the Icelandic Sagas, as well as from the Edda itself,
we learn the belief of the northern nations in a race
of dwarfish spirits, inhabiting the rocky mountains,
and approaching, in some respects, to the human nature.
Their attributes, amongst which we recognize the features
of the modern Fairy, were, supernatural wisdom and
prescience, and skill in the mechanical arts, especially
in the fabrication of arms. They are farther described,
as capricious, vindictive, and easily irritated.
The story of the elfin sword, Tyrfing, may
be the most pleasing illustration of this position.
Suafurlami, a Scandinavian monarch, returning from
hunting, bewildered himself among the mountains.
About sun-set, he beheld a large rock, and two dwarfs,
sitting before the mouth of a cavern. The king
drew his sword, and intercepted their retreat, by springing
betwixt them and their recess, and imposed upon them
the following condition of safety:—that
they should make for him a faulchion, with a baldric
and scabbard of pure gold, and a blade, which should
divide stones and iron as a garment, and which should
render the wielder ever victorious in battle.
The elves complied with the requisition, and Suafurlami
pursued his way home. Returning at the time appointed,
the dwarfs delivered to him the famous sword Tyrfing;
then, standing in the entrance of their cavern, spoke
thus: “This sword, O king, shall “destroy
a man every time it is brandished; but it shall “perform
three atrocious deeds, and it shall be thy bane.”
The king rushed forward with the charmed sword, and
buried both its edges in the rock; but the dwarfs escaped
into their recesses.[A] This enchanted sword emitted
rays like the sun, dazzling all against whom it was
brandished; it divided steel like water, and was never
unsheathed without slaying a man—Hervarar
Saga, p. 9. Similar to this was the enchanted
sword, Skoffhung, which was taken by a pirate
out of the tomb of a Norwegian monarch. Many such
tales are narrated in the Sagas; but the most distinct
account of the _-duergar_, or elves, and their attributes,
is to be found in a preface of Torfaeus to the history
of Hrolf Kraka, who cites a dissertation by Einar
Gudmund, a learned native of Iceland. “I
am firmly of opinion,” says the Icelander, “that
these beings are creatures of God, consisting, like
human beings, of a body and rational soul; that they
are of different sexes, and capable of producing children,
and subject to all human affections, as sleeping and
waking, laughing and crying, poverty and wealth; and
that they possess cattle, and other effects, and are
obnoxious to death, like other mortals.”
He proceeds to state, that the females of this race
are capable of procreating with mankind; and gives
an account of one who bore a child to an inhabitant
of Iceland, for whom she claimed the privilege of
baptism; depositing the infant, for that purpose,
at the gate of the church-yard, together with a goblet
of gold, as an offering.—Historia Hrolfi
Krakae, a TORFAEO.