Dwarf (mythology)
Dwarfs is a collective name for human-shaped, small mythical creatures of popular belief , who mostly live underground in caves or in the mountains. They have their origin in Norse mythology .
Often the dwarves are said to have superhuman strength and power. They are considered to be clever and knowledgeable about magic, sometimes cunning, stingy and treacherous, but mostly as helpful, and are depicted , especially in later times, in fairy tales and sagas , as bearded men with pointed hats.
They mainly appear as artful blacksmiths , whereby the term "blacksmith" (Old Norse: smiðr , Icelandic: smiður ) originally referred to a craftsman who knew how to handle both wood and metals, generally a craftsman (see also jewelry ), in the figurative sense an artist , creator (cf. for example the "rhyming smith"). In times of low division of labor , the smiths often mined the ores they needed themselves and smelted them. Thus, the dwarves were also seen as capable miners and metallurgists . Later they also did all sorts of agricultural and domestic activities and also worked in "middle-class" trades such as tailors , bakers and shoemakers .
In contrast to goblins , who are tied to a certain house, place or family as an individual, dwarfs live in a society of their own kind, much like humans: In archaic times they lived in clans under leaders (e.g. Dvalin's band ), in the Middle Ages they had kings (e.g. Laurin ), later they also lived in cities (e.g. the Heinzelmännchen in Cologne).
Dwarfs also play a role in the novels and fiction of German romanticism . To this day, the collection of folk tales by the Brothers Grimm and the dwarf motifs depicted in them are formative worldwide. The resulting receptions from the 20th century, such as the cartoon adaptation of Grimm's fairy tale Snow White by Walt Disney, are no less influential . Dwarfs can also be found in modern fantasy literature, here unmistakably influenced by the conception of dwarves in JRR Tolkien's works, especially in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit .
Baroque sculptures of dwarfs were popular in Central Europe as part of baroque gardens, for example in the Mirabell Gardens in the city of Salzburg . Today's garden gnomes developed from the connection of such representations of court gnomes with the fairy tale gnomes .
etymology
The Germanic words for "dwarf" (Old High German twerg , Middle High German twerc / querh (masculine, neuter) zwerc , Old Saxon gidwerg (neuter), Old Norse dvergr , Old English dweorg , Old French dwerch , Swedish dvärg , Norwegian dverg , Danish dværg , Dutch dwerg , English dwarf ) indicate a primitive Germanic predecessor * đwerʒaz . An etymological connection is uncertain. Perhaps it is related to the verb deceptive ( "phantom creatures"), see. ahd. gidrog ("ghost"), also old ind . dhvaras ("demonic being").
Norse mythology
Dwarfs are mentioned above all in the two texts known under the term Edda , as well as in some Norse Icelandic sagas .
They live under the mountains and rocks as well as in caves, as the Skaldic Kenningar from the 11th and 12th centuries and the legends of the 13th and 14th centuries report. The dwarves of Sindri's family live in a golden hall in Nidawellir , in the north.
It has not been proven that dwarfs were originally thought of as particularly small; rather, they seem to be shape- shifters who can also appear in the shape of animals (perhaps also deer ). So take Fafnir , the brother of the dwarf Regin , using the terror Helms the shape of a dragon on. Their brother Ottur preferred the shape of an otter.
Using a magic hat (Dwarf or huliðshjálmr ), sometimes by a jacket, they can become invisible (see: Stealth ).
origin
There are various different statements about the origin of the dwarfs in the Eddic texts. In the Völuspá the creation of the dwarfs from the blood of the giant Brimir and the bones of the giant Bláinn is represented in the context of general cosmogony. In stanzas 9 and 10 this reads:
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Snorri , on the other hand, reports that the dwarfs were maggots in the flesh of the ancient giant Ymir , who were then endowed with intelligence by the gods. He equates them with a subgroup of albums , namely the black albums ( svartálfar ), i.e. belonging to the elves.
Dwarves and gods
Already in the Edda and the Völsunga saga the motif of the dwarfs can be found as treasure keepers. Andvari , a dwarf in the shape of a pike, owns a hoard of unclear origin and the ring Andvaranaut . After Andvari was captured by Loki , the dwarf had to hand over the treasure together with the ring to the sir in order to buy himself free. In revenge, he placed a curse on the treasure (see: Nibelungenhort ).
