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original here used for the Fairies, is Alfa, Elves, a designation which we shall find in the Edda applied generically to the whole tribe, however distinct in their functions or mode of existence.

Not only can we prove, indeed, the priority and high antiquity of the Gothic fairy superstitions on the unquestioned authority of Thiodolf and Sigvatur, but we can substantiate also the very material fact, that the scattered features of this mythology were collected and formed into a perfect system nearly a quarter of a century before any of the first crusaders could return to Europe. About the year 1077, Sæmund compiled the first or Metrical Edda, containing, among other valuable documents, the "Voluspa," a poem whose language indicates a very remote origin *, and where we find a minute and accurate description of the Duergar or Fairies, who are divided into two classes, of which the individuals are even carefully named and enumerated, a catalogue which is augmented in the Prose Edda composed by Snorro in 1215†, and still further increased in the "Scalda," written, it is supposed, about a year or two afterwards.

Having thus endeavoured to show that the Fairy Superstitions of the Goths were possessed of an antiquity sufficiently great to have procured their propagation through the medium of Scandinavian conquest and colonisation, long anterior to any oriental source, and that the genius of eastern fabling, when subsequently introduced into the south, was of a character totally distinct from the popular superstition of the north of Europe, we hasten to place before the reader a short sketch of the genealogy, attributes, and offices of the Gothic

Alfis sacrificare dixit, foris vero lupis libare sanguinem mactatorum animalium." Oläf. Helg. Haroldsons Saga. cap. 92. See also, Snorro apud Schöning, tom. ii. p. 124. Hafn. 1778.

* " Sæmundus tantum," says a learned commentator on the Voluspa, " qui literas Latinas induxit in Islandiam, e literis Runicis, hæc poëmata in literaturam vulgarem transtulit, non composuit, ut ipsa monumenta testantur." - Gudm. Andr. Not. in Volusp. Stroph. vi.

† Two chapters of the Edda of Snorro, Myth. 13. 15. are occupied by an illustrative enumeration of these Dvergi or Fairies, and the "Scalda" has catalogued nearly one hundred of the same race.

elves, in order that we may compare them with their poetical offspring, the popular fairies of Britain, and thence be able to appreciate the various modifications and improvements which the system received from the creative imagination of Shakspeare.

Under the term Norner the ancient Goths included two species of preternatural beings of a diminutive size, the Godar Norner, or Beneficent Elves, and the Illar Norner, or Malignant Elves. Among the earliest bards of Scandinavia, in the Voluspa, and in the Edda of Snorro, these distinctions are accurately maintained, though under various appellations, either alluding to their habits, their moral nature, or their external appearance. The most common nomenclature, or division, however, was into Liös-alfar, or Bright Elves, and Suart-alfar, or Dock-alfar Swart, or Black Elves, the former belonging to the Alfa-ættar, or tribe of alfs, fauns, or elves, the latter to the Duerga-ættar, or tribe of Dwarfs. *

The Alfs and Dwergs, therefore, the Fairies and the Dwarfs, or, in other words, the Bright and the Swart Elves of Scandinavia form, together with a somewhat larger species which we shall have occasion shortly to mention, the whole of the machinery of whose origin we are in search.

Of this Alfa-folch, Elfin-folk, or Fairy-people, the Liös-alfar, or Bright Elves, were supposed to be aërial spirits, of a beautiful aspect, sporting in the purest ether, and inhabiting there a region called Alf-heimur, Elf-ham, or Elf-home. Their intercourse with mortals was always beneficent and propitious, and when they presided at a nativity, happiness and prosperity were their boon. * They visited

