Today, if one were to ask to ask about an “elf” or “elves” there are probably two answers that would come back. One would certainly be the cheerful and hardworking crew of Santa Claus at his toy compound at the North Pole. The other would be something along the lines of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fo rest dwelling bowmen with pointed ears, who are wise and brave. Yet these two images are both drawn a very long way from their roots in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear across Germanic and Scandinavian literature. The name seems to derive from the old Norse word “alfr” and the old Germanic word “albi.” Both seem to carry the meaning “white.” In the early surviving literature, such as the Icelandic Eddas they are envisioned as pale white, immortal creatures, in similar form to humans. They often appear in stories about pagan gods. They are morally ambiguous, meaning that they can do good or evil depending on their mood. In some texts they can be sexual aggressors or violent, yet other times they are pranksters. They are described as being either forest dwellers or living in broad open fields, suggesting they are a personification of the powers of nature. Significantly, even in Christian times, the term elf was often used in people’s names. A common name in Anglo-Saxon English was Alfric, meaning “elf-strong”  and another was Aelfweard meaning “elf guardian.” The famous Anglo-Saxon warrior King Alfred the Great’s name meant “elf-advice.” The saintly Christian martyr and Archbishop of Canterbury St Alphege, was literally named “elf powerful ruler.” The early people of Germany, England and the Norse regions believed in the existence of elves, right until early modern times. In Anglo-Saxon England they were considered bringers of disease and ill health. According to one source, if they chose to sit on a sleeping person, bad dreams would result. Another source tells us that elves were prone to taking farm instruments to harm or injure livestock. One of the earliest medical texts in English is Bald’s Leechbook, which describes various mental illnesses and sharp stabbing pains caused by elves and how one could treat them. The pains might be caused by elf arrows. A mid 18th century poet, William Collins wrote of the danger of elf arrows on herds of cattle, saying: “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.” / King James VI of Scotland, for whom the King James Bible was named, believed in the existence of elves. In his book on demonology, the king wrote, “‘Pharies’ would carry people away and that they lived under hills. They had a king and a queen, with a “jolly court and train” and “were thought to be [healthiest] and of best life.” The king explained the fairies got bold by eating and drinking human food. Part of the reason they lived so well, the king wrote, was because they lived on food that regular people ate. In 1651, Thomas Hobbe’s political volume “Leviathian” declared elves were born from the evil “superstitions” of Roman Catholicism and even suggested elves speak Latin. The Second Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, which was completed  in 1784, says that belief in elves, “still subsists in many parts of our own country … In the Highlands of Scotland, new-born children are watched till the christening is over, lest they should be stolen or changed by some of these phantastical existences.”  So at least the belief in elves went on quite some time. Related Articles Colombia expels members of ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect Lev Tahor Pope Leo XIV sends message of support to southern Lebanon as he ends 1st foreign trip Pope joins patriarchs from East and West at historic Christian site in Turkey to pray for unity Airport chapels stay on the radar of workers and travelers even as role of faith in public shifts Pope tweaks a law allowing a woman to head the Vatican City State, months after a nun was appointed The association of elves with Santa Claus seems to have come from the 1823 American poem, “A visit from St Nicholas” commonly known as “The Night Before Christmas,” which calls St. Nicholas “a right jolly old elf.” In other literature after that was published, elves became his helpers, but here we see a shift from the belief in actual elves to seeing them as a popular fiction. Nonetheless, today, it has been estimated that up to one half of the population of Iceland still believe in the existence of elves, whom they call the “hulden” or the hidden ones.” But would it not be a boring old world without elves to keep us all on our toes at Christmas? Gregory Elder, a Redlands resident, is a professor emeritus of history and humanities at Moreno Valley College and a Roman Catholic priest. Write to him at Professing Faith, P.O. Box 8102, Redlands, CA 92375-1302, email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @Fatherelder. ...read more read less