Since dwarves also have traits of death demons (they have names such as Nár "corpse", Náinn "the dead", Bláinn ("blue" symbolizes the color of death), Dáinn "death"), there is perhaps a connection to sagas about adventurers who descend into a burial mound to steal the grave goods. There they have to fight very hard with the owner of the treasures, a "living dead" ( Draugr ).
Characteristic is the wisdom of the dwarfs, which can also be proven in their names: Regin (“counselor”), Wit (“the wise one”), Alvís (“the all- knowing ”), Fjölsviðr, Rásviðr etc. In the Alvíssmál Thor brings the dwarf Alvís to reveal his great cosmological knowledge; when the sun rises, it turns to stone. According to other accounts, however, the dwarfs seem to be insensitive to the rays of the sun, and this property is usually attributed to the giant trolls .
Some dwarfs even have cosmological significance, such as Nyi and Nidi , who control the phases of the moon, or Norðri, Suðri, Austri and Vestri , which carry the sky formed from Ymir's skull.
The artistry of the dwarfs exceeds that of humans, because they also have magic powers . So they made the spear Gungnir and the gold ring Draupnir for Odin . Thor received the hammer Mjölnir . For Freyr they built the ship Skidbladnir and the (automatic?) Boar Gullinborsti . For Freya they created the Brisingamen collar and her mount, the boar Hildisvini . They also braided the shackles of Gleipnir for the Fenris Wolf and Sif's golden hair. Regin forges the sword Gram with Sigurd . In the Hervörlied ( Hervararkvida ) the dwarves Durin and Dvalin forge the sword Tyrfing . Even if their treasures and jewels sometimes cause strife and envy among the gods, the dwarves show themselves to be fundamentally helpful, because they never make weapons or miracles for the giants , the common enemies of humans, sir and albums.
List of dwarfs in the northern Völuspá
The stanzas 10 to 16 of the Völuspá contain a list of dwarf names (see in detail: Dvergatal ).
Made from Brimir's blood and Blainn's legs:
- Modsognir, the most powerful of all dwarfs and
- Durin, the second most powerful.
- Durin's Horde:
- Nyi and Niði, Norðri and Suðri, Austri and Vestri, Althjof, Dvalin, Nar and Nain, Niping, Dain, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Nori, An and Onar, Ai, Mjoðvitnir, Vigg and Gandalf , Vindalf, þrain, Þekk and Þorin, Þror, Vit and Lit, Nyr and Nyrað, Regin and Raðvið, Fili, Kili, Fundin, Nali, Heptifili, Hannar, Sviur, Frar, Hornbori, Fræg and Loni, Billing, Bild, Bruni, Buri, Aurvang, Jari, Eikinskjaldi.
- Dvalin's Horde:
- Draupnir and Dolgþrasir, Hor, Haugspori, Hlevang, Gloin, Dori, Ori, Duf, Andvari, Skirfir, Virfir, Skafið, Ai, Alf and Yngvi, Eikinskjaldi; Fjalar and Frosti, Fið and Ginnar.
- Other dwarfs:
- Brokkr, Eitri, Fafnir, Galar, Hreidmar, Ótr, Sindri, Hadhod, Pandar.
Middle High German heroic epic and courtly poetry
Getwerg appears as a translation of the Greek pygmaei in Old High German glosses of the 9th century .
In the fragmentary Latin verse epic Ruodlieb (probably before 1050), a dwarf ( nanus ) captured by the title hero is mentioned. He promises the knight help in gaining the throne and the king's daughter in return for his release. The dwarf also has a wife, and the fragment ends with her pleading for her husband's release.
The first mention of dwarfs in Middle High German can be found in Duke Ernst , around 1180, where they are compared with the pygmies of ancient tradition, but not equated ( sitting in the perges, like the twergen, zwair daum prait, ellen langk ). After that they are firmly established in Middle High German literature.
The subterranean dwellings of the dwarfs and the golden hall in the "dark fields" of Norse mythology combine in courtly poetry to form subterranean palaces full of treasures and wonders. B. be illuminated by the sheen of the gemstones alone.
