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EomundDaughter
Lorien
Feb 21 2015, 9:05pm
Post #1 of 3
(526 views)
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About my favorite elves.....great article
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An elf (Old Norse álfr, Old English ćlf, Old High German alb, Proto-Germanic *albaz) is a certain kind of demigod-like being in the pre-Christian mythology and religion of the Norse and other Germanic peoples.
The elves are luminous beings, “more beautiful than the sun,”[2] whose exalted status is demonstrated by their constantly being linked with the Aesir and Vanir gods in Old Norse and Old English poetry.[3] The lines between elves and other spiritual beings such as the gods, giants, dwarves, and land spirits are blurry, and it seems unlikely that the heathen Germanic peoples themselves made any cold, systematic distinctions between these various groupings. It’s especially hard to discern the boundary that distinguishes the elves from the Vanir gods and goddesses. The Vanir god Freyr is the lord of the elves’ homeland, Alfheim,[4] and at least one Old Norse poem repeatedly uses the word “elves” to designate the Vanir.[5] Still, other sources do speak of the elves and the Vanir as being distinct categories of beings, such that a simple identification of the two would be misguided.
The elves also have ambivalent relations with humans. Elves commonly cause human illnesses,[6] but they also have the power to heal them, and seem especially willing to do so if sacrifices are offered to them.[7] Humans and elves can interbreed and produce half-human, half-elfin children, who often have the appearance of humans but possess extraordinary intuitive and magical powers.[8][9] Humans can apparently become elves after death, and there was considerable overlap between the worship of human ancestors and the worship of the elves.[10][11]
The worship of the elves persisted centuries after the Germanic people’s formal conversion to Christianity, as medieval law codes prohibiting such practices demonstrate. Ultimately, then, their veneration lasted longer than even that of the gods.
,from The Love of Destiny: The Sacred and the Profane in Germanic Polytheism.
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Voronwë_the_Faithful
Valinor
Feb 22 2015, 3:06pm
Post #2 of 3
(444 views)
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You can see why Tolkien was so mad at Shakespeare and others
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Reducing these powerful, luminous beings to little insignificant sprites.
'But very bright were the stars upon the margin of the world, when at times the clouds about the West were drawn aside.'
The Hall of Fire
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Adrianna
Lorien
Feb 26 2015, 12:03pm
Post #3 of 3
(349 views)
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Article, thanks for sharing that.
Interesting note on #9, stated that after death the the half human-elf could chose to be elves. That wasn't the case for Elrond and his daughter. They got to chose before hand. That's interesting.
"I did free him. I freed his wretched head from his miserable shoulders."
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