A small forest elf (älva) rescuing an egg, from Solägget (1932), by
Elsa BeskowAn elf is a mythical creature of
Germanic mythology and
Germanic paganism which still survives in northern
European folklore. In Norse mythology they were originally a race of minor
gods of nature and fertility. Elves are often pictured as youthful-seeming men and women of great beauty living in
forests and other natural places, underground, or in wells and springs. They have been portrayed to be long-lived or
immortal and they have
magical powers attributed to them. Following the success of
J. R. R. Tolkien's epic work
The Lord of the Rings—wherein a wise, angelic people named
Elves play a significant role—they have become
staple characters of modern
fantasy (see:
Elves in fantasy fiction and games).
Elf can be
pluralised both as elves and elfs. Something associated with elves or the qualities of elves is described by the
adjectives elven, elvish, elfin or elfish. A convention of modern
fantasy usage is: the v in elven or elvish refers to human-sized elves (who correspond more closely to the mythology of the Viking Era), whereas the f in elfin or elfish refers to tiny-sized elfs (who correspond more closely to the folklore of the Renaissance and Romantic Eras). They are also called:
Germany: Elfen, Elben, Alben (the last one was used by
Richard Wagner)
Great Britain: addler (obsolete)
Netherlands: elfen, elven, alven
Denmark: alfer, elvere, elverfolk, ellefolk or huldrer.
Iceland: álfar, álfafólk and huldufólk (hidden people)
Norway: alver, alfer or elvefolk
Sweden: alfer, alver or älvor (Älvor translates to fairies)
After much debate, the consensus is elf, álf and related words derive from the
Proto-Indo-European root *albh meaning "white", whence also the Latin albus "white", whence Portuguese, Spanish and English albino.
[1][2]Contents[
hide]
1 Elves in Norse mythology2 Scandinavian elves3 German elves4 English elves5 Modern elves5.1 Elves at Christmas5.2 Elves in modern fantasy5.3 Elves in psychedelic experience6 References7 See also//
[
edit] Elves in Norse mythology
The earliest preserved description of elves comes from
Norse mythology. In
Old Norse they are called álfar (
singular,
nominative case: álfr), and although no older or contemporary descriptions exist, the appearance of beings etymologically related to álfar in various later folklore strongly suggests that the belief in elves was common among all the
Germanic tribes, and not limited solely to the ancient
Scandinavians.
Elves make various appearances in Norse mythology. Although the concept itself is never clearly defined in our sources, elves appear to have been understood as powerful and beautiful human-sized beings. They are commonly referred to collectively as semi-divine beings associated with fertility as well as the cult of the ancestors. As such, elves appear similar to the
animistic belief in
spirits of nature and of the deceased, common to nearly all human religions; something that, on a side note, is true also for the Old Norse belief in
fylgjur and
vörðar ("follower" and "warden" spirits, respectively). Arguably, elves are the Germanic equivalent to the
nymphs of
Greek and
Roman mythology, as well as the
vili and
rusalki of
Slavic mythology.
The god
Freyr, the lord of the light-elves
The Icelandic mythographer and historian
Snorri Sturluson referred to
dwarves (
dvergar) as "dark-elves" (
dökkálfar) or "black-elves" (
svartálfar); whether this usage reflects wider medieval Scandinavian belief is uncertain.
[3] Elves who are not dark-elves are referred to by Snorri as "light-elves" (
ljósálfar); this usage has often been connected with elves' etymological connection with whiteness. Snorri describes their differences like so (Gylfaginning 17, Prose Edda):
"There is one place there [in the sky] that is called the Elf Home (Álfheimr). People live there that are named the light elves (ljósálfar). But the dark elves (dökkálfar) live below in earth, and they are unlike them in appearance – and more unlike them in reality. The Light Elves are brighter than the sun in appearance, but the Dark Elves are blacker than pitch."
"Sá er einn staðr þar, er kallaðr er Álfheimr. Þar byggvir fólk þat, er Ljósálfar heita, en Dökkálfar búa niðri í jörðu, ok eru þeir ólíkir þeim sýnum ok miklu ólíkari reyndum. Ljósálfar eru fegri en sól sýnum, en Dökkálfar eru svartari en bik."
