The Fairy Mythology: Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various CountriesKeightley, Thomas
General
The Fairy Mythology: Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries
Keightley, Thomas
Fairies; Fairy tales; Folk literature; Folklore
The Dwarf-people went by Warnstadt, a village not far from
Quedlinburg, still going toward the east. Since that time the Dwarfs
have disappeared out of this country; and it is only now and then that
a solitary one may be seen.
* * * * *
The Dwarfs on the south side of the Hartz were, in a similar manner,
detected plundering the corn-fields. They also agreed to quit the
country, and it was settled that they should pass over a small bridge
near Neuhof, and that each, by way of transit-duty, should cast a
certain portion of his property into a cask to be set there. The
peasants, on their part, covenanted not to appear or look at them.
Some, however, had the curiosity to conceal themselves under the bridge,
that they might at least hear them departing. They succeeded in their
design, and heard during several hours, the trampling of the little men,
sounding exactly as if a large flock of sheep was going over the bridge.
* * * * *
Other accounts of the departure of the Dwarfs relate as follows:--
The Dosenberg is a mountain in Hesse on the Schwalm, in which, not far
from the bank of the stream, are two holes by which the Dwarfs[269] used
to go in and out. One of them came frequently in a friendly way to the
grandfather of Tobi in Singlis, when he was out in his fields. As he was
one day cutting his corn he asked him if he would the next night, for a
good sum of money, take a freight over the river. The farmer agreed, and
in the evening the Dwarf brought him a sack of wheat as an earnest. Four
horses were then put to the waggon, and the farmer drove to the
Dosenberg, out of the holes of which the Dwarf brought heavy, but
invisible loads to the waggon, which the farmer then drove through the
water over to the other side. He thus kept going backwards and forwards
from ten at night till four in the morning, by which time the horses
were quite tired. Then said the Dwarf, "It is enough, now you shall see
what you have been carrying!" He bade him look over his right shoulder,
and then he saw the country far and near filled with the Dwarfs. "These
thousand years," then said the Dwarf, "have we dwelt in the Dosenberg;
our time is now up, and we must go to another land. But the hill is
still so full of money that it would suffice for the whole country." He
then loaded Tobi's waggon with money and departed. The farmer had
difficulty in bringing home so heavy a load, but he became a rich man.
His posterity are still wealthy people, but the Dwarfs have disappeared
out of the country for ever.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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