More info on dwarfs

_Elsa_

‘Many legends show dwarfs as kindly beings, generous to those who pleased them but vengeful when offended. The Swiss dwarfs, or “earth-men,” sometimes helped in agricultural work, found straying animals, and put out firewood or fruit for poor children to find. In Scandinavia and Germany also, they were friendly to men, but occasionally they stole corn, teased cattle, and abducted children and young girls. Services rendered to them were often repaid by gifts of gold from their hoards; but those who stole their treasures either met with great misfortune thereafter or found the gold turned to dead leaves when they reached home.

Mine-dwelling dwarfs were usually more capricious and spiteful than their mountain brothers. They could be heard moving about the lower levels and were sometimes seen by miners, who took care to placate them by gifts of food. (Source)

In some societies dwarfs have served as favourites, jesters, or entertainers in the courts of sovereigns and the households of important persons. Household dwarfs were kept by the early pharaohs of Egypt and still abounded at the courts of the Ptolemies. They played no part in Homeric and Classical Greece but flourished in imperial Rome, where slave children were sometimes stunted to increase their price. Household dwarfs were known in medieval Europe, and during the Renaissance their vogue increased and individual dwarfs became famous. Isabella d’Este designed part of her palace for them and remembered two in her will.

Dwarfs occasionally held responsible positions but were primarily entertainers. In western Europe household dwarfs were still heard of in the 18th century, but the institution declined. The public’s fascination with dwarfs continued into the 19th century. American showman P.T. Barnum publicized Charles Stratton (“General Tom Thumb”), among the most popular attractions in his American Museum of curiosities, and Stratton became an international star.’ (Source)

“Very interesting!” Tiffi thinks. “I still cannot understand why the different spellings – dwarfs? Dwarves?”

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