[4]Evidence for elves in Norse mythology outside Snorri's work, and in earlier evidence, comes from
Skaldic poetry, the
Poetic Edda and
legendary sagas. Here elves are linked with the
Æsir, particularly through the common phrase "Æsir and the elves", which presumably means "all the gods".
[5] The elves have been compared or identified with the
Vanir (fertility gods) by some scholars.
[6] However, in the
Alvíssmál ("The Sayings of All-Wise"), the elves are considered distinct from both the Vanir and the
Æsir, as revealed by a series of comparative names in which Æsir, Vanir, and elves are given their own versions for various words in a reflection of their individual racial preferences. Possibly, the words designate a difference in status between the major fertility gods (the Vanir) and the minor ones (the elves).
Grímnismál relates that the Van
Freyr was the lord of
Álfheimr (meaning "elf-world"), the home of the light-elves.
Lokasenna relates that a large group of Æsir and elves had assembled at
Ægir's court for a banquet. Several minor forces, the servants of gods, are presented such as
Byggvir and
Beyla, who belonged to Freyr, the lord of the elves, and they were probably elves, since they were not counted among the gods. Two other mentioned servants were
Fimafeng (who was murdered by
Loki) and
Eldir.
Some speculate that Vanir and elves belong to an earlier
Nordic Bronze Age religion of
Scandinavia, and were later replaced by the Æsir as main gods. Others (most notably
Georges Dumézil) argue that the Vanir were the gods of the common Norsemen, and the Æsir those of the priest and warrior castes (see also
Nerthus).
A poem from around
1020, the
Austrfaravísur ('Eastern-journey verses') of
Sigvatr Þorðarson, mentions that, as a Christian, he was refused board in a heathen household, in
Sweden, because an
álfablót ("elves' sacrifice") was being conducted there. However, we have no further reliable information as to what an álfablót involved,
[7] but like other
blóts it probably included the offering of foods, and later
Scandinavian folklore retained a tradition of sacrificing treats to the elves (see below). From the time of year (close to the
autumnal equinox) and the elves' association with fertility and the ancestors, we might assume that it had to do with the ancestor cult and the life force of the family.
The smith hero
Völundr, the ruler of the dökkálfar (dark-elves)
In addition to this,
Kormáks saga accounts for how a sacrifice to elves was apparently believed able to heal a severe battle wound:
Þorvarð healed but slowly; and when he could get on his feet he went to see Þorðís, and asked her what was best to help his healing.
"A hill there is," answered she, "not far away from here, where elves have their haunt. Now get you the bull that Kormák killed, and redden the outer side of the hill with its blood, and make a feast for the elves with its flesh. Then thou wilt be healed."
[8]The Scandinavian elves were of human size. Full-sized famous men could be elevated to the rank of elves after death, such as the petty king
Olaf Geirstad-Elf, and the smith hero
Völund (titled as "ruler of elves" in the
Völundarkviða). Even crossbreeding was possible between elves and humans in the Old Norse belief. One case appears in
Hrólf Kraki's saga, where the Danish king
Helgi finds an elf-woman clad in silk who is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. He rapes her and later she bears the daughter
Skuld, who married
Hjörvard, Hrólf Kraki's killer. Since Skuld was half-elven, she was very skilled in witchcraft (
seiðr), and this to the point that she was almost invincible in battle. When her warriors fell, she made them rise again to continue fighting. The only way to defeat her was to capture her before she could summon her armies, which included elvish warriors
[9]. Another case was the hero
Högni, whose mother was a human queen, and whose father, according to the
Thidrekssaga, was an elf by the name of Aldrian (though this text is largely translated from German material).
There are also in the
Heimskringla and in
Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar accounts of a line of local kings who ruled over
Álfheim, corresponding to the modern Swedish province
Bohuslän, and since they had elven blood they were said to be more beautiful than most men.
The land governed by King Alf was called Alfheim, and all his offspring are related to the elves. They were fairer than any other people...
[10]The last king is named Gandalf.
[
edit] Scandinavian elves
Little älvor, playing with Tomtebobarnen. From Children of the Forest (1910) by Swedish author and illustrator
Elsa Beskow.
