In medievalGermanic-speaking cultures, elves were thought of as beings with magical powers and supernatural beauty, ambivalent towards everyday people and capable of either helping or hindering them.[1] Beliefs varied considerably over time and space and flourished in both pre-Christian andChristian cultures. The wordelf is found throughout theGermanic languages. It seems originally to have meant 'white being'. However, reconstructing the early concept depends largely on texts written by Christians, inOld andMiddle English, medieval German, andOld Norse. These associate elves variously with the gods ofNorse mythology, with causing illness, with magic, and with beauty and seduction.
After the medieval period, the wordelf became less common throughout the Germanic languages, losing out to terms likeZwerg ('dwarf') in German andhuldra ('hidden being') inNorth Germanic languages, and to loan-words likefairy (borrowed from French). Still, belief in elves persisted in theearly modern period, particularly in Scotland and Scandinavia, where elves were thought of as magically powerful people living, usually invisibly, alongside human communities. They continued to be associated with causing illnesses and with sexual threats. For example, several early modern ballads in theBritish Isles and Scandinavia, originating in the medieval period, describe elves attempting to seduce or abduct human characters.
With modern urbanisation and industrialisation, belief in elves declined rapidly, though Iceland has some claim to continued popular belief. Elves started to be prominent in the literature and art of educated elites from the early modern period onwards. These literary elves were imagined as tiny, playful beings, withWilliam Shakespeare'sA Midsummer Night's Dream a key development of this idea. In the eighteenth century, GermanRomantic writers were influenced by this notion of the elf, and re-imported the English wordelf into the German language. From the Romantic notion came the elves of modern popular culture.Christmas elves are a relatively recent creation, popularized during the late 19th century in the United States. Elves entered the twentieth-centuryhigh fantasy genre in the wake ofJ. R. R. Tolkien's works; these re-popularised the idea of elves as human-sized and humanlike beings. Elvesremain a prominent feature of fantasy media today.
Etymology
A chart showing how the sound of the wordelf has changed in the history of English[2][3]
The English wordelf is from theOld English word most often attested asælf (whose plural would have been*ælfe). Although this word took a variety of forms in different Old English dialects, these converged on the formelf during theMiddle English period.[4] During the Old English period, separate forms were used for female elves (such asælfen, putatively from Proto-Germanic *ɑlβ(i)innjō), but during the Middle English period the wordelf routinely came to include female beings.[5]
The Old English forms arecognates – having a common origin – with medieval Germanic terms such as Old Norsealfr ('elf'; pluralalfar), Old High Germanalp ('evil spirit'; pl.alpî,elpî; feminineelbe), Burgundian *alfs ('elf'), and Middle Low Germanalf ('evil spirit').[6][7] These words must come fromProto-Germanic, the ancestor-language of the attestedGermanic languages; the Proto-Germanic forms are reconstructed as *ɑlβi-z and *ɑlβɑ-z.[6][8]
Germanic*ɑlβi-z~*ɑlβɑ-z is generally agreed to be a cognate with Latinalbus ('(matt) white'), Old Irishailbhín ('flock'), Ancient Greek ἀλφός (alphós; 'whiteness, white leprosy'), and Albanianelb ('barley'); and the Germanic word for 'swan' reconstructed as*albit- (compare Modern Icelandicálpt). These all come from aProto-Indo-European root*h₂elbʰ-, and seem to be connected by the idea of whiteness. The Germanic word presumably originally meant 'white one', perhaps as a euphemism.[9]Jakob Grimm thought whiteness implied positive moral connotations, and, noting Snorri Sturluson'sljósálfar, suggested that elves were divinities of light.[9] This is not necessarily the case, however. For example, because the cognates suggest matt white rather than shining white, and because in medieval Scandinavian texts whiteness is associated with beauty,Alaric Hall has suggested that elves may have been called 'the white people' because whiteness was associated with (specifically feminine) beauty.[9]
A completely different etymology, makingelf a cognate with theṚbhus, semi-divine craftsmen in Indian mythology, was suggested byAdalbert Kuhn in 1855.[10] In this case, *ɑlβi-z would connote the meaning 'skilful, inventive, clever', and could be a cognate with Latinlabor, in the sense of 'creative work'. While often mentioned, this etymology is not widely accepted.[11]
In proper names
Throughout the medieval Germanic languages,elf was one of the nouns used inpersonal names, almost invariably as a first element. These names may have been influenced byCeltic names beginning inAlbio- such asAlbiorix.[12]
Alden Valley, Lancashire, a place possibly once associated with elves[13]
Personal names provide the only evidence forelf inGothic, which must have had the word *albs (plural *albeis). The most famous name of this kind isAlboin. Old English names inelf- include the cognate ofAlboinÆlfwine (literally "elf-friend", m.),Ælfric ("elf-powerful", m.),Ælfweard ("elf-guardian", m.), andÆlfwaru ("elf-care", f.). A widespread survivor of these in modern English isAlfred (Old EnglishÆlfrēd, "elf-advice"). Also surviving are the English surnameElgar (Ælfgar, "elf-spear"), and the name ofSt Alphege (Ælfhēah, "elf-tall").[14] German examples areAlberich,Alphart andAlphere (father ofWalter of Aquitaine)[15][16] and Icelandic examples includeÁlfhildur. These names suggest that elves were positively regarded in early Germanic culture. Of the many words for supernatural beings in Germanic languages, the only ones regularly used in personal names areelf and words denoting pagan gods, suggesting that elves were considered to be similar to gods.[17]
In later Old Icelandic,alfr ("elf") and the personal name which in Common Germanic had been *Aþa(l)wulfaz both coincidentally becameálfr~Álfr.[18]
