Please don't let lighting or sound issues deter you from more outdoor filming. Most viewers, myself included, really don't care about pro-level lighting on youtube. You're smart and entertaining so just you keep doing you.
@@Jess_of_the_Shire *DO* let sound issues concern you. Audiences will tolerate bad or distorted visuals. But the second time they say "What did she say?", you've lost them.
Hey, folklorist here. Just wanted to say this is way better done and researched than 90% of work I see done on these topics. Thank you for not being one of the people that makes my job more difficult.
My introduction to Tolkien was reading The Hobbit, then the Lord of the Rings, in 6th grade. That would have been in 1976 -1977. One things that is immediately noticeable about the Elves (And Goblins, as well) is how different they are between the two tales. Elves in The Hobbit still have a bit of the singing, dancing, and silly behavior, where in the later books they are the tall, ethereal, and otherworldly Elves we think of as Tolkien-style Elves. Another interesting thing (to me, at least) is the plural. I have read that the so-called "proper" plural of elf should be "elfs", but Tolkien chose to use "Elves". This has a parallel in the English language where other words change an F to a V - leaf and leaves, shelf and shelves, wharf and wharves. (I think this is also true of Dwarf, and the choice of Dwarves as the plural.) If I'm not mistaken that's often an indication of Scandinavian or Old Norse words that have migrated into English. As a philologist, I'm certain that Tolkien was aware of this and chose "Elves" deliberately, to give his Elves a context that would seem more Nordic, since much of his inspiration was Nordic and Finnish.
We do still learn about myths like the Tuatha de Daanan in elementary school in Ireland, especially their intersection with mortals and meddling in affairs of the living and demi gods like Cúchuaillan. My own teacher in the 90's didn't bother to tell us they were myths, leaving a class of especially superstitious children, (even by Irish standards)
Same. I credit some of my atheism to being taught Irish myths in such a factual manner when I was a wain. Everything was wrapped up in the same voice, so when the belief in fairies went, so did everything else, mostly. I actually had a friend from England over visiting recently and fairy forts came up, and I found myself using that exact same matter-of-fact voice to explain it, to the point she had to ask me if I really believed what I was saying.
I remember when I was in second grade, the teacher told us the legend of the children of Lir. When someone questioned how Lir's wife changed the children into swans, he explained that everybody in those days had a bit of magic,
@@roberthenahan7885 that's honestly what I would have done! Imagine being put in a position of trying to explain the difference to kids. I don't envy the teachers 😂... I'm glad we got that dose of it though. I also carry a lifelong fear of the Banshee because of my grandmother's stories. And I wouldn't change it for the world.
Yes, the elf on the shelf thing is an abomination and a crime against humanity. (I have hopes that the inventors and manufacturers will be dragged to The Hague and put on trial) But I also must point out that Santa‘s elves are clearly the dwarves of Tolkien’s world Indeed, in the fellowship of the ring, the chapter “a Long expected party. “ There is a reference to toys that are clearly magical and of dwarf make. It says that they were imported from the lonely mountain and Dale. Also remember Tolkien wrote “letters from Father Christmas” There are plenty of ways to add a little of Tolkien magic to Christmas. Stir in a little of king moonracer, and you have something truly magical.
“Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder. Elves are marvelous. They cause marvels. Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies. Elves are glamorous. They project glamour. Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment. Elves are terrific. They beget terror. The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning. No one ever said elves are nice. Elves are bad.” ― Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies
I think Pratchett's view of elves is more reasonable than Tolkien's. Creatures that powerful are bound to use that power to oppress others. Humans certainly act that way.
@@michaelsommers2356 Not all humans who have power use it to oppress, and not all of Tolkien's elves are noble or altruistic. In The Lord of the Rings they kind of come across that way, but they are somewhat peripheral to the story and starting to disassociate themselves from Middle Earth. You don't need to look any farther than The Hobbit to see elves behaving badly, and the elves of The Silmarillion are quite human in their failings.
I think Pratchett was riffing on the Victorian fairy stories more than he was on Tolkien's elves, but he was looking back to what they were before the fae were diminished. These elves harken back to nature spirits that inhabited the land. Every rock, pool, and tree had a guardian spirit; you crossed them at your peril. They were why bad things happen. They are older than the Iron Age, which is why elf-shot is flint-tipped, snd they cannot tolerate iron. Elf-shot is how the medieval mind explained ancient flint tools. My person opinion is that nature gods, shamanism, came about in the stone age, pantheism was a produce of the neolithic/bronze age, and monotheism was a late development. But the older beliefs never went completely away. The high gods were powerful but far away, and mostly the concern of the nobility. The common folk, the peasants, feared the local fae. They were close to you, and powerful. If you kept them happy, they might help you, like the brownies, the hobgoblins and other house elves. But they were easily offended. If you were lucky, they just abandoned you. If you were unlucky, they punished you. Worst case, you didn't survive. Some were outright hostile. They were why you went into the forest or to sea and never came back. The high gods were the concern of the nobility, and they changed as dictated by the nobility. The small gods, the local nature spirits, never went way. That why whether the high god was Laugh or Odin or Yahweh changed with whoever ruled the land. The local goblin remained, and was personal. Tolkien's elves are much closer to the tuatha de daanan, the gods of the nobility. Pratchett's elves are ancient nature spirits, the gods of the peasantry. Tolkien's elves pass when the world changes, while Pratchett's remain, as they have done in THIS world.
@@MickAlderson I disagree, but only on a few key points. Pratchett's elves are very specifically based on the fairies in Shakespeare's _A Midsummer Night's Dream,_ of which his novel _Lords and Ladies_ is a parody. These fairy characters he liberally augmented with country stories of mischievous spirits from all over Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Hence they are very much the myths of the common people rather than the nobility, as you have described the difference.
There are many kinds of elves in Finnish culture, many of which inspired Tolkien, especially in naming some of his elves and higher beings (Ilúvatar-Ilmatar, Ulmo-Vellamo, Undomiel-Untomieli etc.) Anyway, one random elven-story I like is that of the "Haltiatar" forest-maiden. Sometimes, when a man spends the night in the forest, the Haltiatar might come dancing around his bonfire, or if a man was walking in the forest, she might walk towards you. She would be delightfully beautiful from the front, with her long, radiant golden hair and fine laced dress... but her backside would be hollow, and the insides would be of tree-bark. When the man to his horror sees this he would be startled, which in turn would frighten the Haltiatar, and she would run away.