In
Scandinavian folklore, which is a later blend of Norse mythology and elements of
Christian mythology, an elf is called elver in
Danish, alv in
Norwegian, and alv or älva in
Swedish (the first is
masculine, the second
feminine). The Norwegian expressions seldom appear in genuine folklore, and when they do, they are always used synonymous to huldrefolk or
vetter, a category of earth-dwelling beings generally held to be more related to Norse dwarves than elves which is comparable to the Icelandic huldufólk (hidden people).
In Denmark and Sweden, the elves appear as beings distinct from the vetter, even though the border between them is diffuse. The insect-winged
fairies in the folklore of the
British Isles are often called "älvor" in modern Swedish or "alfer" in Danish, although the correct translation is "feer." In a similar vein, the alf found in the fairy tale The Elf of the Rose by Danish author
H. C. Andersen is so tiny that he can have a rose blossom for home, and has "wings that reached from his shoulders to his feet". Yet, Andersen also wrote about elvere in The Elfin Hill. The elves in this story are more alike those of traditional Danish folklore, who were beautiful females, living in hills and boulders, capable of dancing a man to death. Like the
huldra in Norway and Sweden, they are hollow when seen from the back. The elves of Norse mythology have survived into folklore mainly as females, living in hills and mounds of stones
[11] (cf.
Galadriel's account of what would happen to the Elves who remained in
Middle-earth). The Swedish älvor
[12] (sing. älva) were stunningly beautiful girls who lived in the forest with an elven king. They were long-lived and light-hearted in nature. The elves are typically pictured as fair-haired, white-clad and like most creatures in the Scandinavian folklore can be really nasty when offended. In the stories, they often play the role of disease-spirits. The most common, though also most harmless case was various irritating
skin rashes, which were called älvablåst (elven blow) and could be cured by a forceful counter-blow (a handy pair of
bellows was most useful for this purpose). Skålgropar, a particular kind of
petroglyph found in Scandinavia, were known in older times as älvkvarnar (elven mills), pointing to their believed usage. One could appease the elves by offering them a treat (preferably
butter) placed into an elven mill – perhaps a custom with roots in the Old Norse álfablót.
Ängsälvor, "meadow elves", (1850), painting by
Nils Blommér.
The elves could be seen dancing over meadows, particularly at night and on misty mornings. They left a kind of circle where they had danced, which were called älvdanser (elf dances) or älvringar (
elf circles), and to urinate in one was thought to cause
venereal diseases. Typically, it consisted of a ring of small
mushrooms, but there was also another kind of elf circle:
On lake shores, where the forest met the lake, you could find elf circles. They were round places where the grass had been flattened like a floor. Elves had danced there. By
Lake Tisaren,
[13] I have seen one of those. It could be dangerous and one could become ill if one had trodden over such a place or if one destroyed anything there.
[11]If a human watched the dance of the elves, he would discover that even though only a few hours seemed to have passed, many years had passed in the real world. (This time phenomenon is retold in
Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings when the Fellowship of the Ring discovers that time seems to have run more slowly in elven
Lothlórien. It also has a remote parallel in the
Irish sídhe.) In a song from the late
Middle Ages about Olaf Liljekrans, the elven queen invites him to dance. He refuses, he knows what will happen if he joins the dance and he is on his way home to his own wedding. The queen offers him gifts, but he declines. She threatens to kill him if he does not join, but he rides off and dies of the disease she sent upon him, and his young bride dies of a broken heart.
[14]However, the elves were not exclusively young and beautiful. In the Swedish folktale Little Rosa and Long Leda, an elvish woman (älvakvinna) arrives in the end and saves the heroine, Little Rose, on condition that the king's cattle no longer graze on her hill. She is described as an old woman and by her aspect people saw that she belonged to the subterraneans.
[15] [
edit] German elves
What remained of the belief in elves in
German folklore was that they were mischievous pranksters that could cause disease to cattle and people, and bring bad dreams to sleepers. The German word for
nightmare, Albtraum, means "elf dream". The archaic form Albdruck means "elf pressure"; it was believed that nightmares are a result of an elf sitting on the dreamer's head. This aspect of German elf-belief largely corresponds to the Scandinavian belief in the
mara. It is also similar to the legends regarding
incubi and
succubi.