Elves appear in some place names, though it is difficult to be sure how many because other words, including personal names, can appear similar toelf, such asal- (fromeald) meaning "old". The clearest appearances of elves in English examples areElveden ("elves' hill", Suffolk) andElvendon ("elves' valley", Oxfordshire);[19] other examples may beEldon Hill ("Elves'-hill hill", Derbyshire); andAlden Valley ("elves' hill valley", Lancashire). These associate elves fairly consistently with woods and valleys.[13]
In medieval texts and post-medieval folk belief
Medieval English-language sources
As causes of illnesses
The earliest surviving manuscripts mentioning elves in any Germanic language are fromAnglo-Saxon England. Medieval English evidence has, therefore, attracted quite extensive research and debate.[20][21][22][23] In Old English, elves are most often mentioned in medical texts which attest to the belief that elves might afflict humans andlivestock with illnesses: apparently mostly sharp, internal pains and mental disorders. The most famous of the medical texts is themetrical charmWið færstice ("against a stabbing pain"), from the tenth-century compilationLacnunga, but most of the attestations are in the tenth-centuryBald's Leechbook andLeechbook III. This tradition continues into later English-language traditions too: elves continue to appear in Middle English medical texts.[24]
Belief in elves as a cause of illnesses remained prominent in early modern Scotland, where elves were viewed as supernaturally powerful people who lived invisibly alongside everyday rural people.[25] Thus, elves were often mentioned in the early modern Scottish witchcraft trials: many witnesses in the trials believed themselves to have been given healing powers or to know of people or animals made sick by elves.[26][27] Throughout these sources, elves are sometimes associated with thesuccubus-like supernatural being called themare.[28]
While they may have been thought to cause diseases with magical weapons, elves are more clearly associated in Old English with a kind of magic denoted by Old Englishsīden andsīdsa, a cognate with the Old Norseseiðr, and paralleled in the Old IrishSerglige Con Culainn.[29][30] By the fourteenth century, they were also associated with the arcane practice ofalchemy.[24]
"Elf-shot"
The Eadwine Psalter, f. 66r. Detail: Christ and demons attacking the psalmist.
In one or two Old English medical texts, elves might be envisaged as inflicting illnesses with projectiles. In the twentieth century, scholars often labelled the illnesses elves caused as "elf-shot", but work from the 1990s onwards showed that the medieval evidence for elves' being thought to cause illnesses in this way is slender;[31] debate about its significance is ongoing.[32]
The nounelf-shot is first attested in aScots poem, "Rowlis Cursing," from around 1500, where "elf schot" is listed among a range of curses to be inflicted on some chicken thieves.[33] The term may not always have denoted an actual projectile:shot could mean "a sharp pain". But in early modern Scotland,elf-schot and other terms likeelf-arrowhead are sometimes used ofneolithic arrow-heads, apparently thought to have been made by elves. In a few witchcraft trials, people attested that these arrow-heads were used in healing rituals, and occasionally alleged that witches (and perhaps elves) used them to injure people and cattle.[34] A 1749–50 ode byWilliam Collins includes the lines:[35]
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.[35]
Size, appearance, and sexuality
Because of elves' association with illness, in the twentieth century, most scholars imagined that elves in the Anglo-Saxon tradition were small, invisible, demonic beings, causing illnesses with arrows. This was encouraged by the idea that "elf-shot" is depicted in theEadwine Psalter, in an image which became well known in this connection.[36] However, this is now thought to be a misunderstanding: the image proves to be a conventional illustration of God's arrows and Christian demons.[37] Rather, twenty-first century scholarship suggests that Anglo-Saxon elves, like elves in Scandinavia or the IrishAos Sí, were regarded as people.[38]
"⁊ ylfe" ("and elves") inBeowulf
Like words for gods and men, the wordelf is used in personal names where words for monsters and demons are not.[39] Just asálfar is associated withÆsir in Old Norse, the Old EnglishWið færstice associates elves withēse; whatever this word meant by the tenth century, etymologically it denoted pagan gods.[40] In Old English, the pluralylfe (attested inBeowulf) is grammatically anethnonym (a word for an ethnic group), suggesting that elves were seen as people.[41][42] As well as appearing in medical texts, the Old English wordælf and its feminine derivativeælbinne were used inglosses to translate Latin words fornymphs. This fits well with the wordælfscȳne, which meant "elf-beautiful" and is attested describing the seductively beautiful Biblical heroinesSarah andJudith.[43]
Likewise, in Middle English and early modern Scottish evidence, while still appearing as causes of harm and danger, elves appear clearly as humanlike beings.[44] They became associated with medieval chivalric romance traditions offairies and particularly with the idea of aFairy Queen. A propensity to seduce or rape people becomes increasingly prominent in the source material.[45] Around the fifteenth century, evidence starts to appear for the belief that elves might steal human babies and replace them withchangelings.[46]
Decline in the use of the wordelf
By the end of the medieval period,elf was increasingly being supplanted by the French loan-wordfairy.[47] An example isGeoffrey Chaucer's satirical taleSir Thopas, where the title character sets out in a quest for the "elf-queen", who dwells in the "countree of the Faerie".[48]
Old Norse texts
Mythological texts
One possible semantic field diagram of words for sentient beings in Old Norse, showing their relationships as anEuler diagram[49]
Evidence for elf beliefs in medieval Scandinavia outside Iceland is sparse, but the Icelandic evidence is uniquely rich. For a long time, views about elves in Old Norse mythology were defined by Snorri Sturluson'sProse Edda, which talks aboutsvartálfar,dökkálfar andljósálfar ("black elves", "dark elves", and "light elves"). For example, Snorri recounts how thesvartálfar create new blond hair for Thor's wifeSif afterLoki had shorn off Sif's long hair.[50] However, these terms are attested only in the Prose Edda and texts based on it. It is now agreed that they reflect traditions ofdwarves,demons, andangels, partly showing Snorri's "paganisation" of a Christian cosmology learned from theElucidarius, a popular digest of Christian thought.[51]