While the dwarves had practically never used weapons themselves (but only made them for the gods and heroes), in court poetry the dwarves often appear in the form of scaled-down knights in wonderful, extremely splendid armor. The dwarf king Laurin owns a sword for which one could buy an entire country, a helmet with automatically singing birds attached, a shield that no lance can penetrate, etc.
The size specifications for dwarfs vary (one cubit , three shoes or even just one span ). Sometimes they reach the hero's belt, sometimes just up to the knee. Their horses are never bigger than a deer, and sometimes they ride billy goats. Again and again, reference is made to the almost angelic beauty of the dwarfs (such as Laurin's son Walberan, or the dwarf queen Syrodame in Friedrich von Schwaben ), which seems to be based primarily on their precious, jeweled clothing. They are very seldom portrayed as misshapen, perhaps humped, under the influence of old French literature.
Sometimes there is an allusion to the dwarfs' beard growth. Despite their small stature, the superhumanly strong dwarfs (thanks to an invisibility cap or a power belt) can often only be overcome by grabbing them by the beard (in an extremely unknightly and insulting way), according to Siegfried den Alberich in the Nibelungenlied (which made him the Nibelungenhort and the Tarnkappe wins), and Hildebrand den Eggerich (who then has to help him in the fight against the giant Sigenot ).
Very rarely, contrary to their old age, dwarfs have the appearance of young children. In the Wolfdietrich epic, Ortnit considers Alberich (who was described in the Nibelungenlied as altgrîs , "age gray") for a four-year-old.
Dwarves and heroes
The dwarf society is based on the courtly ideals of the high Middle Ages . They have kings and queens, dukes, counts, knights, ladies, heralds, chamberlains, cooks, servants, etc. In fact, their display of splendor at festivals and tournaments even surpasses that of human rulers, and even the erotic inclinations of dwarves towards people are largely in motion as part of courtly love (even if the lady is sometimes kidnapped and has to be freed by the hero). Friedrich von Schwaben is lured into a cave by the dwarf Jerome and seduced.
But even in heroic poetry, the dwarfs continue to appear as artful blacksmiths, who especially make swords for heroes, such as Balmung and Eckesachs . They show their wisdom by reading minds or by predicting the future in the manner of astrologers and necromancers .
Although there are often conflicts between heroes and dwarves over countries and women, especially because dwarves are not Christians but pagans , they usually ally themselves against their common enemies, the giants. The Strasbourg book of heroes even explains this with a divine plan of salvation: God created the hardworking, cunning and wise dwarfs so that they could win gold and silver, precious stones and pearls in the desert mountains for the people, and the giants to protect them from the people there Protect dragons and wild animals. Instead, the giants had subjugated and enslaved the dwarves, and now their duty had passed to the knights. These are now supposed to free the dwarves and punish the giants for their crimes. The heroes are supported by the dwarves with expert advice, magic stones, wonder weapons, magical herbs or other aids. An exception here is the dwarf king Goldemar , who rules giants himself and uses them like watch dogs and "for the rough". In extreme distress, Laurin also summons allied giants against Dietrich. Apparently the old idea of the bond between dwarves and humans against the forces of chaos is already showing signs of decay. Just like Alvís (who froze to stone like a mountain troll), here too the dwarves themselves take on certain features of hostile giants.
Late Middle Ages, Early Modern Age: Dwarves and Devils
In the middle of the 14th century Konrad von Megenberg tried to explain the small form of the dwarfs scientifically: They are people who were conceived from few or weak seeds.
The diabolization of the dwarfs, which began in the High Middle Ages, increased over time. In the 16th century, for example, the dwarfs were generally mistaken for fallen angels by Christian theologians , who just did not completely turn into devils because, as merely seduced, they got stuck on mountains and trees when they fell. Overcoming and capture a Dwarf to make subservient to him or to force his treasures to surrender, was (in the treasure legends more and more) as a form of devil incantation construed.
Similar to the vicious giants, the dwarves would once have survived the flood in high mountain caves. It is sometimes said that they were created before humans and that they will populate the earth again after the Last Judgment . On the other hand, they are often mistaken for ghosts , especially for the souls of unbaptized children, and become child scare figures themselves , like the bogeyman or booger who kidnap (and eat) children.
