Page:Fairy Tales Their Origin and Meaning.djvu/140

 CHAPTER IV.

DWELLERS IN FAIRYLAND: TEUTONIC, AND SCANDINAVIAN.

we come to an entirely new region, in which, however, we find, under other forms, the same creatures which have already been described. From the sunny East we pass to the cold and frozen North. Here the Scandinavian countries—Norway, Sweden, and Denmark—are wonderfully rich in dwarfs, and giants, and trolls, and necks, and nisses, and other inhabitants of Fairyland; and with these we must also class the Teutonic beings of the same kind; and likewise the fairy creatures who were once supposed to dwell in our own islands. The Elves of Scandinavia, with whom our own Fairies are closely allied, were a very interesting people. They were of two