FREAKY FASCINATIONS
The very idea of a freak show may be completely alien to our modern way of thinking, but the origins of this love affair with the unusual side of nature goes back hundreds, if not thousands of years. It ranges from Goliath in the Old Testament to the depictions of impish dwarfs that adorned the pottery and stonework of ancient Greece and Rome, and on to the underground dwellers of Norse and Germanic mythology who would both trick and curse unsuspecting humans for pleasure or revenge. Indeed, the original meaning of the word ‘freak’ is that of a sudden change, a trick or a prank, and as we shall see there is more than a little truth in this.
For dwarfs in particular it was to be the royal houses of Europe that were to set the tone for how they and other people of natural difference were to be viewed. Kings and queens – from Spain to Poland to England – counted among their households at least one dwarf. It was thought that their bodies made them almost mythical creatures, born out of the supernatural, that would bring good fortune.
Most notable in England was Jeffrey Hudson, court dwarf to Henrietta Maria, queen of the doomed Charles I. Pampered and protected by the queen, he rose from a poor background to be an entertaining addition to the Stuart Court. But with this charmed lifestyle came a price, and many questions. Was it just good fortune that made his diminutive size so appealing to the queen and her court? Was his entertaining and witty character much larger than his physical presence? Or did his size make him nothing more than an amusing
