So What Exactly ARE Elves?
The origin of the word, Elf, in Norse, is Fair (or pale) Folk. Both the Norse and the Celts of Briton believed them human-shaped. Although the Celts originally thought them small, later ages re-envisaged them as normal, human sized. All of Middle Earth agreed that elves were beautiful. This beauty enabled the elves to seduce whom they would. They were often blamed for the unexplained disappearance of people. Elves, called Tylwyth Teg, by the Welsh Celts, were considered to be aristocratic with an appropriate mein of honour, hauteur, warrior skills, and magical abilities, etc.
The Norse had three sorts of elves. The light elves lived in the world of Alfheim, ruled by the Vanir god, Freyr. The ‘Dark Elves”, or dokkalfar, lived in Nidavellir. The ‘Black Elves’, Swartalfar, lived in Swartalfheim. All of Middle Earth considered elves, spirits, or minor deities of woodland, or the household.
Behaviour
Elves were universally acknowledged as having great powers, both physically, mentally and magically. Elves were known to be fierce guardians of their own abodes, e.g. a lake, a wood, a tree (usually hawthorn) or a stone circle. Punishment for a human’s purposeful, or even inadvertent incursion, was often the kidnapping of the human’s children, or their replacement with “changelings”. A changeling was similar to the human child, but the this changeling child’s behaviour was considered somewhat “fey”, strange, or otherworldly.
Elves often caused human illnesses. They did, however, have the power to heal, as well. Elves could interbreed with humans and the resultant progeny would have great intuition and magical powers. Humans could become elves after death.
Point Of Interest
The fair folk were supposed to be repelled by iron and would avoid a human wearing a steel knife, or sword. Whenever you entered an eleven dwelling, you had to stick a knife, needle, or fish hook in the door, so that the elves would not be able to shut the door until you, the human, came out again. This was a safety ploy against kidnapping by the fair folk.
A Witness Account
Elves are known to move house at the end of the year, at the winter solstice. If a human sits at the crossroads at that time, the elves cannot get past. They will then try to trick the human appearing in the guise of the human’s relatives and asking him to go somewhere with them. If they fail in this seduction, they will be forced to offer gold, silver, and costly clothes.
It has been heard that a man called Dergen went and sat at the crossroads in a place called Neimi, one winter solstice. He saw the fair folk come up to the crossroads and he would not move. As they failed in their attempts at seduction, they started to pile up costly ornaments, jewels and delicate foods, but Fusi knew that he hadn’t to take these things until daylight, or they would all just disappear.
Just before their sun rose above the horizon, but when there was already a slight blush there, an elf maid came to Dergen with a ladle of meat and hot dripping. Dergen was very hungry with sitting there all night and he ate the meat and dripping. Suddenly all the pile of wealth disappeared and the sun rose.
Thereafter, Dergen was a little disarrayed in his mind, but he could, however, see people’s futures for them.