Dwarfknapped! July 23, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval , trackback
This weird little passage comes from the thirteenth century Ynglinga saga. It is mainly about the mythic Norse past. But it also includes one of our earliest representatives of a dvergr or dwarf: in this case a rock fairy. The human victim, a Swedish king, is drunk and things don’t end particularly well.
Sveigdir went to look for Godheimr again. And in the eastern part of Svithjod there was a large farm called Stein [the stone]. There is a stone there as big as a large house. In the evening after sunset, when Sveigdir left the drinking to go to his sleeping chamber, he looked towards the stone and saw a dwarf sitting under it. Sveigdir and his men were very drunk, and ran towards the stone. The dwarf stood in the doorway and called to Sveigdir, telling him to go in there if he wanted to meet Odinn. Sveigthir ran in, and the stone immediately closed behind him, and Sveigthir never came out.
Svegðir fór enn at leita Goðheims. Ok í austanverðri Svíþjóð heitir bœr mikill at Steini, þar er steinn svá mikill sem stór hús. Um kveldit eptir sólarfall, þá er Svegðir gékk frá drykkju til svefnbúrs, sá hann til steinsins, at dvergr sat undir steininum. Svegðir ok hans menn váru mjök druknir ok runnu til steinsins. Dvergrinn stóð í durum ok kallaði á Sveigði, bað hann þar inn ganga, ef hann vildi Óðin hitta. Svegðir hljóp í steininn; en steinninn laukst þegar aptr, ok kom Svegðir eigi aptr.
Those invisible doors… If you pass the great rock you can certainly still hear the Swedish king banging, hoping to get out. To the best of Beach’s knowledge this is our first description of a ‘rock fairy’ (aka gnome etc) from European history: drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com Any others?
