Dwarves in historical folklore

[Roxxy]

I got to thinking about the role of Dwarves in my campaign setting. They are the hardest race to do creative things with. They seem to always be axe-bearded drunken Scottish miners, and that's just what they do. In my setting, I plan for them to be curly bearded drunken Bavarian mountain men, because that concept just plain works, but it's still a bit too similar to what Dwarves usually are in fantasy. Interestingly enough, however, Dwarves are something that, it seems, most cultures have some version of in their folklore. Which gives me an idea. Given that myths about them are so universal, what if they were a race that exists worldwide, just like Humans (in my setting, demihuman races are usually from just one specific geographic region, and do not form their own nations), and that, as a result, has a wide variety of cultures and ethnicities? That right there gives more room for Dwarves to be interesting. We have those jolly drunken Bavarian mountain Dwarves, surly axe-beared Scandinavian miners who live underground, Anglo-Saxon, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish hill dwelling Halflings, salty Scottish fishermen and sailors who live along the northern coast and islands, and cosmopolitan French craftsmen, architects, and engineers with a penchant for designing things that are far more complicated than they need to be. That makes Dwarves start to get more interesting, and makes them into a much more versatile race.

What I need is some examples of Dwarves from non-European folklore, especially East Asian and Native American Dwarves. I can handle the European ones with the ideas given above, but I don't know my American and Asian folklore well enough to find information that could inspire me.

[Jendekit]

The only one that I know of that could fit a "dwarf" subrace would be Ebu Gogo, loosely translated to 'Granny Glutton', from the myths of the island of Flores in Indonesia. Myths describe it as a furred, flat-nosed creature of about 1.5 meters and a very fast runner. Commonly told to steal food and children from the local villages, some scientists believe that Ebu Gogo has roots in a species of hominid called Homo Floresiensis that was alive as recently as 12,000 years ago. The scientists who discovered the first skeleton gave it the nickname Hobbit.

[DoomHat]

Especially in their most famous deceptions (Wagner's Ring Saga) medieval and onward depictions of dwarfs in Europe were mostly hateful Jewish caricatures... so there's that.

Short greedy bearded worry-worts who cling to their debts and grudges with the same or more affection then their own children? Noooo...

[avr]

I remembered the name Korobokuru from AD&D as being dwarf-ish creatures in Oriental Adventures. A quick google brought up this (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koro-pok-guru) or you could try digging up OA I guess.

[the_david]

What do you actually know about the Scandinavian dvergar/dokalfar/svartalfar? Here's a couple of things they did, some of this you can find in fantasy dwarves. Some of this, you can't.

- They where once maggots that crawled out of the corpse of a giant.
- They created the humans and the aesir breathed life into them. (One interpretation of Voluspa.)
- They killed the aesir known as Bragi and made the mead of poetry out of his blood.
- They killed some giants.
- They turned to stone in direct sunlight.
- They made artifacts like Mjolnir and Skidbladnir.
- They made Brisingamen and traded it to Freya in exchange for sex.
- Alvis claimed the hand of Thor's daughter Thrudd.
- They could take the forms of animals like otters and fish, Fafnir took the form of a dragon to protect his treasure.
- They are greedy, to the point of killing their own relatives for money.

So what do we've got here? Well they seem to be equals to the gods, but you've got to remind yourself that the gods weren't as powerfull as those in D&D. They also seem to be more chaotic, and they had evil tendencies. Ofcourse, a lot of these things where based on culture so they don't translate that well. (For example, Odin and Loki killed Otr, and his father and brothers demanded retribution in the form of a treasure, or they would pay with their lives. This may have been a custom and then it would be a lawful act. Ofcourse, Fafnir then killed his father so he could keep the treasure and that would be chaotic evil. Regin then send the human hero Sigurd after his brother Fafnir so Regin could eat Fafnir's heart. Sigurd then ate Fafnir's heart instead, took the treasure and killed Regin. Ofcourse, the treasure was cursed so it's really hard to determine if they really where greedy or just cursed.)
They where good at making magical items, and could take the forms of animals and dragons so they had some mastery of transmutation magic. This could go against the rule in AD&D that dwarves couldn't become wizards.
The fact that they liked aesir woman and that dwarven women where not mentioned (that much) might mean that dwarves are always male and have to seek women from other races to procreate.
They lived in caves to hide from the sun, as they turned to stone in direct sunlight. (Like the trolls from the Hobbit, which was likely plagiarised from the Alvismal.)

Ofcourse, there are other kinds of little people in European history. Duergar and spriggans are the spirits of dead giants. They had the ability to grow to size of a giant and to become invisible. They also had the power to create illusions.
Then you've got kobolds, brownies, goblins, kabouters. Do I need to go on? Really, dwarves weren't the only little people in Europe. Although, to be honest, nothing indicates that dvergar where small except for their name, and that could be a later addition to folklore. Or in other words, dvergar where dvergar before dvergar meant someone of small stature.

[niks97cobra]

Why the need to make dwarves that aren't dwarves? If every race was as versatile as humans, wouldn't all races then be variations of human?