I have even heard a hypothesis that the Finns themselves inspired the notion of Elves in Norse Mythology. Now, I doubt that is the case. But I thought I mention it as an interesting sidenote considering the topic. But there may very well have been ideas that did come from the Finns. Of course, the very nature that Elves are so vague in our sources make it hard to know. And of course, Norse mythology itself it not uniform. What little we have preserved differs quite a bit depending on where and when it was record.
You didn't mention a very important book that Tolkien read in the development of his Elves, it's been mentioned a couple of times here in the comments, and that is the 1924 novel "The King of Elfland's Daughter" by Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany (under the name "Lord Dunsany"). In this book the Lord of Erl has his son woo and marry the title character, Lirazel, in order for Erl to become more popular. But the son neglects his wife and she feels she doesn't fit in with the humans so she lets her father bring her back to Elfland. The son spends years on a hopeless quest to find Elfland, neglecting his land and son whom Lirazel left behind. However Lirazel also misses her family so the Elf King uses his last magic spell to reunite them by absorbing the land of Erl into Elfland. The son and Lirazel are the literary ancestors of Aragorn and Arwen Evenstar while the great magic the King of Elfland wields prefigures both Elrond and Galadriel. Dunsany's book fell out of the spotlight for decades until it was republished in 1969 to a new generation of fans. One of those fans is Neil Gaiman who paid homage to it, and other fantasy works, in his novel "Stardust".
I love the portrayal of elf land being timeless, as in actually frozen in time until the humans disturb it and send ripples through out. When I was reading it, the description of Lothlorien came to mind.
@@MartinHobbsActor Yes, I loved that! It felt very inhuman, like elves didn't need anything to be happy because nothing changes for them. Then humans come in, tracking mud around with our dirty shoes and making demands, and time starts moving forward. We literally can't coexist with elves without them losing something and becoming more like us.
As Galadriel said, after the destruction of the ring they could either sail to Valinor or become a rustic folk of dell and cave. The elves diminished with the onset of the age of men. Pretty Tuatha de Danaan if you ask me.
idk why i got this recommended, but it was really interesting to learn about this :) also a treat to the eye... here (in costa rica), the stories of "elves" talk about small man-like creatures who abduct kids and steal things from houses. In my family there's the story of an aunt who disappeared for over a week when she was a kid (like maybe 60-70 years ago). She then just reappeared in her house and was saying that some elves wanted to play with her, so she went with them. That's all I know about it, but it's curious nonetheless.
As an elf, I can say, you did an admirable job. The truth about Santa's elves, and those that help the Shoemaker is that they are brownies and gnomes. Similar to how people limp them all together as Fey, or Seelie/unseelie. Santa also does employ elves, as information gatherers. "He sees you when your sleeping, he knows when your awake, he knows if you've been bad or good".. because he has spies everywhere. We are very good at appearing "human"
It’s so refreshing seeing someone presenting in lovely natural locations like this. What might be of interest to you is that even to this day in very rural Ireland, farmers often don’t disturb the remains of old ‘raths’ (a type of hill fort) on their land out of superstition that the fairies live there and would curse them if they do. They’d be seen more like Mister Mxyzptlk from superman in such circles though, rather than like elves or tinkerbell.
I love Tolkien's take on Elves, and it's my favorite. My favorite non-Tolkien elf quote is "I just want to be a dentist!" from Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer.
I learnt about the Tuatha Dé Danaan my entire childhood and came across LotR's much later in life but it's never ever been a question in my mind- everything the Tuatha Dé Danaan are is translated almost directly to Tolkien's Elves in description and existence.
I always found it interesting how it turns up in the name Alfred, literally "elf counsel," presumably meaning something like "wise like an elf," as well as now-obsolete Anglo-Saxon names like Aelfhelm ("elf helmet") and Aelfgifu ("gift of the elves").
My favorite Elves are the ElfQuest elves by Wendy and Richard Pini. It’s a graphic novel series that been in publication since 1977. Tolkien elves are the template that they use, and then throw it out! The main characters are known as the Wolf Riders. Basically, wood elves that ride on wolves because they’re bad ass! And they’re only about 4-5 feet tall. Then, there’s the High Ones (high elves ala Tolkien types), but many but not all elves in the World Of Two Moons are magical shape shifters, and some have changed to live under water, one Tydalk, was shaped into a flying bat-elf hybrid with wings instead of hands. Also, humans and elves are mortal enemies. Trolls and pixies are former slaves to the High Ones, and have a complicated relationship with elves. This is a *very* truncated synopsis. If you don’t already know of EQ, you should definitely check it out!
and so underrated, i lost count of how many i've asked to no avail if someone's heard of ElfQuest. i started on ElfQuest so they are the elves i measure all others against, truly epic and gritty and with the greatest origin story of all for me ❤️
@@gozer87 ooh thats so cool, i have failed to get my son(15) into it so far, however we are going for a holiday to the mountains today and he has promised to read book 1 (helps that there is no wifi where we're going 😂
@@TahoeNevada full on 😮, as a lot of us fans remember Wendi and Richard had talks about making EQ into a movie at times which unfortunately never came about, so i keep praying that hollywood will tire of superheroes and... well ElfQuest always made me a bit of a dreamer, any day now ❤️
At around 17:20, you discuss the idea of the Elves gradually fading away. I'm reminded of Galadriel's words to Frodo in Lothlorien: "Do you not see now wherefore your coming is to us is as the footstep of Doom? For if you fail, then we are laid bare to the Enemy. Yet if you succeed, then our power is diminished, and Lothlorien will fade, and the tides of Time will sweep it away. We must depart into the West, or dwindle to a rustic folk of dell and cave, slowly to forget and to be forgotten."
Another one of Tolkien's influences was the Irish writer Lord Dunsany. The elves in Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter pretty clearly contributed to Tolkien's version of the elves.
My favourite Elves are the Dunmer from the Elder Scrolls. They have a culture that feels real, their religion, their ambiguous relationship with their past and all the good and bad. It feels like an actual living culture.
I love the 2 only options with the deer. You made me laugh, little girl. Good video. Historically, every "magical" creature starts as a very vague and broad concept. For example, Ardat Lilith starts as Lili : a term that could be translated as "from the night", meaning that it (whatever is was) is related to natural night. There is a video from Religion For Breakfast that explains a lot better that what I could do, much recommended. Trolls, giants, demons, dwarves, gods... all of them are very vague in their early concepts and they evolve very slowly into something more specific up to a point where they are so detailed that they are obviously not real so storytellers maintain them as characters and they loose all "power".
