What's the quintessential D&D monster?

[Hypersmurf]

A Toja-what?

Nida.

-Hyp.

 

[Rel]

Nida.

-Hyp.

You make me laugh, Hyp. And that's not even your best feature!

 

[Hypersmurf]

You make me laugh, Hyp. And that's not even your best feature!

[suspicious]How do you know about my best feature?[/suspicious]

-Hyp.

 

[johnsemlak]

Like so much of Tolkiens work, the dark elves are taken directly from the norse mythology. The "Svartalfar" (="black elves") lived beneath the subartic mountains far to the north of Asgard and Valhalla, where they were constantly fighting over dungeon-territorities with the only slightly friendlier dwarves. They were utterly evil, resistant to magic, had black skin and white or silver hair... Any of this sound familiar???

I think much of this sounds familiar because the svartalf myth has probably been reinvented a bit by D&D fans.

Norse Svartalves and Dwarves were often interchangable. Svartalfheim is sometimes idenfiied as the home of the dwarves. I'm not sure how they could be battling dwarves, then.

Bottom line, the myths of the black elves in norse myth are pretty vague, and Gygax fleshed them out into the race we know.

 

[Rel]

[suspicious]How do you know about my best feature?[/suspicious]

-Hyp.

I don't. But my opinion is that your rules knowlege edges out (barely) your humor as the better of the two. So logically, the humor isn't your best feature, though it might place 2nd or 3rd.

Are you saying that you possess a feature better than your rules knowlege?

 

[woodelf]

Also, as noted, Kobolds are historical -- that's how the element Cobalt got its name -- when they discovered that it was toxic mining dust and not evil pixies making the miners sick, they named the toxic mining dust after the evil pixies. (And somebody feel free, please, to correct me on that -- that's what I remember from high-school chemistry.)

Well, "mythological" or "folkloric" might be slightly better terms than "historical"--but we know what you mean. You're absolutely right about the etymology--the original German is variously "kobolt" or "kobalt", IIRC. However, IIRC, the cobalt wasn't making them "sick", a la black lung, but rather literally dissolving their feet corrosively.

 

[Rel]

However, IIRC, the cobalt wasn't making them "sick", a la black lung, but rather literally dissolving their feet corrosively.

JUST LIKE Green Slime...

Coincidence? I don't think so!




What?

 

[Jolly Giant]

I think much of this sounds familiar because the svartalf myth has probably been reinvented a bit by D&D fans.

Norse Svartalves and Dwarves were often interchangable. Svartalfheim is sometimes idenfiied as the home of the dwarves. I'm not sure how they could be battling dwarves, then.

Bottom line, the myths of the black elves in norse myth are pretty vague, and Gygax fleshed them out into the race we know.

The myths are quite specific, actually, written down by Icelandic historian Snorre Sturlason in the 14th century. I've got all his works sitting on the shelf right next to me here...

"Svartalfheim" is a Norwegian word that litterally means "home of the black elves". It was the name of the subartic mountains north of Asgard that I mentioned. And as you say, the dwarves lived there too. That doesn't mean that they lived together or in any kind of harmony; we're talking about a seriously big mountain range here! It still wasn't big enough for both species to coexist peacefully, though, so they were battling over the richest veins of iron, silver, gold and gems.

 

[Staffan]

Nida.

Apology accepted, captain.