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Elves
An elf is a mythical creature of Germanic mythology/paganism which still survives in northern European folklore. In Norse mythology they were originally a race of minor gods of nature and fertility. more...
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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 pluralized 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 and English albino.
Characteristics of Traditional Elves
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.
Read more at Wikipedia.org
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