Scholars of Old Norse mythology now focus on references to elves in Old Norse poetry, particularly theElder Edda. The only character explicitly identified as an elf in classical Eddaic poetry, if any, isVölundr, the protagonist ofVölundarkviða.[52] However, elves are frequently mentioned in thealliterating phraseÆsir ok Álfar ('Æsir and elves') and its variants. This was a well-established poeticformula, indicating a strong tradition of associating elves with the group of gods known as theÆsir, or even suggesting that the elves and Æsir were one and the same.[53][54] The pairing is paralleled in the Old English poemWið færstice[40] and in the Germanic personal name system;[39] moreover, inSkaldic verse the wordelf is used in the same way as words for gods.[55]Sigvatr Þórðarson's skaldic travelogueAustrfaravísur, composed around 1020, mentions análfablót ('elves' sacrifice') in Edskogen in what is now southern Sweden.[56] There does not seem to have been any clear-cut distinction between humans and gods; like the Æsir, then, elves were presumably thought of as being humanlike and existing in opposition to thegiants.[57] Many commentators have also (or instead) argued for conceptual overlap between elves anddwarves in Old Norse mythology, which may fit with trends in the medieval German evidence.[58]
There are hints that the godFreyr was associated with elves. In particular,Álfheimr (literally "elf-world") is mentioned as being given toFreyr inGrímnismál. Snorri Sturluson identified Freyr as one of theVanir. However, the termVanir is rare in Eddaic verse, very rare in Skaldic verse, and is not generally thought to appear in other Germanic languages. Given the link between Freyr and the elves, it has therefore long been suspected thatálfar andVanir are, more or less, different words for the same group of beings.[59][60][61] However, this is not uniformly accepted.[62]
Akenning (poetic metaphor) for the sun,álfröðull (literally "elf disc"), is of uncertain meaning but is to some suggestive of a close link between elves and the sun.[63][64]
Although the relevant words are of slightly uncertain meaning, it seems fairly clear that Völundr is described as one of the elves inVölundarkviða.[65] As his most prominent deed in the poem is to rapeBöðvildr, the poem associates elves with being a sexual threat to maidens. The same idea is present in two post-classical Eddaic poems, which are also influenced bychivalric romance orBretonlais,Kötludraumur andGullkársljóð. The idea also occurs in later traditions in Scandinavia and beyond, so it may be an early attestation of a prominent tradition.[66] Elves also appear in a couple of verse spells, including theBergen rune-charm from among theBryggen inscriptions.[67]
The appearance of elves in sagas is closely defined by genre. TheSagas of Icelanders,Bishops' sagas, and contemporarysagas, whose portrayal of the supernatural is generally restrained, rarely mentionálfar, and then only in passing.[68] But although limited, these texts provide some of the best evidence for the presence of elves in everyday beliefs in medieval Scandinavia. They include a fleeting mention of elves seen out riding in 1168 (inSturlunga saga); mention of análfablót ("elves' sacrifice") inKormáks saga; and the existence of the euphemismganga álfrek ('go to drive away the elves') for "going to the toilet" inEyrbyggja saga.[68][69]
TheKings' sagas include a rather elliptical but widely studied account of an early Swedish king being worshipped after his death and being calledÓlafr Geirstaðaálfr ('Ólafr the elf of Geirstaðir'), and a demonic elf at the beginning ofNorna-Gests þáttr.[70]
Thelegendary sagas tend to focus on elves as legendary ancestors or on heroes' sexual relations with elf-women. Mention of the land ofÁlfheimr is found inHeimskringla whileÞorsteins saga Víkingssonar recounts a line of local kings who ruled overÁlfheim, who since they had elven blood were said to be more beautiful than most men.[71][72] According toHrólfs saga kraka,Hrolfr Kraki's half-sisterSkuld was thehalf-elven child of King Helgi and an elf-woman (álfkona). Skuld was skilled in witchcraft (seiðr). Accounts of Skuld in earlier sources, however, do not include this material. TheÞiðreks saga version of theNibelungen (Niflungar) describesHögni as the son of a human queen and an elf, but no such lineage is reported in the Eddas,Völsunga saga, or theNibelungenlied.[73] The relatively few mentions of elves in thechivalric sagas tend even to be whimsical.[74]
In hisRerum Danicarum fragmenta (1596) written mostly in Latin with some Old Danish and Old Icelandic passages,Arngrímur Jónsson explains the Scandinavian and Icelandic belief in elves (calledAllffuafolch).[75]Both Continental Scandinavia and Iceland have a scattering of mentions of elves in medical texts, sometimes in Latin and sometimes in the form of amulets, where elves are viewed as a possible cause of illness. Most of them have Low German connections.[76][77][78]
Sometimes elves are, likedwarves, associated with craftsmanship.Wayland the Smith embodies this feature. He is known under many names, depending on the language in which the stories were distributed. The names includeVölund in Old Norse,Wēland in Anglo-Saxon andWieland in German. The story of Wayland is also to be found in theProse Edda.[50]
Portrait of Margarethe Luther, believed by her son Martin to have been afflicted byelbe ("elves")
TheOld High German wordalp is attested only in a small number of glosses. It is defined by theAlthochdeutsches Wörterbuch as a "nature-god or nature-demon, equated with theFauns of Classical mythology... regarded as eerie, ferocious beings... As themare he messes around with women".[79] Accordingly, the German wordAlpdruck (literally "elf-oppression") means "nightmare". There is also evidence associating elves with illness, specifically epilepsy.[80]
In a similar vein, elves are in Middle High German most often associated with deceiving or bewildering people in a phrase that occurs so often it would appear to be proverbial:die elben/der alp trieget mich ("the elves/elf are/is deceiving me").[81] The same pattern holds in Early Modern German.[82][83] This deception sometimes shows the seductive side apparent in English and Scandinavian material:[80] most famously, the early thirteenth-centuryHeinrich von Morungen's fifthMinnesang begins "Von den elben wirt entsehen vil manic man / Sô bin ich von grôzer liebe entsên" ("full many a man is bewitched by elves / thus I too am bewitched by great love").[84]Elbe was also used in this period to translate words for nymphs.[85]
