I'll reprise an earlier post:
Dwarfs are villains ... or at least they should be a great deal more.
Dwarfs in Norse myth and Germanic folklore tend to be surly at best and downright wicked at worst.
They issue curses, lust for goddesses, betray heroes, resemble corpses and turn to stone.
They murder sages, work magic, commit fratricide and become dragons.
They are black elves and dark elves and groan before their stone doors.
They are the maggots of Ymir and, through the works of George MacDonald, as much the ancestors of Tolkien's orcs as any folkloric goblin.
These things make them much more interesting than short, brawny Scotsmen or half-sized Vikings.
Hear hear!
ReplyDeleteCheers!
DeleteThey sound like certain political parties!! ;-)
ReplyDeleteHa ha! Well, quite ...
DeleteCthulhu Dark Ages had them as actual maggot like beings inhabiting dead corpses.
ReplyDeleteIn my own setting I think about them as beings carved from stone, which not always used to be humanoid in shape