imported>LR.127: Adding short description: "Race of dwarfs in English folklore"

2024-07-31T21:22:55Z

Adding short description: "Race of dwarfs in English folklore"

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{{Short description|Race of dwarfs in English folklore}}
{{for|the [[Dungeons & Dragons]] creatures|Duergar (Dungeons & Dragons)}}

The '''Simonside Dwarfs''', also known as '''Brownmen''', '''[[Boggart|Bogles]]''' and '''Duergar''', are in English folklore a race of [[dwarf (mythology)|dwarfs]], particularly associated with the [[Simonside Hills]] of [[Northumberland]], in [[northern England]]. Their leader was said to be known as ''Heslop''.<ref name="The North Country page.62">''Ghosts of The North Country'', Henry Tegner, 1991 Butler Publishing {{ISBN|0-946928-40-1}}, page 62</ref>

In F. Grice's telling of the traditional story ''The Duergar'' in ''Folk Tales of the North Country'' (1944), one of them is described as being short, wearing a lambskin coat, moleskin trousers and shoes, and a hat made of moss stuck with a feather.

The legendary dwarfs of Simonside were mentioned in the local newspaper, the ''Morpeth Gazette'', in 1889, and in Tyndale's ''Legends and Folklore of Northumbria'', 1930. They delighted in leading travellers astray, especially after dark, often carrying lighted torches to lead them into bogs, rather like a [[Will-o'-the-wisp]].<ref name="The North Country page.62"/> The menacing creatures would often disappear at dawn.

The word ''duergar'' is likely to be derived from the dialectal words for ''"dwarf"'' on the [[Anglo-Scottish border]] which include ''dorch'', ''dwerch'', ''duerch'', ''Duergh'' and ''Duerwe'' amongst others <ref name=famscott>''Familiar letters of Sir Walter Scott, Volume 1'', Sir Walter Scott, Houghton Mifflin, 1894, page 151</ref><ref name="Mairi Robinson 1999, pages 162-166">''Concise Scots dictionary'' Mairi Robinson, Edinburgh University Press, 1999, {{ISBN|1-902930-01-0}}, {{ISBN|978-1-902930-01-5}} pages 162-166</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite web | url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dwarf | title=Dwarf Definition & Meaning }}</ref> with a later, mistakenly added Norse ''-ar'' plural, perhaps as a result of linguistic misattestation.<ref name="famscott"/> It may also come from the [[Old Norse]] word for dwarf or dwarfs ([[Norse dwarves|''dvergar'']]). These ''Border'' words for ''"dwarf"'', like the [[Standard English]] form, all derive from the [[Old English]] ''dweorh'' or ''dweorg'' via the [[Middle English]] ''dwerg''.<ref name="Mairi Robinson 1999, pages 162-166"/><ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref>[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=dwarf Online Etymology Dictionary]</ref>

In the 2004 film ''[[Van Helsing (film)|Van Helsing]]'', the Duergar are the minions of [[Count Dracula]].

==See also==
* [[Brown Man of the Muirs]]
* [[English mythology]]
* [[Norse mythology]]

==References==

<references/>
*{{cite book |last=Atkinson| first=Philip | title=Folk Tales of North East England | url=http://viewbook.at/FolkTalesEngland}}
*Grice, F, ''Folk Tales of the North Country'' (Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd, London & Edinburgh, 1944) pp130–133
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070926221802/http://www.northumberlandnationalpark.org.uk/understanding/historyarchaeology/simonsidesacredmountain/simonsidestoriesandfolklore.htm Simonside Folklore]

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070926221749/http://www.northumberlandnationalpark.org.uk/understanding/historyarchaeology/simonsidesacredmountain/simonsidetheduergar.htm Grice's version of the story of "The Duergar"]

{{Fairies}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duergar (Folklore)}}
[[Category:Dwarves (folklore)]]
[[Category:Northumbrian folklore]]
[[Category:English folklore]]
[[Category:English mythology]]
[[Category:English legendary creatures]]
[[Category:Northumbrian folkloric beings]]

{{Europe-myth-stub}}

Simonside Dwarfs - Revision history

imported>LR.127: Adding short description: "Race of dwarfs in English folklore"