The Simonside Dwarfs, also known as Brownmen, Bogles and Duergar, are in English folklore a race of dwarfs, particularly associated with the

Simonside Hills The Simonside Hills are a hill range in Northumberland, England near the town of Rothbury. Most of the hills are around high and are popular spots for hikers in the area. The highest point is Tosson Hill at . There are several single pitch roc ...

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...

, in

northern England Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...

. Their leader was said to be known as ''Heslop''.''Ghosts of The North Country'', Henry Tegner, 1991 Butler Publishing , page 62 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 In folklore, a will-o'-the-wisp, will-o'-wisp or ''ignis fatuus'' (, plural ''ignes fatui''), is an atmospheric ghost light seen by travellers at night, especially over bogs, swamps or marshes. The phenomenon is known in English folk belief, ...

. The menacing creatures would often disappear at dawn. The word ''duergar'' is likely to be derived from the

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

word for dwarf or dwarfs ( ''dvergar''), but it may also come from the dialectal words for ''"dwarf"'' on the

Anglo-Scottish border The Anglo-Scottish border () is a border separating Scotland and England which runs for between Marshall Meadows Bay on the east coast and the Solway Firth in the west. The surrounding area is sometimes referred to as "the Borderlands". The ...

which include ''dorch'', ''dwerch'', ''duerch'', ''Duergh'' and ''Duerwe'' amongst others ''Familiar letters of Sir Walter Scott, Volume 1'', Sir Walter Scott, Houghton Mifflin, 1894, page 151''Concise Scots dictionary'' Mairi Robinson, Edinburgh University Press, 1999, , pages 162-166http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dwarf with the added Norse ''-ar'' plural. These ''Border'' words for ''"dwarf"'', like the Standard English form, all derive from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

''dweorh'' or ''dweorg'' via the

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English ...

''dwerg''.Online Etymology Dictionary
/ref> In the 2004 film ''

Van Helsing A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across ...

'', the Duergar are the minions of

Count Dracula Count Dracula () is the title character of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. He is considered to be both the prototypical and the archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. Aspects of the character are believed by some ...

References

*Atkinson, Philip ''Folk Tales of North East England'' (http://viewbook.at/FolkTalesEngland) *Grice, F, ''Folk Tales of the North Country'' (Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd, London & Edinburgh, 1944) pp130–133
Simonside Folklore

External links

Dwarves (folklore) Northumbrian folklore English folklore English mythology English legendary creatures Northumbrian folkloric beings {{Europe-myth-stub

See also

References

External links