In later medieval prayers, Elves appear as a threatening, even demonic, force. For example, some prayers invoke God's help against nocturnal attacks byAlpe.[86] Correspondingly, in the early modern period, elves are described in north Germany doing the evil bidding of witches;Martin Luther believed his mother to have been afflicted in this way.[87] As in Old Norse, however, there are few characters identified as elves. It seems likely that in the German-speaking world, elves were to a significant extent conflated with dwarves (Middle High German:getwerc).[88] Thus, some dwarves that appear in German heroic poetry have been seen as relating to elves. In particular, nineteenth-century scholars tended to think that the dwarf Alberich, whose name etymologically means "elf-powerful," was influenced by early traditions of elves.[89][90]
From around theLate Middle Ages, the wordelf began to be used in English as a term loosely synonymous with the French loan-wordfairy;[92] in elite art and literature, at least, it also became associated with diminutive supernatural beings likePuck,hobgoblins, Robin Goodfellow, the English and Scotsbrownie, and the Northumbrian Englishhob.[93] However, in Scotland and parts of northern England near the Scottish border, beliefs in elves remained prominent into the nineteenth century.James VI of Scotland and Robert Kirk discussed elves seriously; elf beliefs are prominently attested in the Scottish witchcraft trials, particularly the trial ofIssobel Gowdie; and related stories also appear in folktales,[94] There is a significant corpus of ballads narrating stories about elves, such asThomas the Rhymer, where a man meets a female elf;Tam Lin,The Elfin Knight, andLady Isabel and the Elf-Knight, in which an Elf-Knight rapes, seduces, or abducts a woman; andThe Queen of Elfland's Nourice, a woman is abducted to be a wet-nurse to the elf queen's baby, but promised that she might return home once the child is weaned.[95]
InScandinavian folklore, many humanlike supernatural beings are attested, which might be thought of as elves and partly originate in medieval Scandinavian beliefs. However, the characteristics and names of these beings have varied widely across time and space, and they cannot be neatly categorised. These beings are sometimes known by words descended directly from the Old Norseálfr. However, in modern languages, traditional terms related toálfr have tended to be replaced with other terms. Things are further complicated because when referring to the elves of Old Norse mythology, scholars have adopted new forms based directly on the Old Norse wordálfr. The following table summarises the situation in the main modern standard languages of Scandinavia.[96]
language
terms related toelf in traditional usage
main terms of similar meaning in traditional usage
The elves of Norse mythology have survived into folklore mainly as females, living in hills and mounds of stones.[97] The Swedishälvor were stunningly beautiful girls who lived in the forest with an elven king.[98][99]
The elves could be seen dancing over meadows, particularly at night and on misty mornings. They left a circle where they had danced, calledälvdanser (elf dances) orälvringar (elf circles), and to urinate in one was thought to cause venereal diseases. Typically, elf circles werefairy rings consisting of a ring of small mushrooms, but there was also another kind of elf circle. In the words of the local historian Anne Marie Hellström:[97]
... 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. ByLake Tisnaren, 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.[97]
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. Humans being invited or lured to the elf dance is a common motif transferred from older Scandinavian ballads.[100]
Elves were not exclusively young and beautiful. In the Swedish folktaleLittle Rosa and Long Leda, an elvish woman (älvakvinna) arrives in the end and saves the heroine, Little Rose, on the condition that the king's cattle no longer graze on her hill. She is described as a beautiful old woman and by her aspect people saw that she belonged to thesubterraneans.[101]
In ballads
Elves have a prominent place in several closely related ballads, which must have originated in the Middle Ages but are first attested in the early modern period.[95] Many of these ballads are first attested inKaren Brahes Folio, a Danish manuscript from the 1570s, but they circulated widely in Scandinavia and northern Britain. They sometimes mention elves because they were learned by heart, even though that term had become archaic in everyday usage. They have therefore played a major role in transmitting traditional ideas about elves in post-medieval cultures. Indeed, some of the early modern ballads are still quite widely known, whether through school syllabuses or contemporary folk music. They, therefore, give people an unusual degree of access to ideas of elves from older traditional culture.[102]
The ballads are characterised by sexual encounters between everyday people and humanlike beings referred to in at least some variants as elves (the same characters also appear asmermen, dwarves, and other kinds of supernatural beings). The elves pose a threat to the everyday community by lure people into the elves' world. The most famous example isElveskud and its many variants (paralleled in English asClerk Colvill), where a woman from the elf world tries to tempt a young knight to join her in dancing, or to live among the elves; in some versions he refuses, and in some he accepts, but in either case he dies, tragically. As inElveskud, sometimes the everyday person is a man and the elf a woman, as also inElvehøj (much the same story asElveskud, but with a happy ending),Herr Magnus og Bjærgtrolden,Herr Tønne af Alsø,Herr Bøsmer i elvehjem, or the Northern BritishThomas the Rhymer. Sometimes the everyday person is a woman, and the elf is a man, as in the northern BritishTam Lin,The Elfin Knight, andLady Isabel and the Elf-Knight, in which the Elf-Knight bears away Isabel to murder her, or the ScandinavianHarpans kraft. InThe Queen of Elfland's Nourice, a woman is abducted to be awet nurse to the elf-queen's baby, but promised that she might return home once the child is weaned.[95]