This was a wonderful presentation, so thank you! If I could offer yet another version of the elves, Nancy Marie Brown's, "Looking for the Hidden Folk: How Iceland's Elves Can Save the Earth," is a really fun read. The Huldufolk of Iceland are very closely tied to the land of Iceland itself, and Brown does a wonderful job of explaining the Icelandic affection for Elf stories. Her assertion is that respect for creatures so closely connected with preserving nature can teach us quite a lot about how to do the same for the land on which each of us live. For Icelander's it's not about believing in the mythical version of their elves, but in the values they represent.
Thank you for all the work that you had to have put into preparing this video. It shows in the caliber of the content that you consistently put out. Two gold stars!
In my novel, Dragon Fire, I use elves as the architypes, the armorers and wise helpers. They exit in a world where their, magic is fading fast. To preserve themselves they shrink in size and then expand to human size when they need to interact with my hero, the dragon, Mars. Elves play a brief but important part in Mars' journey
What a fabulous detailing of Elven history! In Danish folklore we have a number of creatures relating to the English elves. As you mentioned we have "nisser" typically associated with Christmas, but existing all year round, mischeivous creatures, often represented as little bearded men, but frequently they will have a nisse wife and nisse children. Then we have have-nisser, you'll know these as garden gnomes, and we have "alfer" (alf in singular), a good-natured, slender and smaller-than-humans folk that live in and care for nature. We have "feer" (fe in singular) or fairies, similar to alfer, although fairies have wings. Alfer may be the same size as faires or considerably larger. Finally, have the "elvere" (elver in singular), human sized, nearly white skinned, and known to dance during misty weather leading young men and women astray with their grace and beauty. "Astray" to be taken literally, ie. into bogs and other dangerous territory. They would lead them to their home under ground and keep them forever. Elver are generally evil, but somewhat more regal the other creatures. To a Dane Tolkien's Elves seem part Alf (in their good natured and innocent sense), part Elver (in their beauty and grace, and their hierarchical way of life), part his own Creation. In our folklore we do have one last creature, the "trold", large and ugly though not as large as trolls typically are portrayed in movies. Trolde may inhabit every emotion, some are kind, some angry, some evil, etc. They live alone or in families.
Speaking from a Swedish perspective, those are all familiar to me with only slightly different spellings. A word that might be related is the word for river, "älv", or "elf" in older spelling (but same pronunciation, probably best transcribed as "elv" in English). It's likely it's related to "älvor", the creatures dancing on rivers and meadows (which is where mist often forms). It's less certain that it's connected to "alver" (elves; "alv" or "alf" in singular), as it could just be a coincidence that the words are as similar as they creatures sometimes are, but as far as I know that's unknown.
A Tomte in Scandinavian folklore is a spirit that dwells in farm houses. It's like an extra little farmhand that makes sure the animals and people on the farm are doing well, preforming extra chores and so on... if you treat it well. As with most Scandinavian folklore creatures, there's a specific way to treat them, often nicely and courteously, and a way to offend them, often rude and/or abusive. If you offended a Tomte, it could wreak havoc on your farmstead, including, but not limited to outright killing your farm animals. They are incredibly strong, fast and can turn invisible. If I recall correctly, in one story where a farm hand had put feces in the Tomtes porrige, a traditional offering at Christmas, (the porrige, not the shit), the Tomte head butted the farms prized bull to death with one blow as revenge.
The Tylwyth Teg always fascinated me, especially as I grew older and became attracted to Welsh myths and legends. I read a fascinating dissertation that was written in the 1830s by a priest who spent years collecting fairie stories and first hand accounts from locals (I cant remember the region from which he collected the first hand accounts, please forgive me... I read this a long time ago!). It was so interesting to me to read how many people spoke of their Fairie ancestors. They truly believed they were related to fairies and were proud of their fairie blood! (Or so they attested). From what I've read, there's still a strong belief in these beings within Wales today, so cool! One older priest (from the above mentioned dissertation) gave a chilling account of being abducted by fairies as a child...spooky.
Do you know any online resources where i can read about Welsh folklore? I know the Mabinogi is translated online but I need like just the folklore and fairy tales
I would say Tolkien invented the modern version, same with dwarves, so that it is hard work for a fantasy writer to avoid them. Most tabletop RPGs of the seventies just copied and pasted that archetype. DND had moved away but seems to be drifting back.
The fantasy author Tad Williams, wrote a superlative series called " Sorrow, Thorn, and Memory." He introduces the Sithi, which is another version of elves. Some are good. Others are evil. The books are well written, detailed, and fascinating. As a lover of well written fantasy, Tad Williams is a favorite. Another great fantasy writer is Patrick Rothfuss, except he has taken his own sweet time to bring his fans the last book of his King Killer trilogy. This is a fascinating program. Thank you.
@@joelpartee594 Basically. Sithi are the good elves plural, Sitha is singular. Norns are the bad elves (and there are other types). He lifts a lot of tolkein (in all the best ways) and puts into a more traditional medieval setting. Tad Williams that is.
I think there’s a story to be told about how Tolkien’s elves left Tolkien’s writing and entered the wider culture. To my estimation this happened through video games and Dungeons and Dragons, and didn’t really occur until Tolkien’s works were rediscovered by young people in the 60s.
My favorite elf stories as a kid was Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling. Loved Kipling as a child. Really surprised that you did not note Tolkien wrote about Christmas Elves before he wrote LOTR. Every year Father Christmas wrote a letter to Tolkien's kids telling tales of the events of the North Pole, with elves and goblins, and a clumsy Great North Polar Bear. Which is where the Elvish language came from. I had a book, Letters from Father Christmas, many years ago.
I love Letters from Father Christmas, not least for Tolkien's charming illustrations. I'm pretty sure, though, that he had already been writing about Elves like Luthien Tinuviel and Beleg Strongbow (and their languages) for years before his kids were born.
I came here to mention this. I still have the book on my shelves. I’ve ‘helped’ Santa for many years and I draw on Tolkien’s letters to furnish his backstory. Sometimes I get a child that wants shoes for Christmas, and I like to remind them that Santa’s elves used to make shoes before they came to work for him and so they will be the very best.
In the German translation, the word Elb is used instead of Elf. Elb is basically a merger of Alb and Elf, which both are words used for the other kind of elves. Apparently this was suggested by Tolkien himself, because he also didn't like this ambiguity in English.
