Back-formation fromdark elves, acalque ofOld Norsedǫkkalfar.
darkelf (pluraldark elves)
- (Norsemythology) A member of the race ofDǫkkálfar orDark Alfs, creatures who live underground.
2017,Neil Gaiman,Norse Mythology, Bloomsbury Publishing, page20:Nidavellir, which is sometimes called Svartalfheim, where the dwarfs (who are also known asdark elves) live beneath the mountains and build their remarkable creations.
- (fantasy) A member of a race of elves that isevil, has a dark (often greyish or bluish) skin and/or lives in dark places.
Some scholars think that in Old Norse the term for dark elves was akenning for "dwarves".
a member of a race of elves that is evil
- Bulfinch, Thomas (1834; republished in 1970 by Harper & Row),Bulfinch's Mythology,→ISBN, page348
- Mythology of All Races, volume 2:Eddic, Marshall Jones Company,1930, pages220–221
