Duergar (folklore)
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The Duergar are a race of ugly dwarfs, particularly associated with the Simonside Hills of Northumberland, in northern England.
In F Grice's telling of the traditional story The Duergar in Folk Tales of the North Country (1944), one of them is described as being short, wearing a lambskin coat, moleskin trousers and shoes, and a hat made of moss stuck with a feather.
The legendary dwarfs of Simonside were mentioned in the local newspaper, the Morpeth Gazette, in 1889, and in Tyndale’s Legends and Folklore of Northumbria, 1930. They delighted in leading travellers astray, especially after dark, often carrying lighted torches to lead them into bogs, rather like Will-o'-the-wisps. The menacing creatures would often disappear at dawn.
The word duergar may come from or may be influenced by the Old Norse word for dwarf or dwarfs (dvergar), however it is also likely to come from the Old English dweorh or dweorg or the Middle English dwerg[1][2].
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[edit] Cultural References
In 2004's Van Helsing (film) Dracula had a small army of short, masked workers his assistant Igor refers to as "dwergies", undoubtedly a reference to Duergar.
[edit] References
- ^ Online Etymology Dictionary
- ^ dictionary.reference.com/browse/dwarf
- Grice, F, Folk Tales of the North Country (Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd, London & Edinburgh, 1944) pp130–133
- Simonside Folklore
[edit] External links
[edit] See also
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