[16]As noted above, an elven king occasionally appears among the predominantly female elves in
Denmark and
Sweden. In the German middle-age epic the
Nibelungenlied, a
dwarf named
Alberich play an important role. Alberich literally translates as "elf-sovereign", further contributing to the elf–dwarf confusion observed already in the
Younger Edda. Via the French Alberon, the same name has entered English as
Oberon – king of elves and
fairies in Shakespeare's
A Midsummer Night's Dream (see below).
The
legend of
Der Erlkönig appears to have originated in fairly recent times in
Denmark and
Goethe based his poem on "Erlkönigs Tochter" ("Erlkönig's Daughter"), a Danish work translated into German by
Johann Gottfried Herder.
The Erlkönig's nature has been the subject of some debate. The name translates literally from the German as "
Alder King" rather than its common English translation, "Elf King" (which would be rendered as Elfenkönig in German). It has often been suggested that Erlkönig is a mistranslation from the original
Danish elverkonge or elverkonge, which does mean "elf king".
According to German and Danish folklore, the Erlkönig appears as an omen of death, much like the
banshee in
Irish mythology. Unlike the banshee, however, the Erlkönig will appear only to the person about to die. His form and expression also tell the person what sort of death they will have: a pained expression means a painful death, a peaceful expression means a peaceful death. This aspect of the legend was immortalised by
Goethe in his poem
Der Erlkönig, later set to music by
Schubert.
In the
Brothers Grimm fairy tale
Der Schuhmacher und die Heinzelmännchen, a group of naked, one foot tall beings called
Heinzelmännchen help a shoemaker in his work. When he rewards their work with little clothes, they are so delighted, that they run away and are never seen again. Even though Heinzelmännchen are akin to beings such as
kobolds and
dwarves, the tale has been translated to English as The Shoemaker & the Elves, (probably due to the similarity of the henzelmannchen to Scottish
brownies) and is echoed in
J. K. Rowling's
Harry Potter stories (see
House-elf).
[
edit] English elves
Poor little birdie teased, by
Victorian era illustrator
Richard Doyle depicts the traditional view of an elf from later
English folklore as a diminutive woodland humanoid.
The word elf came into
English as the
Old English word ælf (pl. ælfe, with regional and chronological variants such as ylfe and ælfen), and so came to
Britain originally with the
Anglo-Saxons.
[17] Words for the
nymphs of the
Greek and
Roman mythos were translated by Anglo-Saxon scholars with ælf and variants on it.
[18]Although our early English evidence is slight, there are reasons to think that Anglo-Saxon elves (ælfe) were similar to early elves in Norse mythology: human-like, human-sized supernatural beings, predominantly if not exclusively male, capable of helping or harming the people who encountered them. In particular, the pairing of
æsir and
álfar found in the
Poetic Edda is mirrored in the Old English charm
Wið færstice and in the distinctive occurrence of the cognate words os and ælf in Anglo-Saxon personal names (e.g. Oswald, Ælfric
[19]).
In relation to the beauty of the Norse elves, some further evidence is given by old English words such as ælfsciene ("elf-beautiful"), used of seductively beautiful Biblical women in the Old English poems
Judith and Genesis A.
[20] Although elves could be considered to be beautiful and potentially helpful beings in some sections of English-speaking society throughout its history, Anglo-Saxon evidence also attests to alignments of elves with demons, as for example in line 112 of
Beowulf. On the other hand, oaf is simply a variant of the word elf, presumably originally referring to a
changeling or to someone stupefied by elvish
enchantment.
Elf-shot (or elf-bolt or elf-arrow) is a word found in Scotland and Northern England, first attested in a manuscript of about the last quarter of the
16th century. Although first attested in the sense 'sharp pain caused by elves', it is later attested denoting
Neolithic flint arrow-heads, which by the
17th century seem to have been attributed in Scotland to elvish folk, and which were used in healing rituals, and alleged to be used by witches (and perhaps elves) to injure people and cattle.
[21] So too a tangle in the hair was called an elf-lock, as being caused by the mischief of the elves, and sudden paralysis was sometimes attributed to elf-stroke. Compare with the following excerpt from an
1750 ode by
Willam Collins:
There every herd, by sad experience, knows
How, winged with fate, their elf-shot arrows fly,
When the sick ewe her summer food forgoes,
Or, stretched on earth, the heart-smit heifers lie.
