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OTHER SrPEESTITIONB. 299
away. Sucli a descent was no doubt conferred upon
tlie men wlio received the surname of HdlftroU. A
giant-like, hideous appearance and a ferocious dis-
position may have given cause for such an idea, es-
pecially when those qualities were h^editary
through several generations of one family.
The belief in Dwarves as inhabitants of the interior
of the earth and especially of large isolated rocks,
was likewise a direct offshoot of the Asa-Mythology.
These beings were considered to be great artists
in preparing metals. Weapons of remarkably good
properties were said to- be produced from their sub-,
terranean workshops. The Dwarves, like the Jo-
• tuns, could not endure the sunlight ; they became
turned into stone if they were approached by its
rays while out of their dwellings.* It was also be-
lieved that if a man met a dwarf away from his rock,
and should throw steel between him and his home,
he could close up his habitation to him and thereby
become able to extort from him whatever he wished.
As Echo in the Old-Norsfe was called " Dwarf Ian"
guage " (dvergmdl), it is highly probable that the
people imagined it to be produced by the Dwarves
living within the mountains, who imitated the sound
they heard without.
Although the Dwarves in the Asa doctrine have
a very important mythic signification, yet they ap-
pear to have been in general quite as little an object
of worship among the Northmen as were the Jotnns.
It was only when a Jotun or a Dwarf was occa-
* TheO.Edda: AMsmSI, 36.