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The Duergar?

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Any folklorists out there ever heard of the 'Duergar'?
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/30820
Google provided this
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/tfm/tfm012.htm
Amongst loads of RPG stuff, anyone know more?

Alternatively, any etymological types out there got any ideas as to the origins of the term?

they may have been things found alive in frodsham's beard :)

etymologically (!) speaking, the only thing I can think of off the top of my head is the Gaelic dearg - red, which is what you would look like if led off a cliff

Cheers
Andy S

I looked 'Duergar' up in the OED and it's not in, presumably because it's a proper name.

There is this though:

duer. Obs, burrow

duerch, duergh, duerwe, duery, obs. forms of dwarf

Thomas Keightley in his Fairy Mythology (1880) gives a page and a half, but it is substantially that which is copied to Sacred Texts (your link) His book is dated of course, but it is still an invaluable compendium of international fairy folklore.

H Hob

Thanks all,

That's both interesting and useful. Especially the iron parts. I think there is iron in Smonside, could be connected to the name. It's also interesting to hear that the name is used elsewhere, though it's anomalous for these parts.

Many thanks,

Hob

H Hob

For
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/34620

That fits nicely with the Vallee/Persinger approach to landscape weirdness and folklore.