Tradition: Swiss Mythology
Alternative Names: The Dwarfs of the Bernese Mountains
Category: Dwarf
The Myth
The dwarfs who lived among the ravines and hills of the Bernese countryside were friendly and kind to the people of the valley, often carrying out difficult work during the night. Farmers would arrive in the morning with their wagons and tools only to discover that much of their work had already been completed. The dwarfs would hide among the bushes nearby, laughing as the people wondered who had helped them. Sometimes their help seemed strange, for they would cut down grain before it was fully ripe, angering the farmers. But when hail and thunderstorms soon swept across the fields and destroyed everything in their path, the people understood that the dwarfs had been protecting their crops and gratefully accepted their mysterious assistance.
The friendship between the dwarfs and the people eventually ended because of human wickedness. A shepherd had a magnificent cherry tree high on the mountain, but every summer, when the cherries ripened, the tree was mysteriously stripped bare three nights in succession. The villagers believed the dwarfs were responsible, saying that the little beings came silently at night in long cloaks with their feet carefully covered, carrying out their work while everyone slept. The shepherd became curious about their hidden feet and wanted to discover whether they were different from human feet. The following summer, when the dwarfs once again came to harvest the cherries, he scattered ashes around the tree before going to bed. At dawn, he found that every cherry had disappeared, but the ashes revealed the secret: all around the tree were the unmistakable imprints of many goose feet.
The shepherd laughed and mocked the dwarfs, boasting that their secret had finally been discovered. The little people were furious that their hidden nature had been exposed. Soon afterward, they ransacked and destroyed their own houses before abandoning the valley and retreating deeper into the mountains. From that time onward, they refused to help humankind and were never seen again. The shepherd who had betrayed them suffered a miserable fate as well, becoming sickly and senile for the rest of his life.
Sources
“Die Füße der Zwerge.” SAGEN.at – Traditionelle Sagen aus Deutschland. Reproduced by SAGEN.at. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/grimm/diefuessederzwerge.html