Do Dwarves Exist In the Berserk World?

[The Hawk Of Light]

I could've sworn they were mentioned once throughout the midchapters of the Berserk world-

But I don't think they were ever mentioned again.

I really hope that they exist because I've always wondered about the origins of the armor and how something so dangerous could be made, as well as the nature of said dwarves.

 

[Walter]

When elves are discussed in Berserk, the word used is 妖精 (yousei). It can refer to a variety of magical creatures: elves, fairies, sprites, pixies... In Berserk, we know that the word is pronounced "elf" because it is specified using furigana: エルフ. For a while, the only type of elf we saw in the series was the flying kind, like Puck. But there are many more.

The first clue came in volume 14, when Skull Knight described the beings who once inhabited Godot's mine as "yousei", but the silhouette shown in the panel didn't resemble the elves we'd seen so far in the series.

This seemed to imply another kind of elf existed. In volume 24, we learned that Puck and others like him are a subset of elves called Piskies (a variation of the word "pixie"). Then in volume 26, when Schierke refers to the dwarves, the kanji used is 鉱精 (roughly: miner spirit), with the furigana "dwarf". This pretty much confirmed at the time that dwarves were another race within the greater elf family tree. It made sense too: piskies are associated with the wind element, and dwarves with the earth element. Then, we saw in Elfhelm in volume 39 (especially episode 346) that there are actually many different kinds of elves besides piskies (Puck and Ivalera) and dwarves. It also appears that there are more than one type of elf per element.

The bottom line is that yes, dwarves exist, and we will almost certainly get to see some of them while Guts' group is in Elfhelm. We might even already have gotten a glimpse of them.

​

It seems clear that the vol 14 silhouette are the beings on the right in the images above. And those might not necessarily be "dwarves," but another variety of earth-based elves. Those guys in the middle though...

 

[Griffith]

Those guys in the middle though...

...look like an unexpected party going there and back again.

 

[Walter]

Just to close the loop here — dwarves exist. They look like this.

The phrase Miura uses for them is 鍛冶精 (Smithing Spirit).