Legends and fairy tales
In the legends and fairy tales that have been collected since the 18th century (especially by the Brothers Grimm in German-speaking countries ), the generic name dwarf occurs only rarely. Instead, they have regional names that allude to their homes underground (meerkats, miners , Bergmandl (Upper German), subterranean, Önnererske (Low German), Böhlersmännchen, etc.), or their often ugly appearance (crooks, thick-headed, pointed beards, gray males, Thumbslings, fingerlings, small people, etc.). Typical is her wrinkled, brown or gray face, which corresponds to her enormously old age ("old as the forest"), and the long flowing, gray or white beard. Sometimes their incredibly large and glowing or small, red inflamed, light-sensitive eyes are mentioned, often their misshapen feet (flat, goose or bird feet, twisted backwards or with missing toes), which they try to hide under their coats.
On the other hand, they look harmless and cute, like two to four year old children. There are also euphemistic terms such as: good people, good children, good neighbors. Other regional names are: Wichtel , Heinzelmännchen , Lutk (Lausitz), Querxe (Upper Lusatia), Quergel (East Central Germany), Vensmännlein, Fenixmännlein (Silesia), Gütel (Erzgebirge), Barstukken (East Prussia), Killewittchen (Eschweiler) etc. The most common is however the unspecific designation as "male".
Their typical clothing with smock and pointed cap apparently goes back to mining legends of the 16th century, in which the mountain spirits either wear a monk's robe or the miners' normal work clothes with hoods and ass leather . Names like red jackets, red hats, Grünkäppel, Ledermännel etc. allude to their clothes. Occasionally, especially in connection with the not yet fully understood motif of "rewarding" (the disappearance of the dwarfs after a gift of clothing), they only wear rags or are completely naked.
Dwarves and elves
Especially in the mountainous north German lowlands , but also in Scandinavia, old burial mounds and large stone graves are considered to be the dwellings of the underground; perhaps an echo of the dwarfs as spirits of the dead. In the British Isles they correspond to the mound-fairies , in Sweden to the tomten . Prehistoric and early historical ceramic finds (urns with grave goods etc.) are also considered to be dwarfs.
While the elves have almost completely disappeared from the German legend, the "males" (and occasional "Erdweibchen") apparently increasingly attracted elven traits, with which they were probably already associated earlier. A visit to the dwarfs is not without danger: their caves sometimes show features of the Otherworld , where time passes much faster than with humans; or the food on offer turns out to be an underworld food , after which one can no longer return to the world of the living.
Occasionally, dwarfs exchange unbaptized human children for a changeling or kidnap human women. Unlike the brutal giants, who mostly just want to eat or rape their victims, the abductees are doing relatively well with the dwarves (like Siegfried and Wieland as Mime's foster sons ). As with the elves, the children often learn a useful handicraft from them (mostly blacksmithing; with the elves also intellectual skills such as poetry ). Evgen Tarantul therefore assumes that this motif was originally based on a mutual care relationship , as was quite common in Germanic cultures in the past. Because of the consequent demonization of the underground, people are now trying by all means to prevent their children from being kidnapped, like the miller's daughter in the case of Rumpelstiltskin . In Scandinavian fairy tales, however, abducted women sometimes refuse to return to their families. Unlike the female elves and undines of the late medieval ballads , with which the kidnapped or seduced knights can develop romantic (but always tragic) relationships, the stories of women who are kidnapped by dwarfs have a rather coarse, rustic sound . They seduce their victims primarily with their wealth, not with their beautiful and noble nature.
Sometimes an unspecific “male” appears in the role that otherwise tends to be assigned to the elf or fairy-like “ancestral wives” or white women : It announces the imminent death of members of an old noble family or guards the family crèche .