[22]The elf makes many appearances in
ballads of English and Scottish origin, as well as folk tales, many involving trips to
Elphame or Elfland (the Álfheim of Norse mythology), a mystical realm which is sometimes an eerie and unpleasant place. The elf is occasionally portrayed in a positive light, such as the Queen of Elphame in the ballad
Thomas the Rhymer, but many examples exist of elves of sinister character, frequently bent on rape and murder, as in the Tale of
Childe Rowland, or the ballad
Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight, in which the Elf-Knight bears away Isabel to murder her. Most instances of elves in ballads are male; the only commonly encountered female elf is the Queen of Elfland, who appears in
Thomas the Rhymer and
The Queen of Elfland's Nourice, in which a woman is abducted to be a
wet-nurse to the queen's baby, but promised that she may return home once the child is weaned. In none of these cases is the elf a
spritely character with
pixie-like qualities.
English
folktales of the
early modern period typically portray elves as small, elusive people with mischievous personalities. They are not evil but might annoy humans or interfere in their affairs. They are sometimes said to be invisible. In this tradition, elves became more or less synonymous with the
fairies that originated from
native British mythology, for example, the
Welsh Ellyll (plural Ellyllon) and Y Dynon Bach Têg. Lompa Lompa the Gigantic Elf from Plemurian Forest.
"To make my small elves coats; and some keep back." One of
Arthur Rackham's illustrations to
William Shakespeare's
A Midsummer Night's Dream.
[23]Successively, the word elf, as well as literary term fairy, evolved to a general denotation of various nature spirits like
pwcca,
hobgoblin,
Robin Goodfellow, the Scots
brownie, and so forth. These terms, like their relatives in other
European languages, are no longer clearly distinguished in popular
folklore.
Significant for the distancing of the concept of elves from its mythological origins was the influence from literature. In
Elizabethan England,
William Shakespeare imagined elves as little people. He apparently considered elves and fairies to be the same race. In
Henry IV, part 1, act II, scene iv, he has
Falstaff call
Prince Henry, "you starveling, you elfskin!", and in his
A Midsummer Night's Dream, his elves are almost as small as
insects. On the other hand,
Edmund Spenser applies elf to full-sized beings in
The Faerie Queene.
The influence of Shakespeare and
Michael Drayton made the use of elf and
fairy for very small beings the norm. In
Victorian literature, elves usually appeared in illustrations as tiny men and women with pointed ears and stocking caps. An example is
Andrew Lang's fairy tale Princess Nobody (
1884), illustrated by
Richard Doyle, where fairies are tiny people with
butterfly wings, whereas elves are tiny people with red stocking caps. There were exceptions to this rule however, such as the full-sized elves who appear in
Lord Dunsany's
The King of Elfland's Daughter.
There is a legend concerning the Buckthorn vows that if one sprinkles Buckthorn in a circle and then dances within it under a full Moon, an elf will appear. The dancer must notice the elf and say, 'Halt and grant my boon!' before the creature flees. The elf will then grant one wish.
[
edit] Modern elves
[
edit] Elves at Christmas
Tony Cox as Marcus in the movie
Bad Santa, who is working as an elf assisting Santa Claus at a supermarket.
In the
USA,
Canada, and
England, the modern children's
folklore of
Santa Claus typically includes
diminutive, green-clad elves with pointy ears and long noses as Santa's assistants. They wrap
Christmas gifts and make
toys in a workshop located in the
North Pole. In this portrayal, elves slightly resemble nimble and delicate versions of the
dwarves of Norse mythology.
The vision of the small but crafty Christmas elf has come to influence modern popular conception of elves, and sits side by side with the fantasy elves following Tolkien's work (see below). The American cookie company
Keebler has long advertised that its cookies are made by elves in a hollow tree, and
Kellogg's, who happens to now be the owner of Keebler, uses the elves of
Snap, Crackle, and Pop as mascots of
Rice Krispies cereal, and the role of elves as Santa's helpers has continued to be popular, as evidenced by the success of the movie
Elf. It should be noted that these elves are referred to as elfish, as apposed to elven.
