). Short story by Arthur Machen. We meet a tribe of gypsies who are actually “Turanians”; the “adults” resembling fauns, and the “children” being fantastic and grotesque.
- “The Lost Race” (1927), by Robert E. Howard. A Celt adventurer meets Little People hiding in the haunted hills in pre-Roman Cornwall. They are sorcerous, but have no obvious serpentine qualities, unlike in Howard’s later depictions. They claim to be the “real Picts” and distinguish themselves from others so-called.
- “Randalls Round” (1929) by Eleanor Scott. Short story. Appears to contain a reference to devil-worshiping dwarfs in England, though none actually appear in the tale.
- “Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft” (1830): See NON-STORY SOURCES, below.
- “Opening the Door” (1931) by Arthur Machen. Short story. Clergyman suffers a weird time lapse after opening a garden door and encountering some odd-looking “children”.
- “The Children of the Night” (1931), by Robert E. Howard. A man accidentally knocked out by a stone axe, after which he realizes his drawing-room companion is a half-breed survivor of an ancient and abominable Little People.
- “The Worms of the Earth (1932), by Robert E. Howard. Short story. In Roman Britain, Little people meet the King of the Picts. Howard emphasizes the serpentine qualities of the creatures, and, though acknowledging that they were “once men” separates them from any known human race.
- “The People of the Dark” (1932), by Robert E. Howard. Short Story. While exploring a cave with murderous intent, a modern man has flashback to when he was Conan the Gael, who had an encounter in that cave with Little People in pre-historic England.
- “The Seven Geases” (1934), by Clark Ashton Smith. Wherein we meet the Voormis, a species of savage, sub-human cave-dwellers. There are two theories of their origins: that they were the aboriginal inhabitants, who degenerated after being driven underground by the dominant Hyperboreans; and that they are the product of interbreeding between humans and subterranean monsters. Perhaps both are true. These creatures strike me as a nod by CAS to the “Turanian Theory” of the origin of dwarf legends. He never specifies, however, that the Voormis are diminutive in stature. “Voormis” is possibly a play on “worms” and a nod to Robert E. Howard and/or to the Icelandic Eddas.
- “They” (1936), by Robert Barbour Johnson. Short Story. These rumored cave-dwellers are never seen, but their footprints are like the footprints of babies. Johnson is better known for his Lovecraftian ghoul story “Far Below”.
- “Change” (1936) by Arthur Machen. Short story. Odd goings on in a Welsh seaside village. The wizened changeling from this story is implied to be supplied by the Little People.
- “The Hobbit” (1937), novel by J.R.R. Tolkien. Influential fantasy that divides the ancient little peoples into multiple types: dwarves, hobbits, elves (not necessarily small), and goblins (also called orcs). Only the goblins are portrayed as evil by nature (though the Dwarfs are hardly saints); and they are also distinguished from trolls, her portrayed as gigantic. Goblins and trolls both fear the light, but only trolls are turned to stone by daylight.
- “The Secret of Lost Valley” (1967) a/k/a “The Valley of the Lost” (1975), by Robert E. Howard. Posthumous short story. Little people in North America.
- “Men of the Shadows” (1969) by Robert E. Howard. Poshumous short story. Appears to identify little-people legends with the Picts, who in this story are a mongrel-race of hairy ape-like dwarfs, though their pure-bred chieftain, Bran Mak Morn, is more fully human.
- “The Shouting” (1975), by R.T.C. Rolt. Short story. Children who might not be children.
- “Leprechaun” (1993), comedic horror film starring Warwick Davis as a homicidal leprechaun who really wants his gold back. Unclear how much it was inspired by old folklore, as opposed to the post-modern idea of “deconstructing” modern expectations. Spawned seven sequels, most recently in 2018.
III. REJECT LIST: (See also, NON-STORY SOURCES, below)
- “Le Mort D’Arthur” (1485), by Thomas Mallory; the dwarfs here are unremarkable, un-scary, and perhaps only short humans.
– “Nose, the Dwarf” (1844) by W. Hauf, from the German (1823) a/k/a “Dwarf Long Nose”, by A. Lang, or “Dwarf Nose”, is about a boy transformed into an ugly dwarf by a genii or fairy.
– “Little Snow-White” (1853), translated from the Brothers Grimm. Seven dwarfs, with the traditional abilities of mining and smithing. They are a perfectly benevolent bunch, but curious parallels can be found to “The Fairies” (1855) and “Rattle Rattle Rattle and Chink Chink Chink” (1919) – see MAIN LIST.