As causes of illness
The "Elf cross" which protected against malevolent elves.[103]
In folk stories, Scandinavian elves often play the role of disease spirits. The most common, though the also most harmless case was various irritating skinrashes, which were calledälvablåst (elven puff) and could be cured by a forceful counter-blow (a handy pair ofbellows was most useful for this purpose).Skålgropar, a particular kind ofpetroglyph (pictogram on a rock) found in Scandinavia, were known in older times asälvkvarnar (elven mills), because it was believed elves had used them. One could appease the elves by offering a treat (preferably butter) placed into an elven mill.[96]
In order to protect themselves and their livestock against malevolent elves, Scandinavians could use a so-called Elf cross (Alfkors,Älvkors orEllakors), which was carved into buildings or other objects.[103] It existed in two shapes, one was apentagram, and it was still frequently used in early 20th-century Sweden as painted or carved onto doors, walls, and household utensils to protect against elves.[103] The second form was an ordinary cross carved onto a round or oblong silver plate.[103] This second kind of elf cross was worn as a pendant in a necklace, and to have sufficient magic, it had to be forged during three evenings with silver, from nine different sources of inherited silver.[103] In some locations it also had to be on the altar of a church for three consecutive Sundays.[103]
Modern continuations
In Iceland, expressing belief in thehuldufólk ("hidden people"), elves that dwell in rock formations, is still relatively common. Even when Icelanders do not explicitly express their belief, they are often reluctant to express disbelief.[104] A 2006 and 2007 study by the University of Iceland's Faculty of Social Sciences revealed that many would not rule out the existence of elves and ghosts, a result similar to a 1974 survey byErlendur Haraldsson. The lead researcher of the 2006–2007 study,Terry Gunnell, stated: "Icelanders seem much more open to phenomena like dreaming the future, forebodings, ghosts and elves than other nations".[105] Whether significant numbers of Icelandic people do believe in elves or not, elves are certainly prominent in national discourses. They occur most often in oral narratives and news reporting in which they disrupt house- and road-building. In the analysis ofValdimar Tr. Hafstein, "narratives about the insurrections of elves demonstrate supernatural sanction against development and urbanization; that is to say, the supernaturals protect and enforce religious values and traditional rural culture. The elves fend off, with more or less success, the attacks, and advances of modern technology, palpable in the bulldozer."[106] Elves are also prominent, in similar roles, in contemporary Icelandic literature.[107]
Folk stories told in the nineteenth century about elves are still told in modern Denmark and Sweden. Still, they now feature ethnic minorities in place of elves in essentially racist discourse. In an ethnically fairly homogeneous medieval countryside, supernatural beings provided theOther through which everyday people created their identities; in cosmopolitan industrial contexts, ethnic minorities or immigrants are used in storytelling to similar effect.[108]
Early modern Europe saw the emergence of a distinctiveelite culture: while theReformation encouraged new skepticism and opposition to traditional beliefs, subsequent Romanticism encouraged thefetishisation of such beliefs by intellectual elites. The effects of this on writing about elves are most apparent in England and Germany, with developments in each country influencing the other. In Scandinavia, the Romantic movement was also prominent, and literary writing was the main context for continued use of the wordelf, except in fossilised words for illnesses. However, oral traditions about beings like elves remained prominent in Scandinavia into the early twentieth century.[100]
Elves entered early modern elite culture most clearly in the literature of Elizabethan England.[93] HereEdmund Spenser'sFaerie Queene (1590–) usedfairy andelf interchangeably of human-sized beings, but they are complex, imaginary and allegorical figures. Spenser also presented his own explanation of the origins of theElfe andElfin kynd, claiming that they were created byPrometheus.[109] Likewise,William Shakespeare, in a speech inRomeo and Juliet (1592) has an "elf-lock" (tangled hair) being caused byQueen Mab, who is referred to as "thefairies'midwife".[110] Meanwhile,A Midsummer Night's Dream promoted the idea that elves were diminutive and ethereal. The influence of Shakespeare andMichael Drayton made the use ofelf andfairy for very small beings the norm, and had a lasting effect seen in fairy tales about elves, collected in the modern period.[111]
Early modern English notions of elves became influential in eighteenth-century Germany. TheModern GermanElf (m) andElfe (f) was introduced as a loan-word from English in the 1740s[112][113] and was prominent inChristoph Martin Wieland's 1764 translation ofA Midsummer Night's Dream.[114]
AsGerman Romanticism got underway and writers started to seek authentic folklore, Jacob Grimm rejectedElf as a recent Anglicism, and promoted the reuse of the old formElb (pluralElbe orElben).[113][115] In the same vein,Johann Gottfried Herder translated the Danish balladElveskud in his 1778 collection of folk songs,Stimmen der Völker in Liedern, as "Erlkönigs Tochter" ("The Erl-king's Daughter"; it appears that Herder introduced the termErlkönig into German through a mis-Germanisation of the Danish word forelf). This in turn inspired Goethe's poemDer Erlkönig. However, Goethe added another new meaning, as the German word "Erle" does not mean "elf", but "black alder" - the poem about theErlenkönig is set in the area of an alder quarry in the Saale valley in Thuringia. Goethe's poem then took on a life of its own, inspiring the Romantic concept of theErlking, which was influential on literary images of elves from the nineteenth century on.[116]
Littleälvor, playing withTomtebobarnen. FromChildren of the Forest (1910) by Swedish author and illustratorElsa Beskow.