[
edit] Elves in modern fantasy
Main article:
Elves in fantasy fiction and games 
Hugo Weaving portrays
Elrond the Half-elven, Lord of
Rivendell, in
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
Modern
fantasy literature has revived the elves as a race of semi-divine beings of human stature. Fantasy elves are different from Norse elves, but are more akin to that older mythology than to folktale elves – they are unlikely to sneak in at night and help a cobbler mend his shoes. The grim Norse-style elves of human size introduced
Poul Anderson's fantasy novel
The Broken Sword from
1954 are one of the first precursors to modern fantasy elves, although they are overshadowed (and preceded) by the Elves of the
twentieth-century philologist and
fantasy writer
J. R. R. Tolkien. Though Tolkien originally conceived his Elves as more fairy-like than they afterwards became, he also based them on the god-like and human-sized
ljósálfar of
Norse mythology. His Elves were conceived as a race of beings similar in appearance to humans but fairer and wiser, with greater spiritual powers, keener senses, and a closer empathy with nature. They are great smiths and fierce warriors on the side of
good. Tolkien's
Elves of Middle-earth are
immortal in the sense that they are not vulnerable to disease or the effects of old age. Although they can be killed in battle like humans and may alternately wither away from grief, their spirits only pass to the blessed land in the west called
Valinor, whereas humans' souls leave the world entirely.
Tolkien's
The Lord of the Rings (
1954-
1955) became astoundingly popular and was much imitated. In the
1960s and afterwards, elves similar to those in Tolkien's novels became staple non-human characters in
high fantasy works and in fantasy
role-playing games. Tolkien's Elves were enemies of
goblins (
orcs) and had a longstanding quarrel with the
Dwarves; these motifs often reappear in Tolkien-inspired works. Tolkien is also responsible for reviving the older and less-used terms elven and elvish rather than
Edmund Spenser's invented elfin and elfish. He probably preferred the word elf over fairy because elf is of
Anglo-Saxon origin while fairy entered English from
French. He certainly felt the need to differentiate elves, as only one kind of the creatures of Faërie, from other inhabitants of that land, and lamented the confusion in English between Fairy (i.e., Faërie) and fairy (i.e., fay or elf). Tolkien also wished to distinguish his elves from the diminutive airy-winged fairies popularized by Drayton’s Nymphidia.
[24]Post-Tolkien fantasy elves (popularized by the
Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game) tend to be more beautiful and wiser than humans, with sharper senses and perceptions. Often elves do not possess facial or body hair, and are consequently perceived to be androgynous. A hallmark of fantasy elves is also their long and pointed
ears (a convention begun with a note of Tolkien's that the ears of elves were "leaf-shaped"). The length and shape of these ears varies depending on the artist or medium in question. For example, while most elves in Western fantasy have ears only slightly longer than humans', in various other areas of fantasy they are also depicted to have very long ears that stand out at dramatic angles from their heads.
Half-elves and divergent races of elves, such as
high elves and
dark elves, were also popularized at this time; in particular, the evil
drow of Dungeons & Dragons have inspired the dark elves of many other works of fantasy.
Fair elves of the Tolkien mold have become standardized staple characters of modern fantasy to such an extent that diverging from the established conceptions of how an elf is supposed to look and behave has become an end in itself for certain works of fantasy which aspire to innovation. For examples of the various ways modern fantasy writers have achieved this, see the
main article. It is worth noting that those things described as being of or related to these fair elves are referred to as "elven", as opposed to "elfish" (a term more closely associated with the sprite-like elves of medieval conception).
[
edit] Elves in psychedelic experience
Main article:
Machine ElvesMachine elves, a term first introduced by writer and psychedelic researcher
Terrence McKenna, is used to describe the presumed other-worldly intelligent beings which subjects sometimes feel they encounter during
psychedelic experiences (especially those induced by naturally-occurring
tryptamines, such as
DMT or
psilocybin), as well as during
shamanic and
alien abduction experiences. Elves and Fairies are also highly associated with the mushroom Amanita Muscaria both in art and in some cases Psychedelic experiences. The green fairy is also associated with the drink Absinthe.
[
edit] References
^ Hall, Alaric Timothy Peter. 2004.
The Meanings of Elf and Elves in Medieval England (Ph.D. University of Glasgow). pp. 56-57.
^ IE root *albh-, in American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 2000.