Nicely done! Your hard work is always appreciated. You did a good job laying out a clear and easy to understand outline of the history of Elves throughout Western history and literature. I always like to include Lord Dunsany as well, especially his book "The King of Elfland's Daughter," which is an early example of the inherent tragedy of romance between mortals and Elves, a favored subject of Tolkien's as well.
I always enjoy the design and lore of the elves in the Elder Scrolls, especially in Skyrim. They seem more unique then the average elf depiction in fantasy.
fun fact: in the German translation the Tolkien Elves are called Elb. Wich is a word that does not exist in the German language previous to Tolkien. It is kind of amalgamation of the words Alb and the word Elf.
Not quite right. While "Elb" is used exclusively when referring to Tolkien's elves today, it was in normal use up to the 18th century in Altdeutsch. (Alb and Elb were used interchangeably) The new form "Elf" came to Germany through the English language. I've found conflicting reports on whether it was the translator suggesting the use of the old form, or Tolkien. Either way, I'm not surprised Tolkien favoured "Elb", considering his love for old languages.
@@MusikCassetteI'm not nearly knowledgeable enough to dive any deeper but according to Wikipedia: "[...]dass Herder die Doppeldeutigkeit des dänischen Homonyms elle - das sowohl „Erle“ als auch „Elfe“ bedeuten kann - bekannt war und er also bewusst den Begriff „Erlkönig“ wählte, „um auf die Verbindung der mythologischen Vorstellung von Elfen mit den feuchten Orten anzuspielen, an denen Erlen wachsen und wo Nebel entsteht, der an tanzende Schleier erinnert.“"
I'm Scandinavian so I wanna add some clarity around the words we use for elves in Denmark for anyone who's curious. There's "nisse" which you mentioned. House spirits that look like tiny men, who treat you well if you treat them well. During December it's normal here to leave a bowl of the winter dish "risengrød" by the fireplace or the attic for the nisse to eat, and in return he will bring you gifts. If you forget, he will bring mischief (older tales is like... he'll burn down your farm or kill your animals). So very similar to Christmas elves, except with more violence lol. Then we have the word "elver" which describes something more akin to the Tolkien kind of elf. Add more violence, though. Their thing is to trick you into dancing with them until you die from exhaustion. It's also said they have "hollow backs", which could either be interpreted as their backs arching a lot, or that their spine sorta leaves a hollow between the back muscles. Most old art I've seen of them here depicts them dancing in the nude. Honestly they were probably a cautionary tale about temptation. Lastly we've got the "alf", which is more the classic Tinkerbell fairy. I don't really know lots about these guys. I think they're flightless in some tales, while having wings in others, and they're super tiny. Some stories convey them as being elemental spirits too.
This is more into the proto-Romantic, Sturm und Drang version of elves, but one portrayal that is memorable to me (though not my favourite of course) is Goethe's "Erlkönig" (Erlking), which is in turn based on a poem of the Elf-king of Danish legend. Here the Erlking is a malevolent creature of the woods who unalives children with a deadly touch, and the German poem involves a father racing home on horseback with his son, who is being called and chased by the Erlking. Why memorable to me? Because I was a music student at one time, and Schubert's song setting of "Erlkönig" is famous for its galloping rhythm and dramatic tension, and especially infamous among pianists for its physically demanding octaves. 😝
When I read the Hobbit in 12th grade English, the description of Thranduil and the Mirkwood elves reminded me exactly of Erlking riding in the haunted woods (even his title, the Elvenking, sounds similar). It's a fascinating image really, the idea that although Thranduil hadn't fallen under the shadow of Dol Guldur, he still is formidable and fearsome in his own way.
I actually really enjoy Sapkowski’s variety of Elves in the Witcher series. Their status as innately magical beings that are persecuted during the endless spread of humanity echoes those themes of industrialization ruining the beauty of nature that Tolkien brought
Yes I see them that way too. And maybe a better 'metaphor' for todays delicate people who have to toughen up to cope with the modern world and derogatory insults from other people. Go Elves!!
A fairly recent depiction of elves I really liked is the elves in Hilda (graphic novel/ animated show) they are really tiny, very organized and invisible unless you fill out paperwork
Love your work! Keep it up. One note: the ae in Anglo Saxon was the letter ash & made the short 'a' sound, so aelf would have been pronounced "alf." It's also where we get the name Alfred which meant "elf counsel." 😁
In the Netherlands when I grew up, the word "elfen" (elves) was used mostly for the winged creatures we usually call faeries, I remember being confused when my mother first started reading the Hobbit to me as a child and I figured out halfway through the book that these were actually big, human-sized creatures and couldn't fly. Sometimes I also wonder what kind of difference it would have made to the genre of fantasy if Tolkien had decided to stick with his original term "gnomes" for the Noldor.
Elfs/elves = älvor in Sweden and they have been around for a very long time. The are also refered to as the "underground people" and they were considered magical, etheral and extremely dangerous. They could captured the unwary underground or spread decease. They could be observed dancing in the fields as swirling mist. Then there were "the little people", also called pysslingar or nissar. They would live close to humans, but avoid direct contact. A farm would usually have a "tomtenisse" who watched over the house, the animals and the family. If the people on the farm were good, honest and hardworking the nisse would bring luck and prosperity. But if the farmer was bad, cruel or incompetent, much bad luck would befall the farm.
The way I think of things: Christmas Elfs/ Brownies/garden gnomes/tomte/leprechauns/Yunwi Tsunsdi are the little guys who make shoes and play tricks Pixies/Azizi/Tinkerbell fairies are small tricky humanoids with wings the Tutha de danann/archfae are kinda like demigods, who eventually lost power to become the lesser fae of the mounds: the Celtic Sidhe, American Nunnehii, and African Yumboes. Nymphs are more connected to the land than the other fae, they don't merely live in/on it, they are it. They are the embodiment of it, having become sentient itself. "Fae" is an umbrella term that describes all the above magic creatures, pixies, gnomes, sidhe, etc (Modern fantasy) Elves are a fantasy race, as distinct from humans as say a neanderthal. Slightly different build (a little shorter and thinner on average), slightly different features (pointed ears and daintier faces) , but about the same intelligence, and they are perfectly capable of reproducing with humans. They might have a little fae blood but are ultimately just another race of commonfolk like modern fantasy elves, fantasy Dwarves, Gnomes, and Halflings/hobbits are also other races , like the manh extinct species of humans there used to be before they got outcompeted by our species. They are specialized in different areas, their builds being fairly different from eachother but still able to interbreed. This might sound a bit silly, but I think, as a people, we miss the other humans. we are subconsciously longing to live amongst them again, so we create almost humans to populate our fantasy worlds. We used to think that we wiped out the other humans, and while that happened some, its more likely that we just interbred so much that their gene pool got consumed back into ours. Fun fact, unless you are 100% african, 1-2% of your dna is from neanderthals! To me it seems that Tolkien's elves bridge the gap between the demi-god like Tutha de and the human subrace of modern fantasy elf.