Dwarves, goblins and humans
The age-old motif of the insidious, greedy dwarf who is caught (using his weak point, the long beard) and can be forced to give up his treasures, can still be found in the fairy tale Snow White and Rose Red . In mining and treasure tales, the mountain spirits also hoard immeasurable riches in their caves, which they can assign or deny to the miners as they see fit. Here, however, the boundaries between the sociable dwarfs and solitary local spirits who are “responsible” for a specific mine, like a goblin for a specific house or ship, or like a nature spirit , possibly for a whole mountain range, become blurred. Even the unspecific “male” that the protagonist of a fairy tale typically encounters in the forest does not necessarily have to be a dwarf, as it is not clear whether he belongs to a certain people or not.
A peculiar motif are the midwifery services of people with dwarfs. For unclear reasons, dwarf women are apparently unable to give birth without human help, while even inexperienced human women can induce the birth of a dwarf child by the mere laying on of hands. After that, the women concerned are richly rewarded by the dwarfs and henceforth have the gift of successful obstetrics. This contrasts with the belief, which is widespread in many cultures around the world, that the ores in the body of the earth ripen like fetuses, are transformed from ordinary rock into precious metals , and that blacksmiths and metallurgists use their artistry to accelerate this actually very slow process, like obstetricians can facilitate. In fairy tales (e.g. The Gifts of the Little People ) the "dirt" given by dwarfs as a reward, such as leftover food, leaves or coal, turns into gold in the course of a single night .
In contrast to the courtly epic, the dwarfs in popular tradition are foreign to any display of magnificence. Nor do they pick up weapons, only tools. Not only do they forge, but they also butter and make cheese (which makes strange noises under the ground), tend the cattle, bake and brew (which creates the mist), weave (which also seems to be typical of elves), tailor and cobble .
Likewise, the dwarfs in fairy tales and legends are not in distant exotic kingdoms, but in the immediate vicinity, not far from the local village, in the nearest forest, mountain or burial mound. In fact, the neighborhood is so close that humans and dwarfs habitually lend each other work equipment or food (especially in northern Germany). Loans of this kind are usually very beneficial for people because they receive gifts of much higher value in return, or even “eternal gifts”: a pile of flax that never gets smaller, a beer barrel that never runs out, a wallet that always has finding a coin, etc., but only as long as the secret of the gift is kept silent. However, if the dwarfs are offended by the raw or selfish behavior of humans, they sometimes take terrible revenge, especially for greed and greed.
A so-called silent trade takes place with the dwarf blacksmiths: the customer leaves the workpiece or the horse in front of the dwarf's dwelling in the evening and picks them up the next morning, perfectly repaired or re-shod. To pay, he leaves a coin on the spot.
Sometimes the dwarfs even come to people's houses and workshops during the night to work there for free (cf. gift economy ). In this case they are difficult to distinguish from helpful goblins. The Heinzelmännchen actually have a personal name ("Heinz"), which would otherwise be more typical for a single house spirit (such as the Hinzelmann in Hudemühlen Castle), or a mock name ( Hinz and Kunz ). As dwarfs they are only recognizable because they appear sociable, not alone. Unlike other demonic beings, dwarfs do not prefer to work at night because they hate daylight, but because they do not want to be observed while they are doing their actions. As soon as you surprise them at work (or take their cloaks away), they disappear forever, while goblins usually remain stubbornly loyal to their house and may even move to their new home with the residents.
Due to their connection to prehistoric and protohistoric buildings, the dwarves are often associated with foreign peoples who used to live in the area, such as the " Hünen " (or " Huns ") who built the barrows . In the Rhineland they are associated with the remains of Roman buildings and mines and are accordingly referred to as " Roman men". Elsewhere they are associated with the Tatars , sometimes even with the Gypsies . The "humanization" of the dwarfs sometimes goes so far that it is only told that there used to be very small people living in a certain place. On the other hand, real, human ore-seekers from foreign countries, the so-called Venediger , take on more and more traits of dwarfs and mountain spirits (“Venice Mands”).
Deduction
What these foreign peoples and the dwarves have in common is that they, like the pagan natives, disappeared or died out "a long time ago". The legend of the ferryman , whose ferry sinks deep into the water at night under the weight of the invisible dwarfs retreating, seems to be an echo of old ideas about the afterlife . Sometimes they fly away on ravens, cross a mountain pass or just the national border. It is uncertain where they are today.