[NothingButCake]

The Philippines have a lot of mythology about dwarf-like creatures, usually as trickster or outright malevolent spirits. You can just google "philippines dwarf mythology".

The Ainu have legends about the koro-pok-guru (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koro-pok-guru), who are helpful diminutive creatures who live in pits or holes in the ground covered with leaves. They are known for their claywork.

Hawai'i also has dwarf craftsmen, the menehune (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menehune).

Some others: Saci of Brazil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saci_(Brazilian_folklore)), Alux of the Mayans (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alux), Pukwudgie of the Wampanoag (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pukwudgie), Biloko of Central Africa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eloko), Tikoloshe of the Zulu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikoloshe). From there, you can usually click around to find other examples.

[Everyl]

Why the need to make dwarves that aren't dwarves? If every race was as versatile as humans, wouldn't all races then be variations of human?

Since the only sentient humanoids we've ever met in reality are humans, all "demihuman" races (dwarves, elves, halflings, etc.) are functionally just humans with a few tiny variations. D&D races are about as distinct and non-human as the "aliens" in Star Trek - they're really just humans with a bit of makeup and one or two distinct, heavily exaggerated "cultural" traits.

There's nothing stopping you from making a fantasy setting where humans are the only race. It's been done lots of times, often with very good results. My rule of thumb is, if having non-human races doesn't add anything to the setting that having multiple cultural groups of humans wouldn't, don't include non-human races.

Furthermore, The idea of "races" of very human-like but still not-human people who are easily pigeonholed into broad cultural stereotypes is uncomfortably reminiscent of real-world casual racism. "Dwarves are good at metalwork" and "Asians are good at math" are both generalizations that are broad, sweeping, and denying of individuality to members of the groups being described.

Since demihumans are still people, I personally prefer to make any nonhuman races included in my settings be as versatile as humans, while taking into account the actual physical differences that separate them from humans. For example, dwarves are one of the few races that can see well in both bright light and complete darkness, so they can function well day or night, indoors, outdoors, or underground. Thus, dwarven cultures (in my settings) tend to be less tied to the day/night cycle than those of many other races; one can extrapolate from differences like that to build multiple interesting cultures for pretty much any race. Also, it gives an idea of what kind of roles members of the race would fill in cosmopolitan cities and nations. In a city with a substantial, well-integrated dwarven population, dwarves might be a common sight among city guardsmen or police. Not because they are a naturally militant people (that's a cultural, not a racial, trait), but because being able to see well both night and day makes them well-suited to keeping an eye out for criminal activity at all hours. In another city where dwarves are a small minority that is routinely persecuted, they might use their night vision to commit crimes instead - or at least might be believed to do so by the dominant race(s) in that city.

In my setting-building, I try to take a "logical" approach like the one above to create races and cultures based on the existing stat blocks and concrete racial differences. I like Roxxy's approach quite a bit, too, though - drawing from folklore and legends in a variety of cultures is an excellent way to use real-world resources to make a varied, interesting fantasy game setting.

[brian 333]

I think we may be dealing with two issues here:

How are dwarves racially different from humans?

How are dwarves culturally different from one another?

The prevalence in human mythos of little people can be easily explained by human dwarfism, which is not uncommon. But in a world where you are aware of perhaps two-hundred people and have tales of other similar-sized groups wandering around or settled a long way away, (20 miles,) to have actually met a dwarf would be uncommon. So, the tales grow taller as the dwarf grows smaller. Your fantasy dwarves could simply be humans afflicted with dwarfism. Perhaps for some reason it is more prevalent in your world than the real one.

But back to your fantasy world dwarves. I assume a common heritage, so that they are similar to one another racially, and not really halflings, spriggans, kobolds, gnomes, and other assorted diminutive races. (Kobolds weren't originally reptilian, that's a D&D thing.) If there is a common heritage, then there are racial traits. For example, humans come in a variety of heights, but males tend to be larger than females, bearded, prone to baldness in adulthood, while females tend to be shorter than males and lack upper body strength. Does any of this apply racially to dwarves? For example, are dwarven women bearded? Are they the same size as males, with similar proportions and muscle development? When compared to the 'human standard', (like the gold standard for currency,) how do they differ racially? Tougher? Stronger? Smarter? Or the opposite?

Then there is a question of culture. Are dwarves irascible because they are culturally disposed to be, or because they are like badgers and just hate everything? Is this a universal trait among dwarves or just one isolated culture?

In the examples you provided it seemed to me that culture, and not race, was your primary focus. What if the creator of dwarves created them individually, specifically suited to their home terrain? In this case, desert dwarves would have different racial characteristics than mountain dwarves, (better heat tolerance versus better cold tolerance, for example.) This would allow you to have farmer dwarves, fisher dwarves, hunter dwarves, climbing dwarves, caving dwarves, and whatever else you needed. Can these various species interbreed? Do they create mules when they do, or do the children get a mixed bag of traits?

I know I've asked more questions when you wanted answers, but to me it seems these questions open up more possibilities than simply saying, "These are French dwarves and those are Chinese."