※ Familiar and strange dwarfs
Speaking of dwarfs, I believe that many people will first think of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in "Grimm's Fairy Tales", and later adapted the classic animated film by Disney, in the movie story, the dwarf is a helpful, kind and hard-working righteous embodiment; in addition, in "The Hobbit: The Battle of Smaug", there is also a dwarven image, they are partners in adventure with the protagonist Bilbo Baggins, and they are also a race in Norse mythology, characters in the game. He is also a character in many fantasy literary themes.
The Hobbit 2: The Dwarf in the Battle of Smaug
All that is known about the dwarfs is about this, both strange and familiar, familiar because of the written works and related films, but therefore know very little about them, in many works the dwarfs are just an image, an identity, an ethnic group, a symbol, they live in legends, in the creation of literature and art, isolated, abstract and alienated.
Book photos
Dutch writer Will Hagen's book The Dwarf takes us into the real world of the Dwarf. Part of the book is made up of the historical background of the dwarfs and their daily lives, including marriage customs, age records, eating habits, work content, and neighborhood relations; the other part is related to the legends of the dwarfs.
※ The life of a dwarf
The dwarf's life is about three times that of a human being, and each dwarf's family will plant a tree for him from birth, and the age of the dwarf is the age of the dwarf, and they record their age in this way.
Dwarfs 100 years old to the age of marriage, they will travel long distances in order to find the right object, and the future father-in-law and mother-in-law will also strictly look at the son-in-law's house, so having a comfortable house is crucial for the dwarf, for which the dwarf usually has to start preparing their own house 15-20 years before marriage, from site selection, construction, material selection, decoration, it takes many years, until they see the effect of the final room, deeply admire the ability of the dwarf, when everything is knocked, The bride and groom will hold a wedding on the night of the full moon, and will also have a honeymoon trip after the ceremony, and the means of transportation usually include swans, geese, wolves, foxes, otters...
Build a house
The children born to a dwarf couple are usually twins, with a gestation of 12 months, in the family, the father usually goes out at night, they either go to the factory to do handicrafts, or in the garden to hoe grass and sow seeds, the father will also teach the boys to know all kinds of fungi and herbs, distinguish between various plants, and distinguish the good intentions or malice of animals, learn carpentry and lacquer at home, learn smelting, pottery and other crafts in life; girls follow their mothers or neighbors to learn cooking, spinning, dyeing, weaving, they live a tradition, Simple and simple life, until the children grow up and live independently, the parents began to return to a life of only two people.
handiwork
One of the proudest things is probably the story of helping each other and getting along with neighbors in nature. They will tickle the fox, they will help the male deer to solve the horns entangled in the fight, they will judge the two fighting roosters, they are warm and kind, helpful, but occasionally they will also face danger, especially the ugly bastard with dirty hair and the ugly snot monster, and whenever the dwarf falls into their hands, they will always be tortured in various ways.
※ Some legends:
In the legend of the dwarfs, they sometimes exist like Doraemon, and can fulfill the wishes of mankind, just like the stories of poor woodcutters and dwarfs; sometimes they will save their masters from disaster; sometimes they are the embodiment of the brave, often saving people from danger, and sometimes incarnating as messengers of justice, punishing greedy and mean people.
In these legends, the dwarfs mostly lived in the woods of northern Siberia, some in Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, or other Nordic towns. Although the author explains to us that the gnomes are not equivalent to the dwarves, the gnomes of Norse mythology, who are also accustomed to living in the mountains, underground or mines, have superb craftsmanship, are symbols of skilled craftsmen, and are also familiar with magic and prophecy. The high degree of overlap of features suggests that there may be some connection between the two, and perhaps in the more distant past, they were both of the same clan.
※ Dwarf fun:
Regardless of whether we really believe in the existence of dwarfs in the world, but at least in Will Hagen's imagination to create a fairy tale labyrinth that is convincing enough to be true, if it is not finally unveiled and the book is explained to the reader about the popular science and fantasy, I am afraid that many people will believe that there are really legendary dwarfs in the ancient land of Northern Europe, just as children will always believe that Christmas Eve Santa Claus will bring them gifts.
This kind of writing is also true and false, like the author making an innocuous joke with the reader, like the Swedish writer Axel. A sentence written by Mende on the title page of the opening book:
I was surprised to hear that some people had never seen a dwarf before.
I think these people are really pitiful
Maybe they have a little problem with their eyes
Then we may be aroused by this statement of intense curiosity, open the book, and then read it in one breath, although we do not want to admit that there is a problem with the eyes, but the truth is that we have never seen a dwarf before
※Finally, a brief discussion on the relationship between man and nature:
The world of dwarfs is very complete, the author even borrowed the identity of dwarfs, compared dwarves and humans in the treatment of natural life in the two completely different attitudes, dwarfs follow the premise of natural rules in nature, seeking symbiosis with nature, living in harmony with other life, while human beings are rude destruction and wanton plunder, the extinction of rare species is the evil consequences caused by humans, the voice of dwarf accusations is still in the ear, I hope that all humans who hear this voice can reflect, And as much as possible to reduce the damage caused by individuals to the environment, when a kind of thought accumulates into a lot, perhaps our living environment will be better.
Written on 2021.10.19