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These rebel spirits reappear amongst the Greeks as the Titans, the children of Titania, the earth; who, for the most part, are personifications of the wild, powerful, and obstructive forces of Nature. The Titans warred against Jove, the god of heaven, the earth crashed in conflagration, the forests crackled, the ocean boiled, and threw up scalding vapour to the sky, as thunderbolts and lightnings flew whirling down from heaven, the winds adding to the din and increasing the strife, until the sound was as of the earth falling in ruins, and of a solid heaven like a vast avalanche, dashing down upon it from above.1

The battle ended by the Titans being overcome, and driven headlong into Tartaros, a dark and dreary place where are the extremities of earth :—2

The gaping gulf low to the centre lies,

And twice as deep as earth is distant from the skies.

The rivals of the gods, the Titan race,

Here sing'd with lightning roll within th' unfathom'd space."

Such too were the great frost giants of the Eddaïc mythology. A mass of frozen venom had originally produced the giant Ymir, out of whom was formed the earth, and who became the father of the frost giants. The destruction of these giants was brought about by Bör, the father of the gods of heaven, the Eddaïc Jove :—a

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1 Hesiod, 690.

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2 lb.

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Eneid," vi.
Mallet's "Northern Antiquities," 402-405.

Mountains together dash,
Giants headlong rush,

And Heaven in twain is rent.1

Finally we note that Job recognized that the Rephaim, "the mighty ones, the mighty ones," were confined in the depths of Sheol, groaning and trembling at Jehovah :* that Isaiah identifies the Rephaim with the "other lords," whose name had been invoked as gods, but whom Jehovah had destroyed, and had made their memory to perish, turning them into "Rephaim" and that the Apostle Peter quotes the angels that sinned, and whom Jehovah had cast down into Tartaros, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.*

It is not improbable that, through all these traditions, in which dread powers of terrific influence and mien are dimly seen, comes down to us the echo of a mighty and cruel religion, in which the powers of earth were deified, and their worship cruel, bloody and relentless, sensual and degrading; when the only offering acceptable to the gods was human blood, and the standard of morality that of the Pans and Satyrs when "the earth was corrupt and filled with violence."5

We have seen that the most dreaded cosmical spirits were considered as the offspring of the earth,

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and in Northern Mythology the duergar, who were its earth spirits, whose abode was in the ground and in stones, were said to have been bred in the earth as maggots are in flesh.1 The duergar were a repulsive race of beings, of low stature, with short legs and long arms, reaching almost down to the ground when standing upright; gifted with much knowledge, and especially skilled as metal-workers. After the duergar became personified and familiar to the popular mind, their origin as cosmical spirits, in which they resembled the Titans, Rephaim, and other subterranean monsters, was gradually lost sight of; and they were classed with any race of actual men who combined in themselves a sufficient number of such attributes as, to the careless and ignorant, present some features of resemblance. At this point come in the dwarfs.

The dwarfs or trolls are represented as dwelling inside hills, mounds, and hillocks; sometimes in single families, sometimes in societies. They are regarded as extremely rich. Their hill dwellings are very magnificent inside; and, on great occasions of festivity, are lighted up, and seem to be full of treasure, and sumptuous furniture and utensils. The dwarfs are obliging and neighbourly, keeping up friendly intercourse with mankind: equally sensitive

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"Prose Edda," 13.

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Keightley's "Fairy Mythology," 67.

to kindness and to slight, requiting the former with gratitude, and resenting the latter with manifest petulance. They marry, have children, and live much as mankind do:-even at times intermarrying with them. They are generally low in stature, humpbacked, with long crooked noses and twinkling mischievous eyes; dressed in dressed in grey or brown jackets, and wearing red caps. They are much addicted to dancing, music and singing, in which they specially indulge at festival time. They have supernatural powers, which they exercise not only for their own benefit, but by which they influence the lives and destinies of mankind; they can confer bodily strength and beauty, prosperity or mischance; they can foretell future events, and spirit themselves or others away, either in an invisible state, or in the form of animals or other beings, and this by means of spells, talismans and charms.

Whilst possessing all these wonderful powers, they are themselves the slaves of magical influences, and at times become suddenly subdued and helpless by some chance accident. Usually invisible to mortal sight, they become suddenly visible if their cap gets knocked off and seized; and until they regain it they are in the power of the possessor of the сар. In other ways they may at times be captured by mortals, and made to reveal and give up their treasures, or otherwise subserve the interests of their captor.

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They are however a very slippery set, and although inferior in size are sometimes endued with great strength and agility, and always with a watchful cunning which makes them more than a match for the ponderous beings of a duller mould: the cap of invisibility will be suddenly snatched back and resumed, or the vigilance of the captor will be eluded just at the critical moment, and the dwarf will vanish with a ringing jeer.

All dwarfs are not however equally good-natured, some being more grim than others, and seeming to rejoice in malicious spite : but as a rule they are harmless, shy, and retiring, timid when not in large numbers, suspicious, and occasionally morose. They are not particularly honest, but their dishonesty consists more of pilfering than serious robbery, and only being of a serious character when women or children are carried off, -kidnapping being a particular weakness of theirs. Their mischief is also more of a petty than of a serious nature; skimming the milk, breaking the crockery, worrying the cattle, and such like: or misleading or scaring travellers or their horses, inveigling them into dilemmas or leaving them to flounder in swamps or quagmires.

They are often represented as metal workers of great and unrivalled skill;' being able to fashion work

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