What is remarkable here is the often minor reason for their withdrawal, which is also almost always triggered by the neighboring people: through outrageous curiosity (secret observation at work, scattering of ashes to see the (misshapen) footprints of the dwarfs, uninvited participation in their dances), talkativeness, swearing, betrayal of secrets, ridicule, arrogance, ingratitude. Contrary to the tendency to demonize the dwarfs in the 16th century, the Zimmerische Chronik already traces the withdrawal of the dwarfs back to the "exuberant idolatry" of the people. Possibly the withdrawal of the (helpful) dwarves is a more subtle variant of punishing a taboo .
So far not understood is the motif of "rewarding", the withdrawal of the dwarfs after a gift of clothing. In some versions the newly dressed dwarfs become haughty and now believe, as "fine men", that they no longer have to work, in others they leave crying and plaintively, as if they would have preferred to stay with the people and through the "remuneration", so to speak were thrown out. Kobolds, on the other hand, seem to react in exactly the opposite way: They leave their house (or their mine, ship) because they have been deprived of the annual gift of clothing (or daily food offering) .
The unusual (for inventive blacksmiths) withdrawal due to the noise from nearby hammer mills , the ringing of bells or technical innovations (introduction of the harrow , the railroad, etc.) also seems strange . In popular belief, both iron and bells have a demon-repellent effect. Perhaps this motif also points to the suppression of pagan beliefs, either by Christianity or the Enlightenment . Sometimes there is a conflict with humans and the subsequent withdrawal because hungry dwarfs steal food or crops from their neighbors. Sometimes such (harmful) dwarfs are actually, like witches , purposely driven away or even burned or drowned.
The extermination of the dwarves is also attributed to hostile giants and the dwarves themselves. Sometimes, after the death of their king, they have committed collective suicide, or two warring dwarf peoples have annihilated each other.
reception
At about the same time as the collection of fairy tales and legends in the spirit of Romanticism , dwarfs were also increasingly treated in fiction. The art fairy tales Klein Zaches called Zinnober (1819 by ETA Hoffmann ) or The Dwarf Nose (1826 by Wilhelm Hauff ), on the other hand, parody the old institution of the court dwarfs and thus the outdated court society .
One of the most filmed dwarf fairy tales is Snow White , which has been adapted and parodied in many forms. The fairy tale was filmed as a silent film in the USA as early as 1916 . The animated film adaptation from 1937 is one of the most successful productions of Walt Disney Studios . In addition, the material was modified in numerous productions for film and television, including parodies such as 7 dwarfs - men alone in the forest (2004) and 7 dwarfs - the forest is not enough (2006).
The full-page comic dwarf Bumsti by Teja Aicher has been published in the Austrian magazine Wunderwelt since 1949, and after 1975 it was adapted by Arminio Rothstein and Christine Rothstein as a puppet show for the television station ORF under the title Wichtelgeschichten .
Other adaptations of comic and cartoon are The Smurfs (since 1958) of a Belgian Peyo , and the Little Mainz (since 1963), as bumpers in the promotional program of the ZDF .
Fantasy
The novels of JRR Tolkien (see: Characters in Tolkien's World ) were trend-setting for the representation of dwarfs in modern fantasy . As a philologist, on the one hand he increasingly resorted to the medieval traditions of the Edda and hero poetry. Many of his dwarf names come from the Dverga valley and the Völuspá , and similar to the Edda, in the Silmarillion he furnished them with their own (albeit much more detailed) creation myth. He also emphasized again, in addition to their beard growth and small figure, their artistry and greed, the physical strength and endurance of the dwarfs, which had been an important motif in the heroic epic, but hardly played a role in later fairy tales and legends . From these qualities he derived her stocky figure and stubbornness .
In addition, Tolkien added many new features of his own to his dwarf image: The dwarves believe that their chiefs are regularly reborn . Dwarves are also said to play a special role in the “Last Battle”, similar to that of Ragnarök , and in the construction of the New World afterwards. Also, they seem to have lost the gift of invisibility. This has passed on to the wearer of the One Ring and, in a weakened way, to the hobbits , who can move noiselessly and very inconspicuously, while dwarfs appear rather loud and rumbling. While the Edda only alludes very briefly to a migration of some dwarfs (from the “Stones of the Ground” to Jöruvellir ), the Tolkien dwarfs travel around constantly, as traders and adventurers, and undertake regular migrations several times in their history to find others Countries to found new kingdoms. However , Tolkien reserves the elegiac motif of the final withdrawal and the passage to the Otherworld to the Elves. In contrast to the mythological dwarves, who have a lot in common with elves, dwarves and elves in Tolkien's work are portrayed as very different (sometimes even hostile) peoples.