In Scandinavia too, in the nineteenth century, traditions of elves were adapted to include small, insect-winged fairies. These are often called "elves" (älvor in modern Swedish,alfer in Danish,álfar in Icelandic), although the more formal translation in Danish isfeer. Thus, thealf found in the fairy taleThe Elf of the Rose by Danish authorHans Christian Andersen is so tiny he can have a rose blossom for home, and "wings that reached from his shoulders to his feet". Yet Andersen also wrote aboutelvere inThe 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 thehuldra in Norway and Sweden, they are hollow when seen from the back.[117]
English and German literary traditions both influenced the BritishVictorian image of elves, which appeared in illustrations as tiny men and women withpointed ears and stocking caps. An example isAndrew Lang's fairy talePrincess Nobody (1884), illustrated byRichard Doyle, where fairies are tiny people withbutterfly wings. In contrast, elves are small people with red stocking caps. These conceptions remained prominent in twentieth-century children's literature, for exampleEnid Blyton'sThe Faraway Tree series, and were influenced by German Romantic literature. Accordingly, in theBrothers Grimm fairy taleDie Wichtelmänner (literally, "the little men"), the title protagonists are two tiny naked men who help a shoemaker in his work. Even thoughWichtelmänner are akin to beings such askobolds,dwarves andbrownies, the tale was translated into English by Margaret Hunt in 1884 asThe Elves and the Shoemaker. This shows how the meanings ofelf had changed and was in itself influential: the usage is echoed, for example, in the house-elf ofJ. K. Rowling'sHarry Potter stories. In his turn, J. R. R. Tolkien recommended using the older German formElb in translations of his works, as recorded in his "Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings" (1967).Elb, Elben was consequently introduced in 1972German translation ofThe Lord of the Rings, repopularising the form in German.[118]
A person dressed as a Christmas Elf, Virginia, 2016
With industrialisation and mass education, traditional folklore about elves waned; however, as the phenomenon of popular culture emerged, elves were re-imagined, in large part based on Romantic literary depictions and associatedmedievalism.[118]
As American Christmas traditions crystallized in the nineteenth century, the 1823 poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (widely known as "'Twas the Night before Christmas") characterized St Nicholas himself as "a right jolly old elf." However, it was his little helpers, inspired partly by folktales likeThe Elves and the Shoemaker, who became known as "Santa's elves"; the processes through which this came about are not well-understood, but one key figure was a Christmas-related publication by the German-American cartoonistThomas Nast.[119][118] Thus in the US, Canada, UK, and Ireland, the modern children's folklore of Santa Claus typically includes small, nimble, green-clad elves with pointy ears, long noses, and pointy hats, as Santa's helpers. They make the toys in a workshop located in the North Pole.[120] The role of elves as Santa's helpers has continued to be popular, as evidenced by the success of the popular Christmas movieElf.[118]
19th century illustration of an elf teasing a bird byRichard DoyleIllustration of a female elf in the high fantasy style. Kitty Polikeit, 2011
Thefantasy genre in the twentieth century grew out of nineteenth-century Romanticism, in which nineteenth-century scholars such asAndrew Lang and the Grimm brothers collected fairy stories from folklore and in some cases retold them freely.[121]
A pioneering work of the fantasy genre wasThe King of Elfland's Daughter, a 1924 novel byLord Dunsany. TheElves of Middle-earth played a central role inTolkien's legendarium, notablyThe Hobbit andThe Lord of the Rings; this legendarium was enormously influential on subsequent fantasy writing. Tolkien's writing had such influence that in the 1960s and afterwards, elves speaking an elvish language similar to those in Tolkien's novels became staple non-human characters inhigh fantasy works and in fantasyrole-playing games. Post-Tolkien fantasy elves (which feature not only in novels but also in role-playing games such asDungeons & Dragons) are often portrayed as being wiser and more beautiful than humans, with sharper senses and perceptions as well. They are said to be gifted inmagic, mentally sharp and lovers of nature, art, and song. They are often skilled archers. A hallmark of many fantasy elves is their pointed ears.[121]
In works where elves are the main characters, such asThe Silmarillion or Wendy and Richard Pini's comic book seriesElfquest, elves exhibit a similar range of behaviour to a human cast, distinguished largely by their superhuman physical powers. However, where narratives are more human-centered, as inThe Lord of the Rings, elves tend to sustain their role as powerful, sometimes threatening, outsiders.[121] Despite the obvious fictionality of fantasy novels and games, scholars have found that elves in these works continue to have a subtle role in shaping the real-life identities of their audiences. For example, elves can function to encode real-world racial others invideo games,[122][123] or to influence gender norms through literature.[124]
Equivalents in non-Germanic traditions
Greek black-figure vase painting depicting dancingsatyrs. A propensity for dancing and making mischief in the woods is among the traits satyrs and elves have in common.[125]
Beliefs in humanlike supernatural beings are widespread in human cultures, and many such beings may be referred to aselves in English.
