Untitled - Centrostudirpinia.it

ELVES, DWAEFS. 455
getwergen wsere ze stigen da genuoc/ enougli climbing for wild
dwarfs, says Wh. 57, 25, speaking of a rocky region. 1 The popu
lar beliefs in Denmark about the biergmand, biergfolk, biergtrold,
are collected in Molbech s Dial. lex. p. 35-6. The biergmand s
wife is a biergekone. These traditions about earth-men and
mountain- sprites all agree together. Slipping 2 into cracks and
crevices of the hills,, they seem to vanish suddenly, like the
schwick/ as the Swiss tale has it, and as suddenly they come up
from the ground ; in all the places they haunt, there are shown
such dwarf s holes, querlich s holes. So the ludJci in Lausitz make
their appearance out of underground passages like mouseholes ;
a Breton folk-song speaks of the korred s grotto (Villemarque
1, 36). In such caves they pursue their occupations, collecting
treasures, forging weapons curiously wrought ; their kings fashion
for themselves magnificent chambers underground, Elberich,
Laurin dwell in these wonderful mountains, men and heroes at
times are tempted down, loaded with gifts, and let go, or held
fast (see SuppL). Dietrich von Bern at the close of his life is
fetched away by a dwarf, Deut. heldens. p. 300 ; of Etzel, says
the Nibelungs Lament 2167, one knows not ( ob er sich ver-
slilffe in locher der steinwende, whether he have slipped away
like Tann-
into holes of the rocks 8 : meaning probably, that,
hauser and faithful Eckart, he has got into the mount wherein
Dame Venus dwells. Of this Dame Venus s mount we have no
accounts before the 15-16th centuries; one would like to know
what earlier notions lie at the bottom of it : has Dame Venus
been put in the place of a subterranean elf-queen, or of a goddess,
such as Dame Holda or Frikka ? Heinrich von Morunge sings
of his beloved, MS. 1, 55 a :
Und dunket mich, wie si ge zuo mir dur ganze muren,
ir trust und ir helfe lazent mich niht truren ;
swenne si wil, so vueret sie mich hitmen
mit ir wizen hant hohe iiber die zinnen.
ich wasne sie ist ein Venus here.
1 Other instances are collected in Ir. Elfenm. Ixxvi. den lere buten wildiu
getwerc, wild dwarfs inhabited the hill, Sigenot 118.
2
Sliefen is said of them as of the fox in Eeinh. xxxi. our subst. schlucht
;
stands for sluft (beschwichtigen, lucht, kracht, for swiften, luft, kraft), hence a hole
to slip into.
3 Conf. Deutsche sagen, no. 383, on Theoderic s soul, how it is conveyed into
Vulcan s abyss.
VOL. II. C