15 December 2021
The word elf traces back to Old English, but exactly what an elf is has changed over the centuries, so much so that our present-day conception of an elf bears little or no resemblance to that of a thousand years ago.
The Old English ælf is primarily found in medical texts, being the agency that causes particular illnesses or diseases. As such, an elf was a demonic spirit or being, perhaps akin to an incubus or succubus. There is this passage from Bald’s Leechbook, a ninth-century medical text:
Wyrc sealfe wið ælfcynne & nihtgengan & þam mannum þe deofol mid hæmð. Genim eowohumelan, wermod, bisceopwyrt, elehtre, æscþrote, beolone, hare wyrt, haran sprecel, hæþ bergean wisan, cropleac, garleac, hegerifan corn, gyþrife, finul. Do þas wyrta on an fæt, sete under weofod, sing ofer .VIIII. mæssan, awyl on buteran & on sceapes smerwe, do haliges sealtes fela on, aseoh þurh clað, weorp þa wyrta on yrnende wæter. Gif men hwilc yfel costung weorþe, oþþe ælf oþþe niht gengan, smire his [and]wlitan mid þisse sealfe, & on his eagan do & þær him se lichoma sar sie. & recelsa hine and sena gelome. His þing biþ sona selre.
(Work a salve against elf-kind & night-visitors & for people with whom the devil fornicates. Take the female hop plat, wormwood, bishopwort, lupin, ashthroat, benbane, harewort, viper’s bugloss, heath berry plants, cropleek, garlic, grains of hairif, cockle plant, fennel. Put these worts into a vat, set them under an alter, sing nine masses over them, boil them in butter and sheep’s fat, add in a lot of holy salt, strain through a cloth, toss the worts into running water. If any evil temptation, or an elf or night-visitors, happens to a person, smear their face with this salve, and put it on their eyes and where their body is sore, and cense him and frequently sign him with the sign of the cross. His condition will soon improve.)
The word also appears in the epic poem Beowulf, in a list of monsters and evil creatures:
Þanon untydras ealle onwocon,
eotenas ond ylfe ond orcneas,
swylce gigantas, þa wið Gode wunnon,
lange þrage; he him ðæs lean forgeald.
(Then the monsters all awoke, ogres and elves and orcs, also giants, who struggled against God for a long time; he gave them what they deserved.)
In addition, the adjective ælfig meant insane, babbling, presumably caused by the influence of an evil spirit. But that adjective could also mean divinely inspired, and elf could have a positive connotation, particularly when appearing as a component in a name. For instance, there is Ælfred / Alfred (literally elf-counsel) and Ælfgifu (elf-gift). Additionally, the adjective ælfscyne (elf-shining) meant beautiful, radiant, divinely inspired. That word was used in poetry to describe Hebrew matriarchs like Judith and Sarah. The elves of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings were likely inspired by this latter, positive connotation.
By the early Middle English period we have examples of elves as supernatural and dangerous, but not necessarily evil, creatures. It’s possible that such a conception existed earlier, but we don’t have textual examples. For instance, in the poem Laȝamon's Brut, written in the twelfth century and with a surviving manuscript from c.1275, we have this passage in which elves are credited with giving King Arthur his power and wisdom:
Ygærne wes mid childe; bi Vðer kinge
al þurh Merlines wiȝel; ær heo biwedded weore.
Þe time com þe wes icoren; þa wes Arður iboren.
Sone swa he com an eorðe; aluen hine iuengen.
heo bigolen þat child; mid galdere swiðe stronge,
heo ȝeuen him mihte; to beon bezst alre cnihten.
heo ȝeuen him an-oðer þing; þat he scolde beon riche king.
heo ȝiuen him þat þridde; þat he scolde longe libben.
heo ȝifen him þat kine-bern; custen swiðe gode.
þat he wes mete-custi; of alle quike monnen.
þis þe alue him ȝef; and al swa þat child iþæh.
(Igraine was with child, by Uther, king, all through Merlin’s sorcery; before she was married. The time came that was chosen; then Arthur was born. As soon as he came to earth, the elves took him. They enchanted that child with very strong magic. They gave him strength, to be the best of all knights. They gave him another thing, that he should be a rich king. They gave him a that third [gift], that he should live a long time. They gave him, that kingly child, very excellent character, so that he was the most generous of all living men. These [things] the elves gave him, and all so the child should prosper.)
By the sixteenth century, elves were being associated with diminutive figures. In his 1530 English–French dictionary, John Palsgrave defined an elf as a small person:
Elfe or dwarfe nain s ma.
(The s ma is an abbreviation for masculine substantive, i.e., a masculine noun.)
So, elf became somewhat synonymous with fairy.
And elves continued to have an impish nature, causing trouble when they could. Nicholas Udall’s 1566 play Ralph Roister Doister refers to troublesome women as elves:
Audiui vocem, All men take heede by this one gentleman,
Howe you sette your loue vpon an vnkinde woman.
For these women be all such madde pieuishe elues,
They will not be wonne except it please them selues.
(I heard the voice, all men take heed of this one gentleman,
About how you give your love to an unkind woman.
For such women are all mad, peevish elves.
They will not be won unless it pleases themselves.)
Today, of course, we often associate elves with Christmas, as Santa Claus’s assistants. While St. Nicholas or Santa has had assistants in many cultures, the association of these assistants with elves seems to have begun in the United States. The association begins with Clement C. Moore’s 1821 poem A Visit from St. Nicholas, in which St. Nicholas, in the poem depicted as a diminutive figure himself, is called an elf:
He had a broad face
and a round little belly
That shook when he laughed,
like a bowl full of jelly.
He was chubby and plump,
a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him
in spite of myself.
And elves as Santa’s assistants appear within a few decades. There is this advertisement for the 1858 Holiday Supplement to Harper’s Weekly that appears in the Bloomington, Illinois Weekly Pantagraph of 15 December 1858:
At the news depot of DALTON & DIBBLE, in the post office building, can be found, in addition to many other holiday pictorials, the “Holiday Supplement to Harper’s Weekly.” It is full of illustrations—among those is a correct likeness of our old friend Santa Claus, who, “in his house on the top of a hill, and almost out of sight, keeps hundreds of little elves in his pay, working with all their might, to make a million of pretty things, cakes, sugar plums, and toys, to fill the stockings, hung up, you know, by the little girls and boys.”
The quotation would appear to be from the Holiday Supplement, but I cannot locate a copy. This publication sets out the concept of elves toiling away in Santa’s workshop that is so familiar to us today.
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