Europe
Elfish beings appear to have been a common characteristic withinIndo-European mythologies.[126] In the Celtic-speaking regions of north-west Europe, the beings most similar to elves are generally referred to with theGaelic termAos Sí.[127][128] The equivalent term in modern Welsh isTylwyth Teg. In theRomance-speaking world, beings comparable to elves are widely known by words derived from Latinfata ('fate'), which came into English asfairy. This word became partly synonymous withelf by the early modern period.[92] Other names also abound, however, such as the SicilianDonas de fuera ('ladies from outside'),[129] or Frenchbonnes dames ('good ladies').[130] In theFinnic-speaking world, the term usually thought most closely equivalent toelf ishaltija (in Finnish) orhaldaja (Estonian).[131] Meanwhile, an example of an equivalent in theSlavic-speaking world is thevila (pluralvile) of Serbo-Croatian (and, partly, Slovene)folklore.[132] Elves bear some resemblances to thesatyrs ofGreek mythology, who were also regarded as woodland-dwelling mischief-makers.[133]
In the Italian region ofRomagna, themazapégul are mischievous nocturnal elves who disrupt sleep and torment beautiful young girls.[134][135][136][137]
Asia and Oceania
Some scholarship draws parallels between the Arabian tradition ofjinn with the elves of medieval Germanic-language cultures.[138] Some of the comparisons are quite precise: for example, the root of the wordjinn was used in medieval Arabic terms for madness and possession in similar ways to the Old English wordylfig,[139] which was derived fromelf and also denoted prophetic states of mind implicitly associated with elfish possession.[140]
Khmer culture in Cambodia includes theMrenh kongveal, elfish beings associated with guarding animals.[141]
In the animistic precolonial beliefs of thePhilippines, the world can be divided into the material world and the spirit world. All objects, animate or inanimate, have a spirit calledanito. Non-humananito are known asdiwata, usually euphemistically referred to asdili ingon nato ('those unlike us'). They inhabit natural features like mountains, forests, old trees, caves, reefs, etc., as well as personify abstract concepts and natural phenomena. They are similar to elves in that they can be helpful or hateful but are usually indifferent to mortals. They can be mischievous and cause unintentional harm to humans, but they can also deliberately cause illnesses and misfortunes when disrespected or angered. Spanish colonizers equated them with elves and fairy folklore.[142]
Orang bunian are supernatural beings inMalaysian, Bruneian andIndonesian folklore,[143] invisible to most humans except those with spiritual sight. While the term is often translated as "elves", it literally translates to "hidden people" or "whistling people". Their appearance is nearly identical to humans dressed in an ancientSoutheast Asian style.
In Māori culture,Patupaiarehe are beings similar to European elves and fairies.[144]
Relationship with reality
Reality and perception
Elves have in many times and places been believed to be real beings.[145] Where enough people have believed in the reality of elves that those beliefs then had real effects in the world, they can be understood as part of people'sworldview, and as asocial reality: a thing which, like the exchange value of a dollar bill or the sense of pride stirred up by a national flag, is real because of people's beliefs rather than as an objective reality.[145] Accordingly, beliefs about elves and their social functions have varied over time and space.[146] Even in the twenty-first century, fantasy stories about elves have been argued both to reflect and to shape their audiences' understanding of the real world.[122][124] Over time, people have attempted todemythologise orrationalise beliefs in elves in various ways.[147]
Integration into Christian cosmologies
Title page ofDaemonologie byJames VI and I. It tried to explain traditional Scottish beliefs in terms of Christian scholarship.
Beliefs about elves have their origins before theconversion to Christianity and associatedChristianization of northwest Europe. For this reason, belief in elves has, from the Middle Ages through into recent scholarship, often been labelled "pagan" and a "superstition." However, almost all surviving textual sources about elves were produced by Christians (whether Anglo-Saxon monks, medieval Icelandic poets, early modern ballad-singers, nineteenth-century folklore collectors, or even twentieth-century fantasy authors). Attested beliefs about elves, therefore, need to be understood as part ofGermanic-speakers' Christian culture and not merely a relic of theirpre-Christian religion. Accordingly, investigating the relationship between beliefs in elves andChristian cosmology has been a preoccupation of scholarship about elves both in early times and modern research.[148]
Historically, people have taken three main approaches to integrate elves into Christian cosmology, all of which are found widely across time and space:
Identifying elves with thedemons of Judaeo-Christian-Mediterranean tradition.[149] For example:
In medieval Iceland,Snorri Sturluson wrote in hisProse Edda ofljósálfar anddökkálfar ('light-elves and dark-elves'), theljósálfar living in the heavens and thedökkálfar under the earth. The consensus of modern scholarship is that Snorri's elves are based on angels and demons of Christian cosmology.[51]
Elves appear as demonic forces widely in medieval and early modern English, German, and Scandinavian prayers.[153][154][155]
Viewing elves as being more or less like people and more or less outside Christian cosmology.[156] The Icelanders who copied thePoetic Edda did not explicitly try to integrate elves into Christian thought. Likewise, the early modern Scottish people who confessed to encountering elves seem not to have thought of themselves as having dealings with theDevil. Nineteenth-century Icelandic folklore aboutelves mostly presents them as a human agricultural community parallel to the visible human community, which may or may not be Christian.[157][158] It is possible that stories were sometimes told from this perspective as a political act, to subvert the dominance of the Church.[159]
Integrating elves into Christian cosmology without identifying them as demons.[160] The most striking examples are serious theological treatises: the IcelandicTíðfordrif (1644) byJón Guðmundsson lærði or, in Scotland,Robert Kirk'sSecret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies (1691). This approach also appears in the Old English poemBeowulf, which lists elves among the races springing fromCain's murder of Abel.[161] The late thirteenth-centurySouth English Legendary and some Icelandic folktales explain elves as angels that sided neither withLucifer nor with God and were banished by God to earth rather than hell. One famous Icelandic folktale explains elves as the lost children of Eve.[162]
Demythologising elves as indigenous peoples
Some nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholars attempted to rationalise beliefs in elves as folk memories of lost indigenous peoples. Since belief in supernatural beings is ubiquitous in human cultures, scholars no longer believe such explanations are valid.[163][164] Research has shown, however, that stories about elves have often been used as a way for people to thinkmetaphorically about real-life ethnic others.[165][108][122]
Demythologising elves as people with illness or disability
Scholars have at times also tried to explain beliefs in elves as being inspired by people suffering certain kinds of illnesses (such asWilliams syndrome).[166] Elves were certainly often seen as a cause of illness, and indeed the English wordoaf seems to have originated as a form ofelf: the wordelf came to mean 'changeling left by an elf' and then, because changelings were noted for their failure to thrive, to its modern sense 'a fool, a stupid person; a large, clumsy man or boy'.[167] However, it again seems unlikely that the origin of beliefs in elves itself is to be explained by people's encounters with objectively real people affected by disease.[168]
^abCarlyle (1788), i 68, stanza II. 1749 date of composition is given on p. 63.
