A Philological Essay Concerning the Pygmies of the AncientsTyson, Edward
History
A Philological Essay Concerning the Pygmies of the Ancients
Tyson, Edward
Dwarfs (Persons); Fairies; Pygmies
The mounds have sometimes been made by giants and afterwards inhabited by
dwarfs, as in the case of the Nine-hills, already alluded to. In others,
they are at the same time inhabited by giants, dwarfs, and others, as in
the story of the Dwarf's Banquet,[A] and still more markedly in the
Wunderberg. "The celebrated Wunderberg, or Underberg, on the great moor
near Salzburg, is the chief haunt of the Wild-women. The Wunderberg is
said to be quite hollow, and supplied with stately palaces, churches,
monasteries, gardens, and springs of gold and silver. Its inhabitants,
beside the Wild-women, are little men, who have charge of the treasures it
contains, and who at midnight repair to Salzburg to perform their
devotions in the cathedral; giants, who used to come to the church of
Grödich and exhort the people to lead a godly and pious life; and the
great Emperor Charles V., with golden crown and sceptre, attended by
knights and lords. His grey beard has twice encompassed the table at which
he sits, and when it has the third time grown round it, the end of the
world and the appearance of the Antichrist will take place."[B]
[Footnote A: Grimm ap. Keightley, 130.]
[Footnote B: Grimm ap. Keightley, 234.]
In the folk-tales of the Magyars we meet with a still more remarkable
confusion between these two classes of beings. Some of the castles
described in these stories are inhabited by giants, others by fairies.
Again, the giants marry; their wives are fairies, so are their daughters.
They had no male issue, as their race was doomed to extermination. They
fall in love, and are fond of courting. Near Bikkfalva, in Háromszék, the
people still point out the "Lover's Bench" on a rock where the amorous
giant of Csigavár used to meet his sweetheart, the "fairy of
Veczeltetö."[A]
[Footnote A: _Folk Tales of the Magyars_, p. xxix.]
(6.) Tales of little people are to be found in countries where there never
were any Pigmy races. Not to deal with other, and perhaps more debatable
districts, we find an excellent example of this in North America. Besides
the instances mentioned in the foregoing section, the following may be
mentioned. Mr. Leland, speaking of the Un-a-games-suk, or Indian spirits
of the rocks and streams, says that these beings enter far more largely,
deeply, and socially into the life and faith of the Indians than elves or
fairies ever did into those of the Aryan race.[A] In his Algonquin Legends
the same author also alludes to small people.
[Footnote A: _Memoirs_, i. 34.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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