Nearly every people acrossed the planet have native folk tales regarding spirits that inhabit rocks or caves. From the Huldufolk of Iceland, Tomte of Wales, German Kobolds Australian Cave Knockers all the way to the Duwende of the Philippines, one thing is for certain, to those who believe in these spirits, their existence isn't about belief, but is a matter of fact. The beleif in these spirits stem from the ancient practice of Ancestor Worship. While each region has their own word for it, it was beleived that when someone passes on, a part of their spirit, their Fylgja, can remain and inhabit objects or shrines or even walk the earth, ready to give counsel. The reverence for these ancestral spirits evolved over time into myths of elves and dwarves as we know them today, but all of them have origins in the ancient cult of the dead.

The pre-Christian native world, though separated by vast oceans and mountains, had more in common than we think.