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‘Meadow Elves’ (1850) by Nils Blommér.

The Diverse Nature of Elves in Norse Myth: Beings of Light or Darkness?

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Santa Claus, Keebler cookies, and overloaded shelves. When one speaks of elves, the mind most often goes to those who work for Santa or Keebler, or those which hide from little children in the middle of the night. These are their roles in popular culture today, but it is likely unsurprising to read that their origins stem from sources much less merry and jolly. Rather, among the earliest depictions of the elven race are the early medieval sagas and poems of gods, wars, and even death.

‘The Elf Ring’ (1905) attributed to Kate Greenaway.

‘The Elf Ring’ (1905) attributed to Kate Greenaway. (Public Domain)

Elves in Pagan and Christian Times

Germanic in nature, the mythology of the elven race comes from the pre-Christian Norse faith and language. In Old Norse, elves are called álfar, though this term can be divided into subcategories. It has long been believed that elves are creatures of goodness and light, however this is a misinterpretation of earlier texts. Elves in Norse literature are often described as beautiful, slim, tall creatures with pale skin and hair, and unknowable magical powers. The elves were very fluid creatures that did not adhere to normal gender or sexual roles. Further, sometimes these beings were considered gods or demi-gods, but they were also above the human race.

Haunting and beautiful Middle-Earth-like elves.

Haunting and beautiful Middle-Earth-like elves. (Araniart/CC BY 3.0)

The elves were broken down into groups of light and the dark elves, likely first by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century (though not definitively). It is most probable that this division of the elven race arose when Christianity became dominant. In the pagan faith, elves were capable of both good and bad moralities, just like the Faer folk of ancient Ireland, England, and Scotland. Yet beings with dual natures did not translate well into the early medieval Christian religion. The closest comparison these writers could make was one with angels and demons—i.e., the followers of a good God versus the followers of a dark devil. Thus, the álfar were similarly divided into good and evil, or the ljósálfar and dökkálfar, respectively.

Elves were separated into ‘light’ and ‘dark’ beings.

Elves were separated into ‘light’ and ‘dark’ beings. (Eddi van W./CC BY 2.0)

The Elves’ Homes

The good elves lived either above ground or in Álfheimr, one of the nine worlds of Norse mythology specifically for the elven race, while the dark elves lived like dwarves in the ground.  Snorri goes so far as to reference a separate realm for the dark elves called Svartálfaheimr, thus explaining the use of svartálfar to describe the "black-elves" in his Prose Edda.

However, the use of svartálfar has been speculated by linguistic researchers as either synonymous with the dökkálfar or the dwarves; in the Gylfaginning (dictated in Snorri's Edda), the dwarf Andvari (who later creates the ring which causes strife between Brunhild the Valkyrie and her lover's wife, Gudrun) is described as being from Svartálfar. Thus it is not without merit to postulate that the dark elves themselves are merely dwarves—longstanding enemies of the elves—improperly renamed due to Christian misunderstandings.

Literary Works Interpreting the Role of Elves in Norse Mythology

One should be wary of the most valued texts referencing the Old Norse religion and elves. The aforementioned Snorri Sturluson is most often mentioned, as he was among the first authors who took the oral histories (i.e. sagas) of the pre-Christian Scandinavians and wrote them into a coherent codex. However, because of the second, third, and fourth-hand nature of the retellings of legends discussing elves and other aspects of Norse beliefs, and the fact that Snorri was trying to understand a pagan world through Christian eyes, much of the accuracy of his work is debatable. Nonetheless, Snorri's work continues to be respected, because the Icelanders were converted to Christianity later than other cultures, and it is believed that the original pagan beliefs prevailed longer, allowing for a shorter time gap between the oral and written traditions.

Älvalek, "Elf Play" by August Malmström (1866).