I find it interesting how the Swedish language seems to have tried to keep these different kinds of elves separate. - Tinkerbell style fairies are usually translated as "fé" (plural "féer") or "älva" (plural "älvor"). Älvor are also commonly seen in Swedish folklore post-Christianisation. Fairy circles are often called "älvring" (elf ring) or "älvdans" (elf dance), because it is believed that the elves dance there. - Christmas elves have kept (or combined) the names of their older Nordic predecessors and are usually called "tomtenisse" (plural "tomtenissar") while Santa Claus in Swedish is called "Jultomten" ("The Yule Tomte"). - Tolkien's elves (and later elves inspired by Tolkien) are called "alv" (plural "alver"). This word can sometimes be used as a modernised form of the "alf" (plural "alfar") of Norse mythology, but often we just stick to "alf"/"alfar" when referring to those.
To add a bit, the other type of "älvor", the creatures dancing on rivers and meadows, are usually distinct from the smaller "féer". "Älvor" are more human-sized and sometimes try to entice humans into the water where they'll drown. They're usually depicted as mist-like creatures. Also, the word for river in Swedish is "älv", or "elf" in older Swedish, which is probably related to them, but not to the words for other elf like "alv/alf".
@AnotherDuck I think that difference depends on who you ask, though. I have heard people use "älva" and "fé" interchangeably. That doesn't mean they're correct in doing so, but it does signal more of a blurred line than the other categories. Nobody would refer to Legolas as a "tomte" or Santa Claus as an "älva". Also, I'm pretty sure the words "alv", "alf", and "älva" (as well as the English word "elf") all share a common origin. So, "älv" (meaning a big river) is technically related to all of them.
@@KarlKristofferJohnsson What I meant with "the other type" was that the word "älva" is used for two different creatures. First the smaller ones we also call "féer", or fairies, and second the larger ones which are more fey-like; the misty ones.
@AnotherDuck Right, but that still shows a lack of a clear boundary between the two terms, if "älva" can be used for both. And to confuse things even further, fairies such as Cinderella's Fairy Godmother and the Blue Fairy from Pinocchio are usually called "fe", even though they're human-sized.
To me fairies are the living idea inside of things, such as grasses, the wind, birds, raindrops, flakes of snow, not unlike the kami and the anima, but not necessarily "a soul". Elfs used to be that and ended up being their own thing, like people who once were grass, mushrooms, trees, rocks, whirlwinds.
Great video ! I enjoy the elf lore that has found its way into the European folk music tradition. It seems there was a period where the darkest direst deeds of humanity were attributed to elves. They became bogeymen in song and story. The song "The Elf Knight" as performed by the Steeleye Span comes to mind. I like to think that Tolkien called it right when he wrote that any darkness a human encounters in Elf land is that which they themselves brought in with them. The word "eldritch" is derived from the Middle English that means Elfland (elf-riche). Thank you and blessed be.
Very interesting. I think in the poem the Night Before Christmas, Santa was called an elf. Also, Tolkien probably read Lord Dunsany's works like The King of Elfland's Daughter, and Beyond the Fields We Know.
Loved the outdoor fillming. I'm from Finland and as a child my parents told me to watch out for the sauna elf, in a teasing manner. It's a traditional Finnish type of elf (we have many different kinds) that is the spirit of the house and especially likes to stay in the sauna. During Christmas you should leave porridge for it, and overall behave nicely in the sauna not to upset the elf or it might do tricks in the house.
Commentary on Arda and JRR Tolkien, provided by Arwen Undómiel. Your episodes are extremely well written and informed by an excellent understanding of Tolkien's work such that I wouldn't be at all surprised to find the whole History of Middle Earth gracing your bookshelf (bookshelves). You deliver your thoughts eloquently--with intelligence, grace, and thoughtfulness--and it's lovely to see a young woman who offers something so beautifully against what that prevails in modern culture. (The copy of Dune in your video about the Maiar was a nice hint at the extensive range of your interests. I loved that!)
You’ve done such a comprehensive job on this. When you introduced the nisse I was expecting brownies but pleasantly surprised to learn a new version of these Indo-European tiny folk. The woodland background was the right choice. For the record, pretty sure that deer was there to approve of your content as a messenger of the sidhe, not maul you 😊
I grew up in Germany as a child (I'm american and my dad was stationed there). I remember the fantasy elements of that culture in the 70's. Later I descovered "The Hobbit" and fell in love with elves and the like.
There is a broad difference in folk lore on elves. I am a fan of both Terry Pratchett’s Discworld and the folk rock band Steeleye Span (including Maddy Prior’s other works). There were many songs about elves and their enchanting humans to kidnap them. Some of these are “Tam Lin”, “Thomas the Rhymer” and “Dance With Me”. There are Christian influences in the songs as the elves are always in league with the devil. They stole babies, etc. Pratchett included that in his view of elves as they live in a shadow world entered by breaks between the worlds. They appear mostly in his “Tiffany Aching” books of Discworld. Gnomes and brownies are also included as separate beings.
Some elves are based off angels. Some are based off dwarfs. Some are said to be gremlins. All are basically the same creature being described. But elves originally were not five even six feet more four foot to 3 foot. It’s also likely they seen dragon flies and thought they looked similar to little people.
My newsfeed just came up with this video and I want to thank you for the summery of this rather complex topic. Researching this must have taken a while. And despite the troubles while recording, I really appreciate your style of videomaking. It is honest, natural and well done all in all. Thanks for explaining =)
Stumbled across your delightful video by chance & was plesantly delighted in your boundless knowledge & how obviously passionate you are talking about elves & your ethereal beauty truely brightened up my day!! 😉 You really are a delight to watch my dear!!
Great piece and wonderfully presented. The only thing I truly missed amongst the many bits not able to be included (well, maybe the Menehune too) it the happy fact that Tolkien changed the words Elfs and Dwarfs to Elves and Dwarves single handedly! Well done!