Unlike in the Edda and in fairy tales and sagas, the warlike ability of the dwarfs is strongly emphasized, and their armament with chain armor , iron-shod boots and battle axes is completely new (but style-defining for fantasy) . Like almost all other civilized inhabitants of Middle-earth , they wear long hooded travel coats over their armor .
This dwarf picture was further coarsened. While the dwarf Gimli can still discover his romantic streak in Tolkien's novel and apparently falls madly in love with the Elf ruler Galadriel, in the film adaptation he is little more than the gruff sidekick of the noble Elf Legolas and provides rustic dining, drinking and dining Fighting habits for comic relief .
The increasingly stereotypical representations ultimately also encouraged parodies. In the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett dwarfs as typical representatives of kick ethnic minorities (with " migration background ") on. The gigantic and affable carrot Eisengießersohn represents, as the foster son of dwarfs and the unrecognized king's son, an allusion to the Sigurd of Norse mythology.
In the fantasy novel series Die Zwerge by Markus Heitz , which has been published since 2003, they themselves are among the most important protagonists .
Similarly, dwarves usually belong to the playable races in various fantasy role-playing games , such as Dungeons & Dragons , Midgard and The Dark Eye .
Garden gnomes
The first sculptures of dwarfs made of marble or sandstone were set up in various baroque gardens towards the end of the 17th century . These were not, however, the dwarfs of popular tradition, but grotesque representations of court dwarfs , as they were held at many residences of the high nobility at that time. The oldest examples are preserved today in the dwarf garden of Mirabell Palace in Salzburg and at Greillenstein Palace . From here this fashion spread especially in the gardens of castles and monasteries in all of today's Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, northern Italy and Slovenia. In the course of the 18th valuable, hand-painted porcelain gnomes were added. B. manufactured by the Meissen manufactory or the Imperial Court Manufactory in Vienna for aristocratic ornamental gardens, as well as smaller terracotta sculptures from Thuringia z. B. for hunting locks .
After garden gnomes (together with the court gnomes, as a relic of the outdated aristocracy) were temporarily out of fashion around 1800, they invaded the gardens of the rising bourgeoisie again in the course of the 19th century , including in England. In 1872 August Heissner and Philipp Griebel established the first factories in Thuringia , who soon produced garden gnomes in mass and series production for (small) bourgeois front gardens and for export. As a result , the classic appearance of the garden gnomes, based on illustrations from contemporary fairy tale books , established itself : as a gardener or a medieval miner with a leather apron, shovel , pickaxe , lantern , wheelbarrow and especially with a red pointed cap .
In the First and Second World Wars, the export of garden gnomes fell sharply, because this type of garden decoration was perceived as typically German in the warring nations warring with the German Reich . In Germany, too, garden gnomes were frowned upon well into the 1980s as kitsch or as an expression of narrow-minded, petty-bourgeois philistinism .
In the course of dealing with “national symbols” since German reunification , interest in garden gnomes also increased again, especially in ironic and satirical depictions, such as dwarfs in obscene or provocative poses, or as caricatures of well-known politicians. The front for the liberation of the garden gnomes , whose followers “liberated” the figures from front gardens, in order to then expose them again in their “natural habitat” (forests, etc.), probably pursued a similar satirical claim . If garden gnomes are set up with insulting intent, the injured party can demand that the sculpture be removed, and the “liberation” of a garden gnome can be punished as theft .
In addition, the "classic" garden gnome also returned. In addition to dwarfs made of fired and glazed clay, figures made of inexpensive plastic are particularly widespread today , but also plagiarisms of models protected by design patents made of inferior materials such as plaster of paris or cast resin (especially from Eastern Europe).
