The Glasera

## Introduction

Gwyn ap Nudd visited the Glasera, and they forged him a suit of armor and a sword, which he cherishes. Albion kept it as a trophy when Gwyn was ousted from the Seelie Court. Gwyn later took the armor back after the Seelie Court fell, as a point of pride.

## Characteristics (culture, habits)

The Glasera are a group of dwarves who live on a mountain.

The Glasera create armor and weapons. If someone wants a piece of equipment from them, they must sacrifice a great deal, including their very blood. They are considered incredibly skilled.

Gwyn noted that their work is not as fanciful as the armor he received from the metalsmith who crafted his Unseelie Court armor.

## Folklore/Mythology

'In Germanic folklore, including Germanic mythology, a dwarf is an entity that dwells in mountains and in the earth. The entity is variously associated with wisdom, smithing, mining, and crafting. Dwarfs are sometimes described as short and ugly, although some scholars have questioned whether this is a later development stemming from comical portrayals of the beings. Dwarfs continue to be depicted in modern popular culture in a variety of media.

. . . Norse mythology provides different origins for the beings, as recorded in the *Poetic Edda* (compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources) and the *Prose Edda* (written by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century). The *Poetic Edda* poem *Völuspá* details that the dwarfs were the product of the primordial blood of the being Brimir and the bones of Bláinn (generally considered to be different names for the primordial being Ymir). The *Prose Edda*, however, describes dwarfs as beings similar to maggots that festered in the flesh of Ymir before being gifted with reason by the gods. The *Poetic Edda* and *Prose Edda* contain over 100 dwarf names, while the *Prose Edda* gives the four dwarfs Norðri, Suðri, Austri and Vestri (Old Norse 'North, South, East, and West') a cosmological role: they hold up the sky. In addition, scholars have noted that the Svartálfar (Old Norse 'black elves') appear to be the same beings as dwarfs, given that both are described in the *Prose Edda* as the denizens of Svartálfaheimr.

. . . After the Christianization of the Germanic peoples, tales of dwarfs continued to be told in the folklore of areas of Europe where Germanic languages were (and are) spoken. In the late legendary sagas, dwarfs demonstrate skill in healing as well as in smithing. In the early Norse sources, there is no mention of their being short; in the legendary sagas, however, they are "small and usually ugly". Anatoly Liberman suggests that dwarfs may have originally been thought of as lesser supernatural beings, which became literal smallness after Christianization.

. . . Dwarfs in folklore are usually described as old men with long beards. Female dwarfs are hardly ever mentioned. Dvalinn the dwarf has daughters, and the 14th-century romantic saga *Þjalar Jóns saga* gives the feminine form of Old Norse *dyrgja*, but the few folklore examples cited by Grimm in *Teutonic Mythology* may be identified as other beings. However, in the Swedish ballad "Herr Peder och Dvärgens Dotter" (Swedish 'Sir Peder and the Dwarf's Daughter'), the role of supernatural temptress is played by a dwarf's daughter.

. . . In Middle High German heroic poetry, most dwarfs are portrayed as having long beards, but some may have a childish appearance. In some stories, the dwarf takes on the attributes of a knight. He is most clearly separated from normal humans by his small size, in some cases only reaching up to the knees. Despite their small size, dwarfs typically have superhuman strength, either by nature or through magical means. Many dwarfs have the ability to make themselves invisible, typically via a "Tarnkappe" (cloak of invisibility), which seems to be a very old attribute of the dwarfs. They also possess other magical objects, and often appear as master smiths. Typically they live inside of hollow mountains, though in some cases they may live above the ground. Depending on the story, they may be hostile or friendly to humans. Male dwarfs are often portrayed as lusting after human women, whereas female dwarfs seek to possess the male hero in the legends.'

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 *Game Theory*, Chapter 38: Underfae. Accessed 09 May 2021.
2. ↑ *Game Theory*, Chapter 45: Coronation. Accessed 09 May 2021.
3. ↑ *The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague*, Chapter 2: The Deserted City. Accessed 09 May 2021.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 *The Court of Five Thrones*, Chapter 28: Solidarity. Accessed 09 May 2021.
5. ↑ "Dwarf (folklore)". Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf\_(folklore). Accessed 08 May 2021.