^Grattan, J. H. G.;Singer, Charles (1952),Anglo-Saxon Magic and Medicine Illustrated Specially from the Semi-Pagan Text 'Lacnunga', Publications of the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, New Series, 3, London: Oxford University Press, frontispiece.
^"Naturgott oder -dämon, den Faunen der antiken Mythologie gleichgesetzt... er gilt als gespenstisches, heimtückisches Wesen... als Nachtmahr spielt er den Frauen mit";Karg-Gasterstädt & Frings (1968), s.v.alb.
^In Lexer's Middle High German dictionary underalp, alb is an example: Pf. arzb. 2 14b=Pfeiffer (1863), p. 44 (Pfeiffer, F. (1863). "Arzenîbuch 2= Bartholomäus" (Mitte 13. Jh.)".Zwei deutsche Arzneibücher aus dem 12. und 13. Jh. Wien.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)): "Swen der alp triuget, rouchet er sich mit der verbena, ime enwirret als pald niht;" meaning: 'When analp deceives you, fumigate yourself withverbena and the confusion will soon be gone'. The editor glossesalp here as "malicious, teasing spirit" (German:boshafter neckende geist)
^For the Swedish belief inälvor see mainlySchön, Ebbe (1986). "De fagra flickorna på ängen".Älvor, vättar och andra väsen. Rabben & Sjogren.ISBN978-91-29-57688-7.
^abTangherlini, Timothy R. (1995). "From Trolls to Turks: Continuity and Change in Danish Legend Tradition".Scandinavian Studies.67 (1):32–62.JSTOR40919729.; cf.Ingwersen (1995), pp. 78–79, 81.
^"elf-lock",Oxford English Dictionary, OED Online (2 ed.), Oxford University Press, 1989; "Rom. & Jul. I, iv, 90 Elf-locks" is the oldest example of the use of the phrase given by the OED.
^Tolkien, J. R. R., (1969) [1947], "On Fairy-Stories", inTree and Leaf, Oxford, pp. 4–7 (3–83). (First publ. inEssays Presented to Charles Williams, Oxford, 1947.)
^Thun, Nils (1969). "The Malignant Elves: Notes on Anglo-Saxon Magic and Germanic Myth".Studia Neophilologica.41 (2):378–96.doi:10.1080/00393276908587447.
^"Die aufnahme des Wortes knüpft an Wielands Übersetzung von Shakespeares Sommernachtstraum 1764 und and Herders Voklslieder 1774 (Werke 25, 42) an";Kluge, Friedrich (1899).Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache (6th ed.). Strassbourg: K. J. Trübner. p. 93.
^Erixon, Sigurd (1961), Hultkrantz, Åke (ed.), "Some Examples of Popular Conceptions of Sprites and other Elementals in Sweden during the 19th Century",The Supernatural Owners of Nature: Nordic Symposion on the Religious Conceptions of Ruling Spirits (genii locii, genii speciei) and Allied Concepts, Stockholm Studies in Comparative Religion, 1, Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, p. 34 (34–37)
^abcPoor, Nathaniel (September 2012). "Digital Elves as a Racial Other in Video Games: Acknowledgment and Avoidance".Games and Culture.7 (5):375–396.doi:10.1177/1555412012454224.S2CID147432832.
^Campagna, Claudia (28 February 2020)."Mazapegul, il folletto romagnolo" [Mazapegul, the romagnol elf].Romagna a Tavola (in Italian). Retrieved1 March 2024.
^Cuda, Grazia (5 February 2021)."E' Mazapégul" [It's Mazapégul].Il Romagnolo (in Italian). Retrieved2 March 2024.
^E.g. Rossella Carnevali and Alice Masillo, 'A Brief History of Psychiatry in Islamic World',Journal of the International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine, 6–7 (2007–8) 97–101 (p. 97); David Frankfurter,Christianizing Egypt: Syncretism and Local Worlds in Late Antiquity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018), p. 50.
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Grimm, Jacob (1888)."Supplement".Teutonic mythology. Vol. 4. Translated by James Steven Stallybrass. pp. 1407–1435.
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