Beyond the Tolkienian and Christmas varieties, another interesting modern take on elves/fairies is in Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. The "gentleman with the thistle-down hair" is enormously powerful, lives in Faerie, and is closely tied to the powers of nature. He is dangerous, not because he is evil (I'd say he's neither good nor evil), but because he is deeply inhuman and amoral. (The book is wonderful and everyone should read it.)
Another banger! You've quickly become my favorite UA-camr who goes over Tolkien. I've been obsessed with his legendarium and the sources he drew inspiration from ever since I first picked up the Hobbit when I was 7 or 8. Thank you for making such informative videos!
First of all - great video! You got a new follower! I'm from Germany and we usually don't associate elves with Santa Claus (or "Christkind" as it is in some Regions here). This is something that has only recently spilled over to us through the relevant media. And while by "Elfen" we formerly and mostly mean the winged fairies from Victorian times and fairy tales. The German translation of the "Lord of the Rings" uses the term "Elben". Interesting here is the proximity to the German word "Alb", which is also a bad fellow with us. And the term "Albtraum" (Nightmare) also goes back to this word. Today in Fantasy-Literature the term "Elfen" is used, because "Elben" has a copyright on it. In Tolkien's work I'm quite a fan of elves, while as a role-playing player I sometimes "hate" elves quite a bit. To explain: When I started role-playing (a looooong time ago), all "power gamers" had to play an elf because they always got a bonus on intelligence, dexterity, archery, music, looks, etc., while most races simply got nothing. That has changed in more modern RPGs, thank goodness. So again, thanks for this video, I am looking forward to see a lot of more great stuff from you!
I’d be interested to know what artists first depicted elves with pointed ears. They have become such an indispensable part of the elf image that all adaptations and artworks of Tolkien’s elves are given pointed ears, even though Tolkien never specified ear shape in his descriptions of them.
That comes from centuries of common depictions of "woodland/wild" creatures like fauns and Puck and fairies with butterfly/dragonfly wings, which had various animal traits to show that they were more a part of nature than just plain humans are. When the "nature" aspect started getting toned down & faded out in elves, pointy (but otherwise human) ears were just the last bit left over to show any kind of difference from humans at all. Fauns & Puck were a Medieval holdover from Greek mythology, which gave us not only them & Pan & Medussa & satyrs & centaurs but also animal-animal combinations like griffins/gryphons, manticores, and chimeras. But the Greeks were also preserving their version of something older. Egyptians, of course, waffled between depicting gods as looking like animals or humans or humans with different animals' heads, but the Greek tradition probably owes more to the Babylonians, because that's where else animal traits represent animalistic behavior, and it's where else you're more likely to find human heads & faces & torsos & arms but animal horns & ears & legs & tails. That far back in history & prehistory, most land was still occupied by nomads & hunter-gatherers, and recorded mythology from that time sometimes focuses on the difference between those people out there in the wild land and us normal people here in our cities & farms. Stories would juxtapose the civilized & wild lifestyles & environments, sometimes by pairing up a civilized character and a wild character in some way, and part of how the wild character's wildness was shown & emphasized was with animal parts. In the most famous example, the king of the greatest city, Gilgamesh, teamed up with his new best buddy, Enkidu, a wild man with a bull's legs & tail & ears & horns. And the Bible gives us twins with one (Jacob) looking normal & staying on the family farm and the other (Esau) being covered in fur & leaving to live off the land. Tolkien lived in a world where, because of that long chain of ideas leading to the partial de-animal-izing of traditional imagery of fauns/Puck, he didn't need to say that his vaguely magical almost-human-but-not-quite species had pointy ears; they'd be imagined that way anyway unless he specified otherwise. (And even if he had done that, people might have ignored him and put pointy ears on them anyway because that's just what those kinds of critters were supposed to be like.) Also, although his published stories never mentioned what Elves' ears looked like, I'm not sure his unpublished personal notes didn't, and they did at least describe Hobbits has having Elf-like ears, which has to mean he imagined that there was something different about Elf ears to compare with. He also doesn't seem to have drawn Elves himself as far as I can tell, but did do at least one sketch of a Hobbit, in which the ears look pointy to me but also strangely small for pointy ears, so you could argue that the points are an illusion created by hair partially covering them.
Santa's workshop is actually the Halls of Mandos. So now we know what Fëanor is doing. More seriously though, the similarities between Germanic and Celtic "elves" might stem from a common Indo-European background. The Scandinavian Nisse/Tomte are usually given a bowl of porridge as payment, at Christmas-eve, placed in the barn. In Norway this sort of usually helpful nisse is called a "Fjøsnisse" (Barnnisse). The Nisse is mostly helpful, but might prank people sometimes. Unless insulted. Then he can be mean and do damage, like hiding stuff or more seriously harming or killing livestock. If you fall out with your nisse, and decide to move, he might follow you to continue the punishment for your transgression. It is hypothesised that the belief in the nisse might be a remnant of ancestor-worship, and that the nisse actually is the spirit of the farms original founder. We have more of these creatures in Scandinavia. Often called "Underjordiske" (Subterranean) or "Vetter".
And moving past Tolkien, one of the biggest influences on modern depictions of elves is Poul Anderson, especially through his influence on D&D. His books "The Broken Sword" and "Three Hearts and Three Lions" in particular.
Your mention of Lilith in the ever-evolving elven lore brings me to my favorite pop-culture sub group: The wicked Drow of old-school Dungeons & Dragons. The Monster Manual ominously gaslights you by explaining that the Drow do not exist, but they do appear in the classic adventure modules G1-G3 "Against the Giants" and D1-D3 "Descent into the Depths of the Earth". They can be seen as children of a black widow spider demoness named "Lolth" and have modeled their underground society on her worship. In the climax of this whole adventure arc, Q1 "Queen of the Demonweb Pits", players can actually visit the strange faerie realm of another treacherous elfin race called The Pharisees, which is a direct nod to author Poul Anderson's 1961 novel "Three Hearts & Three Lions." This novel includes many of the inspirations for the monsters in Dungeons & Dragons that creator Gary Gygax and the T.S.R. gang borrowed heavily from: including the regenerating green Troll, the shape-shifting Swanmay and much of the Good/Neutral/Evil/Law/Chaos Alignment system used in the game. You can also see Lolth in action in the 1980's D&D Saturday Morning Cartoon Show: ua-cam.com/video/6AGU6vtJLR8/v-deo.html The look of Lolth her Drow minions went on to inspire many other iterations of "Dark Elves" in later fantasy series: The Dunmer of Elder Scrolls, The Teir'Dal of EverQuest and Pirotess from The Record of Lodoss War, just to name a few. The Spider Monster aspect of "Stranger Things" as well as one character's fixation on Black Widows seems to be telegraphing Drow vibes as well. (Foreshadowing?)
