Elf, Elf

The myths about elves have never been recorded. Full-sized famous men could be elevated to the rank of elves after death, such as the petty king Olaf Geirstad-Elf. The smith hero Vlundr is identified as 'Ruler of Elves' ( vsi lfa ) and 'One among the Elven Folk' ( lfa lji ), in the poem Vlundarkvia , whose later prose introduction also identifies him as the son of a king of 'Finnar', an Arctic people respected for their shamanic magic (most likely, the sami). In the Thidrek's Saga a human queen is surprised to learn that the lover who has made her pregnant is an elf and not a man. In the saga of Hrolf Kraki a king named Helgi rapes and impregnates an elf-woman clad in silk who is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen.

The human queen who had an elvish lover bore the hero Hgni, and the elf-woman who was raped by Helgi bore Skuld, who married Hjrvard, Hrlfr Kraki's killer.

The insect-winged fairies in British folklore are often called "lvor" 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. An account given in 1926, The Swedish lvor . For the Swedish belief in lvor see mainly A more summary description in English is provided by , esp. chapter Scandinavia: Elves.

In post-Christian folklore they began to be described as 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 chest. 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. Hall 2004, pp 125-26 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.

When he rewards their work with little clothes, they are so delighted, that they run away and are never seen again. Even though Wichtelmnner are akin to beings such as kobolds, dwarves and brownies, the tale has been translated into English as The Elves and the Shoemaker , and is echoed in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter stories (see House-elf).

Hall 2004, pp. 71-76, et passim 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.

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.

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.

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 as well as Northern English and Scottish Lowlands folklore (as seen in such tales as The Queen of Elfan's Nourice and other local variants).

The dancer must notice the elf and say, 'Halt and grant my boon!' before the creature flees. The elf will then grant one wish.

It used to be that elves didn't have facial hair, and were considered androgynous. However, lately in most media, elves have light facial hair, and larger lips. 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"). Elves of the Tolkien mold have become standardized staple characters of modern fantasy. It is worth noting that those things described as being of or related to these fair elves are referred to as "elven" or "elfin", as opposed to "elfish" (a term more closely associated with the sprite-like elves of medieval conception).

Source: Wikipedia > Elf