Norsery Rhymes from A to Z
Happy Thorsday - Dufr, The Sleepy One
Well here we are another Thor’s Day and another 20 min sketch of a Norse (and Germanic) mythological characters. This week it’s Dufr / Duf the Dwarven (Dverg / Dvergr / Dwarf). One of the Dvergr listed in the Gylfaginning.
Known as the Sleepy One, His name is generally considered to mean 'the nodder' someone who is nodding off to sleep, and "The sleepy' and 'the snoozy' and any other number of sleepy sounding words which were popular when last translated. When most commonly grouped with the word Duri his name also means 'the sleeper'. His name is sometimes believed to be associated with Dufr, as a wave or diver. Which could also be an allusion to him diving into sleep, or the moment sleep washes over you. Or could just be because of it's similarity to the word. Like most names in the Gylfaginning his name and his function or title are often not literal of their name translation. Which is likely why there are so many poetic allusions to his sleepiness.
Not a lot else is known about him beyond that.