Its loves and wild delight.”
Heine (Martin’s tr.).
The giant’s plaything.
The giants inhabited all the earth before it was given to mankind; they very reluctantly made way for the human race, and retreated into the waste and barren parts of the country, where they brought up their families in strict seclusion. Such was the ignorance of their offspring, that a young giantess, straying away from home, once came to an inhabited valley, where for the first time in her life she saw a farmer plowing on the hillside. Deeming him a pretty plaything, she caught him up with his team, thrust them into her apron, and gleefully carried them home to exhibit them to her father. But the giant immediately bade her carry peasant and horses back to the place where she had found them, and when she had done so he sadly explained that the creatures whom she took for mere playthings, would eventually drive all the giant folk away, and become masters of all the earth.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE DWARFS.
In the first chapter we saw how the black elves, dwarfs, or Svart-alfar, were bred like maggots in the flesh of the slain giant Ymir. The gods, perceiving these tiny, unformed creatures creeping in and out, gave them form and features, calling them dark elves on account of their swarthy complexions. These small beings were so homely, with their dark skin, green eyes, large heads, short legs, and crow’s feet, that they were told to hide underground and never show themselves during the daytime under penalty of being turned into stone. Although less powerful than the gods, they were far more intelligent than men, and as their knowledge was boundless and extended even to the future, gods and men were equally anxious to question them.
They were also known as trolls, kobolds, brownies, goblins, pucks, or Huldra folk, according to the country where they dwelt.
“You are the gray, gray Troll,
With the great green eyes,
But I love you, gray, gray Troll—