The Simonside Dwarfs, also known as Brownmen,

Bogles Bogles is a town on the island of Carriacou in Grenada Grenada is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The southernmost of the Windward Islands, Grenada is directly south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and ...

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 ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

, in

northern England Northern England, or the North of England, refers to the northern part of England and mainly corresponds to the Historic counties of England, historic counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, County Durham, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmo ...

. 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 ; ), is an atmospheric ghost light seen by travellers at night, especially over bogs, swamps or marshes. The phenomenon is known in the United Kingdom by a variety of names, including jack-o'- ...

. 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 The Anglo-Scottish border runs for between Marshall Meadows Bay on the east coast and the Solway Firth in the west, separating Scotland and England. The Firth of Forth was the border between the Picto- Gaelic Kingdom of Alba and the Angli ...

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 162-166 with a later, mistakenly added Norse ''-ar'' plural, perhaps as a result of linguistic misattestation. It may also come from the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

word for dwarf or dwarfs ( ''dvergar''). These ''Border'' words for ''"dwarf"'', like the

Standard English In an English-speaking country, Standard English (SE) is the variety of English that has undergone codification to the point of being socially perceived as the standard language, associated with formal schooling, language assessment, and off ...

form, all derive from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

''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 pe ...

''dwerg''.Online Etymology Dictionary
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Van Helsing Professor Abraham Van Helsing () is a fictional character from the 1897 gothic horror novel ''Dracula'' written by Bram Stoker. Van Helsing is a Dutch polymath doctor with a wide range of interests and accomplishments, partly attested by the P ...

'', 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 the prototypical and archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. Aspects of the character are believed by some to have been i ...

References

* *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