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From Complete Book of The Fairy Mythology: Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries
By Unknown Author
We are then to suppose either that there were other poems on the subject, or that these dresses were so well known a vehicle that it was deemed needless to mention them. We are to suppose also that it was by securing these dresses that the brothers prevented[Pg 215] the departure of the maidens, and that it was by recovering them that they were enabled to effect their escape. In effect in the German legend of Wielant (Völundr), the hero sees three doves flying to a spring, and as soon as they touch the ground they become maidens. He then secures their clothes, and will not return them till one of them consents to become his wife.
This legend resembles the tale of the Stolen Veil in Musæus, and those of the Peri-wife and the Mermaid-wife related above.[258] In the Breton tale of Bisclavaret, or the Warwolf, we learn that no one who became a wolf could resume his human form, unless he could recover the clothes which he had put off previous to undergoing the transformation.[259]
Our readers may like to see how the preface to the old editions of the Heldenbuch accounts for the origin of the Dwarfs.
"God," says it, "gave the Dwarfs being, because the land and the mountains were altogether waste and uncultivated, and there was much store of silver and gold, and precious stones and pearls still in the mountains. Wherefore God made the Dwarfs very artful and wise, that they might know good and evil right well, and for what everything was good. They knew also for what stones were good. Some stones give great strength; some make those who carry them about them invisible, that is called a mist-cloke (nebelkap); and therefore did God give the Dwarfs skill and wisdom. Therefore they built handsome hollow hills, and God gave them riches, etc.
"God created the Giants, that they might kill the wild beasts, and the great dragons (würm), that the Dwarfs might thereby be more secure. But in a few years the Giants would too much oppress the Dwarfs, and the Giants became altogether wicked and faithless.
"God then created the Heroes; 'and be it known that the Heroes were for many years right true and worthy, and[Pg 216] they then came to the aid of the Dwarfs against the faithless Giants;'—God made them strong, and their thoughts were of manhood, according to honour, and of combats and war."
We will divide the objects of German popular belief at the present day, into four classes:—1. Dwarfs; 2. Wild-women; 3. Kobolds; 4. Nixes.
GERMANY., Part 2
We are then to suppose either that there were other poems on the subject, or that these dresses were so well known a vehicle that it was deemed needless to mention them. We are to suppose also that it was by securing these dresses that the brothers prevented[Pg 215] the departure of the maidens, and that it was by recovering them that they were enabled to effect their escape. In effect in the German legend of Wielant (Völundr), the hero sees three doves flying to a spring, and as soon as they touch the ground they become maidens. He then secures their clothes, and will not return them till one of them consents to become his wife.
This legend resembles the tale of the Stolen Veil in Musæus, and those of the Peri-wife and the Mermaid-wife related above.[258] In the Breton tale of Bisclavaret, or the Warwolf, we learn that no one who became a wolf could resume his human form, unless he could recover the clothes which he had put off previous to undergoing the transformation.[259]
Our readers may like to see how the preface to the old editions of the Heldenbuch accounts for the origin of the Dwarfs.
"God," says it, "gave the Dwarfs being, because the land and the mountains were altogether waste and uncultivated, and there was much store of silver and gold, and precious stones and pearls still in the mountains. Wherefore God made the Dwarfs very artful and wise, that they might know good and evil right well, and for what everything was good. They knew also for what stones were good. Some stones give great strength; some make those who carry them about them invisible, that is called a mist-cloke (nebelkap); and therefore did God give the Dwarfs skill and wisdom. Therefore they built handsome hollow hills, and God gave them riches, etc.
"God created the Giants, that they might kill the wild beasts, and the great dragons (würm), that the Dwarfs might thereby be more secure. But in a few years the Giants would too much oppress the Dwarfs, and the Giants became altogether wicked and faithless.
"God then created the Heroes; 'and be it known that the Heroes were for many years right true and worthy, and[Pg 216] they then came to the aid of the Dwarfs against the faithless Giants;'—God made them strong, and their thoughts were of manhood, according to honour, and of combats and war."
We will divide the objects of German popular belief at the present day, into four classes:—1. Dwarfs; 2. Wild-women; 3. Kobolds; 4. Nixes.