* " Sunt adhuc plures tales Norner ad hominum quemlibet in mundum natum venientes, ut dies illi determinent; harum quædam sunt divinæ, quædam ex faunorum (Alfa attar) quædam ex nanorum genere (Duerga ættar).-Nornæ bonæ (Godar Norner) felicem tribuunt vitam, sed si quis sinistris premitur fatis, hoc male (Illar Norner) efficiunt. Alia illic urbs Alfheimur vocatur (sc. faunorum mundus), quam incolunt illi qui Liös-alfar (sc. lucidi fauni) appellantur, sed Döck-alfar (sc. nigri fauni) viscera terræ inferiora tenent, et sunt prioribus illis valde dissimiles re et aspectu. Liösalfi sunt sole clariores; Döckalfi pice nigriores." - Resen. Edda Island. Myth. xv.

the cottages of the virtuous and industrious poor, blessing and assisting their efforts *, and danced in mazy rounds by moonlight on the dewy grass, to the sound of the most enchanting music, leaving on the sward circular and distinct traces of their footsteps of a beautiful and lively green, vestiges of what in the Swedish language was called the Elf-dans, a word which has been naturalised in our own tongue. † The bright elves were also considered as propitious to women in labour, and desirous of undertaking all the duties of the cradle; in short, wherever a fairy of this species was found, whether in the palace, the cottage, or the mine, it was always distinguished by a series of kind or useful offices.

In almost every respect the reverse of this benevolent race were the Suart-alfar, or Swart Elves, who were neither spirits nor mortals, but of an intermediate nature, dwelling in the bowels of the earth, in mountains, caves, or barrows, of the same diminutive size as the bright elves, but unpleasing in their features, and though sometimes fair in their complexions, often dark and unlovely. § They were the

* " Sunt - Nymphæ alba - Dominæ bonæ, Itali Fatas, Galli Fees vocant; quarum adventu multum prosperitatis et rerum omnium copiam putarunt superstitiose anus domibus contingere quas frequentarint, et ideo domi suæ illis epulas instruxere." - Vide Kornmann Templ. Natur. part iii. cons. 12. p. 113.

+ " In multis locis Septentrionalis regionis, præsertim nocturno tempore, suum saltatorium orbem cum omnium musarum consentu versare solent. Sed post ortum solem quandoque roscidis deprehenduntur vestigiis. - Hunc nocturnum ludum vocant incolæ Choream Elvarum." Ol. Magn. Gent. Septent. lib. iii. c. 11. p. 107. Chorea Elvarum is here given as a translation of the Elf-dans of the Swedish language.

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"Fæminæ etiam parturientes olim hasce (sc. Godar Norner) precibus adibant ut facilius dolore ac onere levarentur; quemadmodum neque aniles fabulæ desunt vulgo de spectris sub mulierum specie sexui parturienti opem ferentibus." - Keysler. de Mulierib. Fatid. sect. 23. p. 394.

" In the Northern Regions," says Loier, speaking of the Fairies, "the report is, that they have a care, and doe diligently attend about little infantes lying in the cradle; that they doe dresse and undresse them in their swathling clothes, and doe performe all that which carefull nurses can doe unto their nurse-children." - Peter le Loier, Treatise of Strange Sights and Apparitions, chap. ii. p. 19. 4to.

§ "Svart-Alfar tenebrarum spiritus; verum hæc species Alforum putata est non esse mere spiritus, nec nudi homines, sed medium inter divos et mortales." - Comment in Volusp. (Str. xv.) ex Biblioth. Resenii.

dispensers of misfortune, and consequently their attendance at a birth became the harbinger of a predominating portion of * evil; mischief, indeed, either in sport or anger, seems to have been their favourite employment. They, like those of the more friendly tribe, visited the surface of the earth at midnight, but the circular tracery of their revels was distinguished from the green ringlets of the beneficent kind, by the ground being burnt and blasted wherever their footsteps had been impressed. †

Among this species was also classed the Incubus, by the Scandinavians termed Mara, Meyar, or the Mare; by the Saxons Alf or Alp ; by the Franconians Drud ‡, a fairy who haunted those who slept, and oppressed them by sitting on their chest. This elf was likewise considered as exerting a baneful influence at noon-time over those who heedlessly gave themselves to sleep in the fields, and was deemed particularly dangerous, at this hour, to pregnant women. § To the mischievous power of these Swart-elves was also ascribed, by the Gothic nations, the loss or exchange of children, who were borne away from the parental roof previous to the rites of baptism, and oftentimes an idiotic or deformed bantling was substituted in the place of the stolen infant. || Generally were they found, indeed, spiteful and malicious in all their agency with mankind, whether in a playful or a serious mood; frequently injuring or destroying the

* Vide note in p. 308.

