Frislandia

Of the North Sea's three big islands Frislandia is the least, set in the middle of that sea far from any other land: rocky, mountainous and under snow all year. It belongs to a reclusive kingdom of dwarves who say it is the birthplace of their race, a claim other dwarves dispute; legend makes them descendants of elemental Earth Gnomes who lived there before time began. Distrustful and intolerant of strangers, they have never shown outsiders any proof.

Hyperborean dwarves who visit describe, perhaps with some exaggeration, a land of endless ice where nothing lives above ground but polar bears, walrus, seals and similar arctic animals; the dwarves hunt these but live mostly on fish and shellfish. Their home is Frostmark, an impregnable underground city in the lone mountain on the west coast.

Like most dwarves they are master miners, artisans, armorers and craftsmen. Everywhere they are called the Splendid Dwarves of the Twilight and reckoned the wealthiest people in the known world, and they are reputed to be fearless warriors. Songs and poems about their fights with Jotun raiders, giants whose dragon ships plunder every North Sea coast, are familiar to dwarves from Hyperborea to Tharshesh.