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ELVES. 445
l
elves) and ; these Snorri evidently takes to be the same as
dvergar, for his dvergar dwell in >vartalfaheim, (Sn.
34. 130.
136). This is, for one thing, at variance with the separation
of dlfar and dvergar in the lays, and more particularly with
the difference implied between dvckdlfar and dvergar in Saem.
92 b 188 a . That language of poetry, which everywhere else im
parts such precise information about the old faith, I am not
inclined to set aside here as vague and general. Nor, in con
nexion with this, ought we to overlook the ndir, the deadly pale
or dead ghosts named by the side of the dvergar, Ssem. 92 b
,
though again among the dvergar themselves occur the proper
names Nar and Nainn.
Some have seen, in this antithesis of lighb and black elves, the
same Dualism that other mythologies set up between spirits good
and bad, friendly and hostile, heavenly and hellish, between angels
of light and of darkness. But ought we not rather to assume
three kinds of Norse genii, liosalfar, dockalfar, svartdlfar ? No
doubt I am thereby pronouncing Snorri s statement fallacious :
dockalfar eru svartari en bik (pitch)/ DocJcr 2 seems to me not so
much downright black, as dim, dingy ; not niger, but obscurus,
fuscus, aquilus.
In ON. the adj. iarpr, AS. eorp, fuscus, seems to
and the female name
be used of dwarfs, Haupt s Zeitschr. 3, 152 ;
Irpa (p. 98) is akin to it. In that case the identity of dwarfs
and black elves would hold good, and at the same time the Old
Eddie distinction between dwarfs and dark elves be justified.
Such a Trilogy still wants decisive proof ; but some facts can
be brought in support of it. Pomeranian legend, to begin with,
seems positively to divide subterraneans into white, brown, and
black ; 3 elsewhere popular belief contents itself with picturing
dwarfs in gray clothing, in gray or brown cap-of-darkness ;
Scotch tradition in particular has its brownies, spirits of brown
hue, i.e. dockalfar rather than svartalfar (see Suppl.). Bat here
I have yet another name to bring in, which, as applied to such
spirits,
is not in extensive use. I have not met with it outside
1
Thorlac. spec. 7, p. 160, gives the liosalfar another name hvitalfar (white
I have not found the word in the old writings.
2 Conf. OHG. tunchal, MHG-. tunkel (our dunkel), Nethl. donker.
3 E. M. Arndt s Marchen und Jugenderinnerungen, Berl. 1818, p. 159. In Phil,
elves) ;
von Steinau s Volkssagen, Zeitz 1838, pp. 291-3, the same traditions are given,
but only white and black (not brown) dwarfs are distinguished.