fter landing was captured and taken to the
palace of the king, where he was appointed court dwarf,[35] and remained
for a considerable time the attached and faithful adherent of the king.
The collector of this story has assumed that it is purely imaginary. But
let it be contrasted with the following extract from the _Heimskringla_.
The period is the early part of the eleventh century, and the scene
Norway: "There was a man from the Uplands called Fin the Little, and
some said of him that he was of Finnish race. He was a remarkable [?
remarkably] little man, but so swift of foot that no horse could
overtake him.... He had long been in the service of King Hrorek, and
often employed in errands of trust.... Now when King Hrorek was set
under guards on the journey Fin would often slip in among the men of
the guard, and followed, in general, with the lads and serving-men; but
as often as he could he waited upon Hrorek, and entered into
conversation with him."[36] And, like Fin the dwarf in the Gaelic story,
this little Fin rendered great service to his king. Now, the
_Heimskringla_ Fin is unquestionably a historical personage, and the
account of him was written by a twelfth century historian. The Gaelic
story was only obtained in the Hebrides, and reduced to writing
twenty-three years ago. Although Fin of the Fians is stated in Irish
records to be the grandson of a Finland woman,[37] and although the
Scandinavian and the Hebridean tales look very much like two versions of
one story, this cannot precisely be the case, as the Fenian Fin is
placed in an earlier era than his namesake of Norway. A dwarf king named
Fin is also remembered in Frisian tradition;[38] and that he and his
race were small men is pretty clearly proved by the fact that when one
of the earth-houses attributed to him was opened some years ago, it was
found to contain the bones of a little man.[39] Both of these dwarf
Fins, Little Fin of Norway and Little Fin of Denmark, are undoubtedly
real; and there seems no good reason to suppose that the dwarf Fin of
Hebridean tradition was not equally real. Whether they were three
separate people is a problem. "Fin" appears to have been at one time a
not uncommon name, whatever its etymology and that of "Fian" may be. At
any rate, there is nothing in history (which speaks of a close
intercourse between Scandinavia and the British Isles, in former times),
and nothing in the ethnology of North-Western Europe, to make us rega