Dwarfs. Both giants and dwarfs shun the light. If surprised by the breaking forth of day, they become changed to stone. In one of the poems of the Elder Edda (the Alvismál), Thor amuses the dwarf Alvis with various questions till daylight, and then cooly says to him: With great artifices, I tell you, you have been deceived; you are surprised here, dwarf, by daylight! The sun now shines in the hall. In the Helgakvida Atle says to the giantess Hrimgerd: It is now day, Hrimgerd! But Atle has detained you, to your life’s perdition. It will appear a laughable harbor-mark, where you stand as a stone-image.
In the German tales the dwarfs are described as deformed and diminutive, coarsely clad and of dusky hue: “a little black man,” “a little gray man.” They are sometimes of the height of a child of four years, sometimes as two spans high, a thumb high (hence, Tom Thumb). The old Danish ballad of Eline of Villenwood mentions a troll not bigger than an ant. Dvergmál (the speech of the dwarfs) is the Old Norse expression for the echo in the mountains.
In the later popular belief, the dwarfs are generally called the subterraneans, the brown men in the moor, etc. They make themselves invisible by a hat or hood. The women spin and weave, the men are smiths. In Norway rock-crystal is called dwarf-stone. Certain stones are in Denmark called dwarf-hammers. They borrow things and seek advice from people, and beg aid for their wives when in labor, all which services they reward. But they also lame cattle, are thievish, and will carry off damsels. There have been instances of dwarf females having married and had children with men. (Thorpe’s Northern Mythology.)
War. It was the first warfare in the world, says the Elder Edda, when they pierced Gullveig (gold-thirst) through with a spear, and burned her in Odin’s hall. Thrice they burned her, thrice she was born anew: again and again, but still she lives. When she comes to a house they call her Heide (the bright, the welcome), and regard her as a propitious vala or prophetess. She can tame wolves, understands witchcraft, and delights wicked women. Hereupon the gods consulted together whether they should punish this misdeed, or accept a blood-fine, when Odin cast forth a spear among mankind, and now began war and slaughter in the world. The defenses of the burgh of the asas was broken down. The vans anticipated war, and hastened over the field. The valkyries came from afar, ready to ride to the gods’ people: Skuld with the shield, Skogul, Gunn, Hild, Gondul and Geirr Skogul. (Quoted by Thorpe.)
CHAPTER VI.
In reference to Ygdrasil, we refer our readers to Norse Mythology, pp. 205-211, and to Thomas Carlyle’s Heroes and Hero-worship.
A connection between the norns Urd, Verdande and Skuld and the weird sisters in Shakspeare’s Macbeth has long since been recognized; but new light has recently been thrown upon the subject by the philosopher Karl Blind, who has contributed valuable articles on the subject in the German periodical “Die Gegenwart” and in the “London Academy.” We take the liberty of reproducing here an abstract of his article in the “Academy”:
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The fact itself of these Witches being simply transfigurations, or later disguises, of the Teutonic Norns is fully established—as may be seen from Grimm or Simrock. In delineating these hags, Shakspeare has practically drawn upon old Germanic sources, perhaps upon current folk-lore of his time.
It has always struck me as noteworthy that in the greater part of the scene between the Weird Sisters, Macbeth and Banquo, and wherever the Witches come in, Shakspeare uses the staff-rime in a remarkable manner. Not only does this add powerfully to the archaic impressiveness and awe, but it also seems to bring the form and figure of the Sisters of Fate more closely within the circle of the Teutonic idea. I have pointed out this striking use of the alliterative system in Macbeth in an article on “An old German Poem and a Vedic Hymn,” which appeared in Fraser in June, 1877, and in which the derivation of the Weird Sisters from the Germanic Norns is mentioned.