J. F. Campbell Collection > Minstrelsy of the Scottish border > Volume 2

THE SCOTTISH BORDER. Ill
rock, and two dwarfs sitting before the mouth of a ca-
vern. The king drew his sword, and intercepted their
retreat, by springing betwixt them and their recess, and
imposed upon them the following condition of safety :—'
that they should make for him a faulchion, with a baldric
and scabbai-d of pure gold, and a blade which should
divide stones and iron as a garment, and which should
render the wielder ever victorious in battle. The elves
complied with the requisition, and Suafurlami pursued
his way home. Returning at the time appointed, the
dwarfs delivered to him the famous sword Tyrfing ;
then, standing in the entrance of the cavern, spoke thus :
" This sword, O king, shall destroy a man every time
" it is brandished ; but it shall perform three atrocious
" deeds, and it shall be thy bane." The king rushed
forward with the charmed sword, and buried both its
edges in the rock ; but the dwarfs escaped into their
recesses.* This enchanted sword emitted rays like the
sun, dazzling all against whom it was brandished ; it
* Perhaps in this, and similar tales, we may recognize something
of real history. That the Fins, or ancient natives of Scandinavia,
were driven into the mountains, by the invasion of Odin and his Asi-
atics, is sufficiently probable ; and there is reason to believe, that the
aboriginal inhabitants understood, better than the intruders, how to
manufacture the produce of their own mines. It is therefore possible,
that, in process of time, the oppressed Fins may have been transform-
ed into the supernatural duergar. A similar transformation has taken
place among the vulgar in Scotland, regarding the Picts, or Peghs, to
whom they ascribe various supernatural attributes.