One of the earliest pre Christian depictions of Elfs in AngloSaxon lore, is from a poetic magical/medical text called Lacugna, that preserves a charm used against "Elf-Shot" which was a kind of sudden sickness thought to be caused by the Elfs. Folklore in England preserved the tradition , where the Neolithic stone arrowheads found in farmer's fields, were thought to be the remains of these magical Elf Shot arrows
This really makes me think of the wonders of language. Because whilr it's so easy to think of these creatures being connected when they share a name. If you grow up with them having two completly diffrent names, then it won't even come to mind
The elves in Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword are a force to reckoned with. The Ballantine Adult Fantasy series has other books with other takes on them worth looking at.
Broken Sword is also interesting because it was released in the same year as Fellowship of the Ring, long before most of what Tolkien wrote was seen by anyone outside of his circle.
Wondered if someone had beaten me to this... The Broken Sword is my favorite non-Tolkien book with elves (and trolls, the White Christ , and Norse gods...) Anderson discussed the differences between his elves and Tolkien's in an introduction that's well worth reading... It's pretty dark, but suited me perfectly as a teen who viewed the world in black and white. I agree with the older Poul Anderson, who said his later book, Three Hearts and Three Lions was more his speed...
The Broken Sword and Three Hearts and Three Lions have, indirectly, had a significant impact on Fantasy. They were a major influence on Dungeons & Dragons, and on Michael Moorcock, who in turn was a major influence on Warhammer. While Tolkien is certainly the main source for the popular image of Elves I think there's more Anderson in there than people realise.
I was like "Woo, outside! Why don't more content-creators create their videos outside like this?" But now I think we know. There's only so much control you can have over the elements. Either way, I enjoyed this, and would like to see more!
@@josephmayo3253me too. Though Christmas elves especially in Rudolph, are a close second. Though these days highborn elves appeal to me more. Still I find myself dabbling in Pigwiggenry to an extent. (Sorry Tolkien.)
@@gurnsey1621 which is why I was say we need a whole new lexicon to differentiate all these different types of fantasy creatures. Elves should be the highborn dwellers of forests and cities. "Cobblers" should be used to denote dwarfish people in fantasy, and smaller sorts of a 'smurfish' stature should be called sprites or some other different names. That way you avoid the confusion.
i feel like the idea of other humanoids, magical, otherworldly humanoids, specifically ones which seem to be dying out can only come from one place. I guess there's no way we could ever prove it but what if the whole idea of elves, trolls etc comes from ancient retellings of the days when humans coexisted with neanderthals and other hominids?
As a scholar of the Anglo-Saxons, the word "elf" would have been a constant in Tolkien's academic world. The name Aelfred translates as "wise elf" or "elf-counsel".
@@martineldritch You might've looked it up by now, but the name "Gandalf" means "wand elf", so in that regard it has the same origin (the latter part, obviously). "Gandalf" was also the name of a dwarf in Norse mythology. While not certain, the dwarves of Norse mythology might've been the same as the black elves and dark elves. It's is a bit unclear there, since records are a bit lacking. In other words, "Gandalf" is a dwarf name and dwarves are a type of elves, so the name is indeed connected to elves from a mythological perspective aside from the etymological connection.
@@AnotherDuck Yes, I found "wand elf" the other day, thank you for the additional history. I just read that Gandalf was "Olorin" in Valinor, "Mithrandir" to the elves and in Gondor, "Incanus" to the Haradrim, and to the dwarves he was "Tharkun", "Staff man". To the Harvard Lampoon he was "Goodgolf" but I think this name may be suspect. I think "Gandalf" is his name in Eriador and a name he prefers due to his fondness for the Shire ?
Congrats on getting 40k subs! I firmly believe by the quality of your videos your channel exploding into popularity was inevitable. I myself found your channel through the Tom Bombadil video, but have watched some of your earlier stuff too and it's all top notch.
The fantasy that Tolkien created and we love so much is just an attempt at depicting how stories and words meld together and evolve. But I loved this video talking about the melding and evolution of real stories that inevitably inspired Tolkien.
I've always liked the idea that Santa's elves are just a lower class of the same being. But Tolkien's elves are the OG for sure! One thing that got missed when the books moved to film was the how they somehow manage to straddle being serious badasses and being lighthearted jokesters. The elves in The Hobbit are more aligned that way but even in LOTR they come off as pretty funny.
@@Jess_of_the_Shire Every time I read one of Tolkien's descriptions of the elves (ageless, dark wavy hair, clear gray eyes, yet somehow containing both wisdom and sorrow) you realize just how difficult they would be to cast!
Since I don't see a lot of other comments mentioning them, somehow, my favorite fantasy elves are the multiple varieties from the Warcraft series, especially World of Warcraft (my main character has always been a Night Elf), which are inspired by Tolkien's elves, among others.
elves have always fascinated me, i was introduced to World of Warcraft when i was in elementary school and that led the elves of that franchise to have a HUGE impact on me, its crazy as i grow up and read Tolkiens work to realize just how inspired by his elves the elves of warcraft are but i love them and tolkiens
Grab Atlas VPN for just $1.83/mo + 3 months extra before the SUMMER DEAL expires: get.atlasvpn.com/PartTimeHobbit
Wow!
OK, between using your pet rat for the advert, and the way you talked about the deer, you are officially ridiculous in the best way! Well done Jess!
@parttimehobbit
The threat is REAL
ua-cam.com/video/9Xd8xq06FCw/v-deo.html
atlas... more like dat eleven ass. Toy making vid when 😂
I think they are demonic entity's and movies just use propaganda to brainwash people in to loving them, genies and fairy also are demons.
Please don't let lighting or sound issues deter you from more outdoor filming. Most viewers, myself included, really don't care about pro-level lighting on youtube. You're smart and entertaining so just you keep doing you.
this
Thanks so much! I love outdoor filming, and plan to do more, even with logistical issues sometimes
@@Jess_of_the_Shire as long as you can "normalise" the audio in post it should be fine. dont have to much dips and peeks it should be fine
This is actually my favorite part. The constant digressions are hilariously consistent. I value them highly.
