)
The examination, therefore, of this interesting theory not only helped
greatly to bear out its probable correctness, but it further began to
appear that by following this method of inquiry new lights might be
thrown upon history--perhaps upon very remote history. It was clear that
the question was not a simple one. All tradition is obscured by the
darkness of time, and genuine fact is mixed up with ideas which belong
to the world of religion and of myth. Even in Mr. Campbell's own
statements there were seeming contradictions. These, however, it is not
my present purpose to discuss; since they do not vitally affect his main
contention.
The Lapp-Dwarf parallel was gone into very fully by Professor Nilsson in
his _Primitive Inhabitants of Scandinavia_, written twenty years before
the "West Highland Tales." Not that he, either, was the originator of
that theory, for it is frequently referred to by Sir Walter Scott, who
accepted it himself.[3] "In fact," he says, "there seems reason to
conclude that these _duergar_ [in English, _dwarfs_] were originally
nothing else than the diminutive natives of the Lappish, Lettish and
Finnish nations, who, flying before the conquering weapons of the Asae,
sought the most retired regions of the north, and there endeavoured to
hide themselves from their eastern invaders.
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