+ "Quandoque vero saltum adeo profunde in terram impresserant, ut locus, cui assueverant, insigni ardore orbiculariter peresus, non parit arenti redivivum cespite gramen.”— Ol. Magn. Gent. Sept. 1. iii. c. 2.

† "A Matribus sive Mair descendunt aniles nugæ von der Nachtmar, fæminei sexus spectrum credunt somniantes pondere suo gravans, ut arctius inclusus spiritus ægre possit meare. Angli adpellant Nightmare.-Alp et Alf enim veteribus notat dæmonem montaSuecis et Anglis Elf est Franconiæ incolis Ephialtes etiam est die Drud." - Keysler de Mulierib. Fated. sect. 68. p. 497.

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" Meridianum adpellabatur, quod meridie magis infestum credebatur, unde hodie observant, ut puerperas hora meridiana non sinant esse solas, aut camera exire. - Sæpe tamen etiam pro ephialte vel Incubo usurpatur."- Keysler, sect. 68. p. 497.

|| " Eratque hoc larvarum genus apprime infestum - infantibus lactentibus cunis ad

huc inhærentibus." - Wier. De Præstig. Dæm. 1. i. c. 16. p.104.

cattle, riding the horses, plaiting their manes in knots, terrifying and leading wandering or benighted peasants astray, by voices, cries, by peals of laughter or delusive lights. *

With all these evil propensities, however, they are uniformly represented by our Northern ancestors as singularly ingenious, and endowed with great mechanical skill, particularly that variety of the Suart-alfar termed Bergmanlein or Mountain-dwarfs, who were believed to inhabit caves and mines and barrows†, and to be frequently and audibly employed in forging swords and armour of such excellent temper and strength as to be proof not only against the usual accidents of warfare, but against all the arts of magic and incantation. This craft was denominated Duerga Smithi, or FairySmithery §, and was sometimes exercised in the formation of enchanted rings, and of automata which by the proper management of secret springs would transport their conductors through the air. || By the Swedes and Germans, also, these subterranean dwarfs, virunculi montani, were supposed to be sometimes busy in the laborious occupation of excavating the rocks, and to be occasionally useful to the miners in detecting latent veins of ore; but their agency was more generally deemed pernicious, and they were held to be the artificers of accident,

* " Sese velut umbras - ostendunt, risusque atque inanes cachinnos, ludicraque præstigia et alia infinita ludibria, quibus infelices decipiunt, vocali sono confingunt." - Ol. Mag. De Gent. Septent. lib. vi. cap. 10.

" Dæmon in forma Viri Ignei, jam maximi, jam parvi sive Virunculi, noctu in campis oberrantis, et brevi hinc inde decurrentis, apparuit." - Becker. Spectrol. p. 120.

† "Inter cætera inira quædam referuntur de virunculis montanis, quos Bergmanlein vocant, nanorum forma et statura præditis." Vide Kircher. Mund. Subter. lib. viii. sect. 4. с. 4. p. 123.

"Alii nominant virunculos montanos - videntur autem esse seneciores, et vestiti more metallicorum, id est, vittato indusio, et corio circum lumbos dependente induti." - Vide Agricola de Animant. Sub. c. 37. р. 78.

‡ "Sunt gladii, aliaque arma, omnium præstantissima, ab Duergis fabricata, quæ omnia

penetrare, nec arte magica hebetari crdebantur." - Verel. in Hervar. Sag. cap. 7. § Vide Verel. in Hervar. Sag. voce Duerga Smithi.

! See, in the Minor Voluspa, the Hildi-svini of Hyndla, a species of enchanted steed. Stroph. v. et vii.

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