Älvalek, "Elf Play" by August Malmström (1866). (Public Domain)

According to Ph.D. candidate Alaric Hall from the University of Glasgow (2004), the business of elves is one of the few instances in which Snorri's work is not as reliable as it is in other pre-Christian aspects. Instead, the poetry of the skalds (royal bards) is far more accurate regarding elves, as it is dated to the 9th century, just before the conversion of Iceland. In this poetry, the álfar(also sometimes written as álfr) are often mentioned in poems of mourning for fallen warriors. The earliest known skald, called Bragi inn gamli Boddason, provides álfr as an epithet for one of the strongest and bravest fallen warriors. (This is the equivalent of a warrior being called "god-like" or "shining" in Greek mythology.) It is therefore plausible that such an appellation indicates that elves were not merely an ethereal race wholly separate from humans, but valued as possessing skills and abilities humans could, and should, aspire to achieve.

A beautiful elf imagined by an artist.

A beautiful elf imagined by an artist. (Alystraea/CC BY-SA 4.0)

A third valued work discussing Old Norse faith and elves is the Poetic Edda, a collection of tales written by an unknown author, likely written before Snorri's text in the 13th century. The estimated dating of such an ambiguously authored poem is estimated due to subject matter, the names of poets and the style and meter of the poetry. As such, the Poetic Edda's estimated date could indicate that it was one of the many sources used by Snorri for his work—possibly in conjunction with the aforementioned poetry.

Despite the difficulty of recapturing the initial meaning of the álfar, whether light or dark, good or evil, or any combination of the two, the Nordic origins for elves has managed to survive in various forms because of the later efforts to preserve the Old North religion.

JRR Tolkien, renowned writer of The Lord of the Ringsand advanced Anglo-Saxon and Germanic scholar, brought much of the accuracy of the ancient traditions into popular culture, seemingly endeavoring to do so without the biased Christian eye of historians like Snorri. While Tolkien's work is obviously fictional, it is a valuable example of an attempt to bring the ancient into the present. Jacob Grimm, one of the two brothers who collected Germanic fairy tales, is another pertinent individual relating to the survival of elven traditions.

An artist’s depiction of Middle-Earth elves

An artist’s depiction of Middle-Earth elves. (the-ALEF)

Thanks in large part to the dedication of the skaldic poets and post-conversion writers, authors such as Tolkien are able to reconstruct facets of the Old Norse beliefs, combating the ever-persistent elven toy-makers, cookie bakers, and (somewhat creepily) grinning Christmas puppets.

Top Image: ‘Meadow Elves’ (1850) by Nils Blommér. Source:Public Domain

By Ryan Stone

Bibliography

Amos, Ashley Crandell. 1980. Linguistic Means of Determining the Dates of Old English Literary Texts.Cambridge, MA: Medieval Academy of America.

Faulkes, Anthony (ed.). 1982. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hall, Alaric Timothy Peter. 2004. "The Meanings of Elf and Elves in Medieval England." Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Glasgow.

Hollander, Lee M. 2010. The Poetic Edda: Volume 1. University of Texas Press.

Grimm, Jacob. 1882–88. (trans. James Steven Stallybrass) Teutonic Mythology, 4 vols. London: Bell.

Kirk, Robert. 2006. (ed. John Matthews) The Secret Lives of Elves and Faeries: from the Private Journal of the Rev. Robert Kirk.Metro Books: New York.

Lindow, John. 2001. Handbook of Norse mythology. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio.

Lindow, John. 2001. Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs.Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Poole, Russell Gilbert. 1991. Viking Poems on War and Peace: A Study in Skaldic Narrative.Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Price, Neil. 2008. The Viking World. Routledge: London.

Sanmark, Alexandra. 2002. Power and conversion: a comparative study of Christianization in Scandinavia; Uppsala. Department of Archaeology and Ancient History: Uppsala University.

Thun, Nils. 1969. "The Malignant Elves: Notes on Anglo-Saxon Magic and Germanic Myth", Studia Neophilologica, 41: 378–396.

Tolkien, J. R. R. 1983. (ed. Christopher Tolkien) "On Fairy-Stories", in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays. London: Allen & Unwin.  pp. 3-83.

Turville-Petre, E.O.G. 1976. Scaldic Poetry. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

 

Comments

Any chance that the elves could have been Grey aliens? Just a thought.

Riley Winters's picture

Riley

Riley Winters is a Pre-PhD art historical, archaeological, and philological researcher who holds a degree in Classical Studies and Art History, and a Medieval and Renaissance Studies minor from Christopher Newport University. She is also a graduate of Celtic and Viking... Read More

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