Blagg: The Bargain That Put a Dwarf on the Throne

Blagg: The Bargain That Put a Dwarf on the Throne Blagg gets a fairly complete rise and fall in Grimm Fairy Tales #53, and there's a lot going on in that story beyond an evil dwarf tricking a king. He takes a situation that already exists, a father trying to separate his daughter from the man she loves, and keeps finding ways to benefit from the damage. By the time the king realizes what he's invited into his home, Blagg has enough control that removing him is going to take more than admitting the mistake. Spoilers for #53, “The Fairy and the Dwarf,” with a little follow-through from #54. We hear this history from Bolder while Sela is looking for a way to help Erik. That matters because the story explains how Morrigan became Death, someone offering Sela help under circumstances where she already has plenty of reasons to be careful. Bolder knows more about this than a stranger repeating an old legend. We eventually learn that Blagg was his brother. Before Morrigan was the skeletal figure Sela knows, he was a captain in love with Princess Esmerelda. Her father didn't approve of the relationship, and the couple intended to leave together. The king brought in Blagg to make Morrigan disappear. He wanted the separation to look voluntary, so his daughter would believe the man she loved had abandoned her rather than recognize what her father had done. Blagg wasn't interested in being paid off with a bag of gold. He wanted a position of power. The king was giving someone ambitious access to his family because he assumed their interests would remain the same. He wanted Morrigan removed. Blagg could provide that, but his ambitions went well beyond settling the king's family problem. A fairy becomes part of the arrangement. Morrigan is taken and held prisoner, and a false letter makes Esmerelda believe he's chosen the fairy over her. That's already enough to achieve the king's immediate goal. Blagg could have stopped there with his new position. Instead, he approaches Esmerelda and offers to solve the very problem he helped create. He tells her that her father arranged the kidnapping and that Morrigan is being held against his will. She has been lied to, so hearing that part of the truth gives her a reason to listen. But Blagg is presenting himself as the person who can help her, leaving out his own responsibility for what happened. The narration also tells us the fairy is under his enchantment. He has an advantage that Esmerelda doesn't understand when he takes her toward a fortress protected by dangerous creatures. They fight their way forward until she's exhausted. That's when he offers to finish the rescue in exchange for something from her. She's desperate to save Morrigan and agrees. We later learn that the price is marriage. This is where Blagg's planning becomes especially cruel. He kills the fairy and frees Morrigan from his restraints, then immediately attacks him with magic. He burns and disfigures the man he has supposedly come to rescue. He even tells Morrigan that Esmerelda will look at him with disgust. Blagg is trying to determine what both people will believe before they have a chance to understand what has happened to the other. When Morrigan reaches Esmerelda, she reacts in horror and runs. Blagg then comes to her as the sympathetic rescuer. He says he arrived too late to stop the torture. The reader has just watched him cause it, so we know exactly how dishonest his comfort is. He gets to injure Morrigan and then use the injury as evidence that Esmerelda should be grateful for whatever help he claims he managed to provide. Esmerelda honors the marriage agreement, and Blagg becomes the king's heir. It's worth separating what Blagg says about her from what the situation actually shows. He claims Morrigan has lost her love forever, but he has also arranged a frightening encounter, concealed the cause of the injuries, and made himself the source of the explanation. His interpretation benefits him. We don't need to accept it as a fair account of Esmerelda's feelings. Once inside the royal family, he consolidates his power. The king falls mysteriously ill, and Blagg brings guards and servants under his spell while getting rid of soldiers who remain loyal to the king. The issue doesn't establish a specific medical cause for the king's illness, so I wouldn't add poisoning as a confirmed part of Blagg's abilities. What we can see is that he's turning his access to the court into control over it. The king eventually seeks help from Morrigan, who has withdrawn from his old life. He reveals the betrayal, but recognizing the danger doesn't undo the position he's already given Blagg. After the king dies, Blagg takes the crown. He tells Esmerelda she no longer has value to him and hands her over to his men. The marriage has served its purpose in getting him to the throne. Morrigan attempts to fight back with a small loyal force. They are outnumbered, he is captured, and Blagg orders his execution. At that point, the person with an answer for Morrigan is the Dark One, an old enemy of Blagg. He offers the power to take revenge in exchange for eternal service and what remains of Morrigan's humanity. Morrigan accepts and becomes Death. He kills Blagg and his men, but he is too late to save Esmerelda. Blagg's story ends with his own destruction, while the consequences of everything he set in motion continue through Morrigan's service to the Dark One. Winning the final confrontation doesn't return Morrigan to the life he had before the king called Blagg in. As far as Blagg's abilities go, this gives us more to work with than a general description of him as a sorcerer. We see destructive magic used against Morrigan, enchantment used to control others, and ordinary violence used when it suits him. His deception also depends on knowing who has which information. The king knows about the kidnapping. Esmerelda learns enough to distrust her father but not enough to identify Blagg as the person manipulating her. Morrigan sees Blagg's cruelty directly, but by then he has been isolated and injured. Bolder gives the family history another layer. He explains that he served Delphina to help restore his family's name after what his brother did. Then we see him helping Sela: researching the key she needs, accompanying her into the mountains, and staying with her when the journey becomes dangerous. In #54, he has plenty of objections to the risks she takes, but he keeps helping. Reading the brothers together gives us a much fuller picture than treating Blagg's behavior as something that defines all dwarves in this world. Bolder has lived with the damage to their name, and the story lets us see what he's doing about it.