– “Nursing a Fairy” (1870), folk tale by Robert Hunt (collector). Variant of “The Fairy Nurse” (1866) on Main List. In this version, those who are small are not malevolent, nor are they clearly adult; and the protagonist is blamed for her own misfortune. In “Popular Romances of the West of England” (1870).
– “Laura Silver Bell” (1871), short story by J. Sheridan Le Fanu. Set in Northumbria, it is a literary variant of a folk-tale similar to “Nursing a Fairy” (1870) above, or “The Fairy Nurse” (1866) on main list. In this tale of scary fairies, there is no hint that any of their number are diminutive, and the dark man in particular is very tall, with ambiguous suggestions that his true form is gigantic.
- “The Princess in the Chest” (1901) folk tale by Andrew Lang; a/k/a “The Princess in the Coffin” (1912), folk tale by J. Grant Kramer, involves little man with scary-powerful magical abilities; who is obviously not to be messed with. But he seems, in the main, to be benevolent. From the Danish (circa 1870).
IV. NON-STORY SOURCES:
– “Travels through Germany [etc.]” (1756), by John George Keysler -
– “The Seventh Fable” (1770), trans. from the Icelandic PROSE EDDA (circa 1220), in NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES, vol 2 (1770), by P. Mallet (translator/editor), contains the following concerning dwarfs: “... the Dwarfs, a species of beings bred in the dust of the earth; just as worms are in a dead carcase. It was indeed in the body of the Giant Ymir, that they were engendered, and first began to move and live. At first they were only worms, but by order of the Gods, they at length partook of both human shape and reason; nevertheless they always dwell in subterraneous caverns, and among the rocks.” Mallet adds a note where he explains that Dwarf legends, in which they are often famed as forgers of enchanted armor, were inspired by memories of Northern warriors for a neighboring people of smaller stature and less warlike nature, despised as inferior, but whose skill at manual arts instilled in them a superstitious awe. Mallet vaguely identifies these neighbors with “Laplanders”. Mallet also remarks that folk in northern countries still believe that there are “in the bowels of the earth ‘Fairies’, of a kind of dwarfish and tiny beings, of human shape, remarkable for their riches, their activity and malevolence.”
- “The Secret Commonwealth” (1815), from a Ms. (1691) by Robert Kirk. Treatise on “elves, fauns and fairies” in Scotland; starts by explaining that the Subterranean variety are called “the Good People” more out of fear than love. They are shapeshifters, and can retreat underground by the tiniest crevice. They formerly dwelt above-ground, when lands were less widely populated by humans. They are prone to travel, and dress in the garments of the land in which they dwell. They are feared for the arrows they shoot in the dark. They sometimes carry off women post-childbirth to nurse fairy children. They fear cold iron. They are long-lived but mortal. They tend to prefer hurtful errands to helpful ones; and tend to disappear when the name of Jesus is invoked. They are invulnerable to weapons. Their own weapons are never made of iron, and often of soft yellow flint; and oft capable of inflicting invisible an/or poisonous wounds. They are stronger than men. They steal children away, never to return. Their succubi tryst with men, who thereafter die. He does refer to “brownies” (who haunt houses) as a type of Subterranean, there is not otherwise much indication that the Suberranneans are usually of small stature. He distinguishes fairies from demons; and the second sight from witchcraft.
-- “The Fairy Mythology” by Robert Keightley, includes a section called “The Duergar”. The editor explains that, per the Eddas and Sagas, the “Duergar” or “Dark Elves”, are associated with metalurgy, and are compared to maggots inhabiting the corpse of Ymir (the Earth).
-- “Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft” (1830) by Walter Scott, presents a theory regarding dwarf/duergar legends: “there seems reason to conclude that these duergar were originally nothing else than the diminutive natives of the Lappish, Lettish, and Finnish nations, who, flying before the conquering weapons of the Asæ, sought the most retired regions of the North, and there endeavoured to hide themselves from their Eastern invaders. They were a little, diminutive race, but possessed of some skill probably in mining or smelting minerals, with which the country abounds. Perhaps also they might, from their acquaintance with the changes of the clouds, or meteorological phenomena, be judges of weather, and so enjoy another title to supernatural skill. At any rate, it has been plausibly supposed that these poor people, who sought caverns and hiding places from the persecution of the Asæ, were in some respects compensated for inferiority in strength and stature by the art and power with which the superstition of the enemy invested them.”
- (1850) By this time Max Mueller has published a theory of languages, which classifies continental languages (other than Chinese) as “Aryan”, “Turanian” and “Semitic”. Originally a linguistic theory, over time it became associated with racial categories. Turanians, for instance became gradually associated with central asiatic peoples, prehistoric monuments, serpent worship, early metalurgy, and Dwarf legends.