--- "llama_nom" wrote:

> Hmm, tall folk... that reminds me of a comment in the glossary to
> Ralpg O'Connor's "Icelandic Histories and Romances". In the entry for
> dwarves he says, "Ancient sources do not mention their diminutive
> size: later folklore presumably shrank them as it did elves, goblins
> and Irish fairy folk."

From the English version of Simek's "Dictionary":

"There is no suggestion in the source-texts that dwarfs
were originally thought of as being particularly small:
this is a concept which first appears in the sagas where
they are described as being small and usually ugly."