Ebu Gogo and "Hobbits"
In 2003 the remains of dwarf people were discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores , scientifically named Homo floresiensis , who were also jokingly referred to as "hobbits" because of their small stature. Locals reported to the Australian researcher Richard Roberts in October 2004, shortly after this discovery, of so-called Ebu Gogo, who had met their ancestors and who were only supposed to have been exterminated at the beginning of the 19th century: “The Ebu Gogo were tiny, like small children , except for the face completely hairy and had long arms and a round drum belly. They kept mumbling in an incomprehensible language, but also babbled what we said to them. ”The last of these Ebu Gogo is said to have disappeared shortly before the island was colonized by the Dutch. The name Ebu Gogo means something like "grandmother who eats everything".
See also
- Wroclaw dwarfs
- Brownie (mythology)
- Fengg
- Genius cucullatus
- gnome
- Idean dactyls
- Knockers
- Púca
- Tylwyth Teg
- Dwarf cave
literature
- Jacob Grimm: German Mythology. Complete edition. Marix Verlag, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-86539-143-8 .
- Felix Genzmer: The Edda: poetry of gods, proverbs and heroic songs of the Teutons . Special edition of the one-volume complete edition, 3rd edition.
- Rudolf Simek : Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 368). Kröner, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-520-36801-3 .
- Walther Müller-Bergström: Dwarves and giants. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli (Ed.) Concise dictionary of German superstition . Unchanged reprint with a foreword by Christoph Daxelmüller, Volume 9, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1987, ISBN 3-11-011194-2 , Sp. 1008–1138.
- Leander Petzoldt : Small lexicon of demons and elemental spirits , entry: dwarf , p. 196; 3rd edition, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-49451-X .
- Werner Schäfke: “What actually is a dwarf? A prototype semantic figure analysis of the dvergar in saga literature ”in Mediaevistik 23, 2010, pp. 197–299.
- Christa Habiger-Tuczay : Dwarves and Giants. In: Ulrich Müller, Werner Wunderlich (ed.): Demons, monsters, mythical creatures , medieval myths, vol. 2, pp. 635–658; UVK specialist publisher for science and studies, St. Gallen, 1999, ISBN 3-908701-04-X .
- Evgen Tarantul: elves, dwarves and giants. Investigation of the world of ideas of Germanic peoples in the Middle Ages ; 1st part, chap. 1: The helpful gray man with a long white beard , pp. 38–47, chap. 4: Dwarfs: good neighbors , pp. 154–185, part 2, chap. 1: Giants, Dwarfs and Heroes , pp. 29–302, Part 3, Chap. 1: The light, black and dark elves , pp. 348–376, chap. 2: The dwarfs in the Nibelungen saga, pp. 377–405; Peter Lang, Frankfurt a. M., 2001, ISBN 3-631-37607-3 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Reinhard Medicus: The dwarf garden and its history , in “Bastei” magazine of the Salzburg City Association, year 2010, volume 2, Salzburg 2010.
- ↑ Vladimir Orel: A Handbook of Germanic Etymology. Brill, Leiden / Boston 2003, ISBN 90-04-12875-1 , p. 81.
- ^ Friedrich Kluge / Elmar Seebold: Etymological dictionary of the German language. 24th edition, Berlin 2002, keyword “dwarf”.
- ^ Old Norse basic text based on G. Jonsson, German translation based on F. Genzmer.
- ↑ Christa Habiger-Tuczay: Dwarfs and Giants. In: Ulrich Müller, Werner Wunderlich (ed.): Demons, monsters, mythical creatures , medieval myths, vol. 2, pp. 635–645; UVK specialist publisher for science and studies, St. Gallen 1999. ISBN 3-908701-04-X .
- ↑ Mircea Eliade: Blacksmiths and Alchemists. Myth and magic of feasibility ( Forgerons et Alchemistes , Ernest Flammarion, 1956), Verlag Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1992, ISBN 3-451-04175-8.
- ^ Villagers speak of the small, hairy Ebu Gogo. quoted from: Daily Telegraph (PDF; 85 kB) , October 28, 2004
- ↑ Dean Falk : The Fossil Chronicles. How two Controversial Discoveries Changed our View of Human Evolution. University of California Press, p. 162.