[1]^ Hall 2004, pp. 31-35
^ Sturluson, Snorri. The Younger (or Prose) Edda,
Rasmus B. Anderson translation (1897). Chapter 7.
^ Hall 2004, pp. 37-46
^ Hall 2004, pp. 43-46
^ Hall 2004, p. 40
^ The Life and Death of Cormac the Skald (Old Norse original:
Kormáks saga). Chapter 22.
^ Setr Skuld hér til inn mesta seið at vinna Hrólf konung, bróður sinn, svá at í fylgd er með henni álfar ok nornir ok annat ótöluligt illþýði, svá at mannlig náttúra má eigi slíkt standast.
[2]^ The Saga of Thorstein, Viking's Son (Old Norse original:
Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar). Chapter 1.
^
a b An account given in
1926, Hellström (1990). En Krönika om Åsbro, 36.
ISBN 91-7194-726-4.
^ For the Swedish belief in älvor see mainly Schön, Ebbe (1986). “De fagra flickorna på ängen”, Älvor, vättar och andra väsen.
ISBN 91-29-57688-1. . A more summary description in English is provided by
Keightley, Thomas (1870).
The Fairy Mythology. , esp. chapter
Scandinavia: Elves.
^ http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=59.007568,15.129204&spn=0.074904,0.231245&t=k&hl=en^ Keightley, Thomas (1870).
The Fairy Mythology. provides two translated versions of the song:
Sir Olof in Elve-Dance and
The Elf-Woman and Sir Olof.
^ (1984) “Lilla Rosa och Långa Leda”, Svenska folksagor. Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell Förlag AB, 158.
^ Hall 2004, pp 125-26
^ Hall 2004, esp. pp. 212-16
^ Hall 2004, pp. 81-92
^ Hall 2004, esp. pp. 56-66
^ Hall 2004, pp. 71-76, et passim
^ Hall, Alaric. 2005. 'Getting Shot of Elves: Healing, Witchcraft and Fairies in the Scottish Witchcraft Trials',
Folklore, 116 (2005), 19-36.
^ Collins, Willam. 1775.
An Ode On The Popular Superstitions Of The Highlands Of Scotland, Considered As The Subject Of Poetry.
^ http://classics.freehomepage.com/midsummer/midsummer.html^ Tolkien, J.R.R. (1964). “On Fairy-Stories”. Tree and Leaf. George Allen and Unwin Ltd. Reprinted in Tolkien, J.R.R. (1966). The Tolkien Reader. Ballantine Books: New York
Anderson, H. C.. 1842.
The Elf of the Rose (Danish original:
Rosen-Alfen).
Anderson, H. C. 1845.
The Elfin Hill (Danish original:
Elverhøi).
Coghlan, Ronan. 2002. Handbook of Fairies.
Lang, Andrew. 1884.
The Princess Nobody.
Fairy tales with elves in them include:
Addlers & MentersAinsel & PuckChilde Rowland (
also here)
The Elf Maiden (
also here)
Elfin Woman & Birth of SkuldElle-MaidsElle-Maid near EbeltoftHans PuntlederHedley KowLuck of Eden HallThe Shoemaker & the Elves (
also here)
Svend Faelling and the Elle-MaidWild EdricThe Wild-womenThe Young Swain and the Elves[
edit] See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
ElfLook up
Elf in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Concerning traditional elves:
ÁlfarÁlfheimElf versus dwarfErlkingLjósálfarSvartálfarRelated folklore creatures:
BrownieDryadDwarfFairyNymphGnomeGoblinSaciHuldraHaltijaImpLady of the LakeNorse dwarvesPuckPsotnikSídheSlavic fairiesSpritesSylphTomteTrollWightYule LadsAvariel Winged Elves
Miscellaneous:
FairytaleMythologyElenariNorse mythologyList of Norse gods Æsir Vanir Giants Elves
Dwarves Valkyries Einherjar Norns Odin Thor Freyr Freyja Loki Balder Tyr Yggdrasil Ginnungagap RagnarökSources:
Poetic Edda Prose Edda The Sagas Volsung Cycle Tyrfing Cycle Rune stones Old Norse language Orthography Later influenceSociety:
Viking Age Skald Kenning Blót Seid NumbersThe nine worlds of Norse mythology People, places and things