@@Jess_of_the_Shire *DO* let sound issues concern you.
Audiences will tolerate bad or distorted visuals.
But the second time they say "What did she say?", you've lost them.
When I hear "elf", I think "cool, +2 to Dexterity!"
Me: *dies of 2d4 Laughing Damage*
Hey, folklorist here. Just wanted to say this is way better done and researched than 90% of work I see done on these topics.
Thank you for not being one of the people that makes my job more difficult.
what?
the stuff she said about pagans and the christianization of Europe is baffling wrong.
@@berndbla345
Which part of it?
A malevolent elf tried to stop the release of this critical information by running a lawnmower.
You definitely are a Disney Princess! You even have a mouse (rat) helper! 😁
Particularly enjoyed the irony of “I might be mauled to death” and a seamless transition to “a word from our sponsor”
My introduction to Tolkien was reading The Hobbit, then the Lord of the Rings, in 6th grade. That would have been in 1976 -1977. One things that is immediately noticeable about the Elves (And Goblins, as well) is how different they are between the two tales. Elves in The Hobbit still have a bit of the singing, dancing, and silly behavior, where in the later books they are the tall, ethereal, and otherworldly Elves we think of as Tolkien-style Elves.
Another interesting thing (to me, at least) is the plural. I have read that the so-called "proper" plural of elf should be "elfs", but Tolkien chose to use "Elves". This has a parallel in the English language where other words change an F to a V - leaf and leaves, shelf and shelves, wharf and wharves. (I think this is also true of Dwarf, and the choice of Dwarves as the plural.) If I'm not mistaken that's often an indication of Scandinavian or Old Norse words that have migrated into English. As a philologist, I'm certain that Tolkien was aware of this and chose "Elves" deliberately, to give his Elves a context that would seem more Nordic, since much of his inspiration was Nordic and Finnish.
We do still learn about myths like the Tuatha de Daanan in elementary school in Ireland, especially their intersection with mortals and meddling in affairs of the living and demi gods like Cúchuaillan. My own teacher in the 90's didn't bother to tell us they were myths, leaving a class of especially superstitious children, (even by Irish standards)
Haha that's great! I'm glad they're still teaching this stuff, it's so important
Same. I credit some of my atheism to being taught Irish myths in such a factual manner when I was a wain. Everything was wrapped up in the same voice, so when the belief in fairies went, so did everything else, mostly. I actually had a friend from England over visiting recently and fairy forts came up, and I found myself using that exact same matter-of-fact voice to explain it, to the point she had to ask me if I really believed what I was saying.
I remember when I was in second grade, the teacher told us the legend of the children of Lir. When someone questioned how Lir's wife changed the children into swans, he explained that everybody in those days had a bit of magic,
@@roberthenahan7885 that's honestly what I would have done! Imagine being put in a position of trying to explain the difference to kids. I don't envy the teachers 😂...
I'm glad we got that dose of it though. I also carry a lifelong fear of the Banshee because of my grandmother's stories. And I wouldn't change it for the world.
do Irish schools still teach the Lebor Gabála Érenn these days?
Yes, the elf on the shelf thing is an abomination and a crime against humanity. (I have hopes that the inventors and manufacturers will be dragged to The Hague and put on trial)
But I also must point out that Santa‘s elves are clearly the dwarves of Tolkien’s world
Indeed, in the fellowship of the ring, the chapter “a Long expected party. “ There is a reference to toys that are clearly magical and of dwarf make.
It says that they were imported from the lonely mountain and Dale.
Also remember Tolkien wrote “letters from Father Christmas”
There are plenty of ways to add a little of Tolkien magic to Christmas.
Stir in a little of king moonracer, and you have something truly magical.
“Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.
Elves are marvelous. They cause marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror.
The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.
No one ever said elves are nice.
Elves are bad.”
― Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies
"Elves are _bad."_
Sir Terry Pratchett always gets an upvote.
GNU Terry Pratchett
I think Pratchett's view of elves is more reasonable than Tolkien's. Creatures that powerful are bound to use that power to oppress others. Humans certainly act that way.
@@michaelsommers2356 Not all humans who have power use it to oppress, and not all of Tolkien's elves are noble or altruistic. In The Lord of the Rings they kind of come across that way, but they are somewhat peripheral to the story and starting to disassociate themselves from Middle Earth. You don't need to look any farther than The Hobbit to see elves behaving badly, and the elves of The Silmarillion are quite human in their failings.
I think Pratchett was riffing on the Victorian fairy stories more than he was on Tolkien's elves, but he was looking back to what they were before the fae were diminished. These elves harken back to nature spirits that inhabited the land. Every rock, pool, and tree had a guardian spirit; you crossed them at your peril. They were why bad things happen. They are older than the Iron Age, which is why elf-shot is flint-tipped, snd they cannot tolerate iron. Elf-shot is how the medieval mind explained ancient flint tools.
My person opinion is that nature gods, shamanism, came about in the stone age, pantheism was a produce of the neolithic/bronze age, and monotheism was a late development. But the older beliefs never went completely away.
The high gods were powerful but far away, and mostly the concern of the nobility. The common folk, the peasants, feared the local fae. They were close to you, and powerful. If you kept them happy, they might help you, like the brownies, the hobgoblins and other house elves. But they were easily offended. If you were lucky, they just abandoned you. If you were unlucky, they punished you. Worst case, you didn't survive. Some were outright hostile. They were why you went into the forest or to sea and never came back.
The high gods were the concern of the nobility, and they changed as dictated by the nobility. The small gods, the local nature spirits, never went way. That why whether the high god was Laugh or Odin or Yahweh changed with whoever ruled the land. The local goblin remained, and was personal.
Tolkien's elves are much closer to the tuatha de daanan, the gods of the nobility. Pratchett's elves are ancient nature spirits, the gods of the peasantry. Tolkien's elves pass when the world changes, while Pratchett's remain, as they have done in THIS world.
@@MickAlderson I disagree, but only on a few key points. Pratchett's elves are very specifically based on the fairies in Shakespeare's _A Midsummer Night's Dream,_ of which his novel _Lords and Ladies_ is a parody. These fairy characters he liberally augmented with country stories of mischievous spirits from all over Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Hence they are very much the myths of the common people rather than the nobility, as you have described the difference.
There are many kinds of elves in Finnish culture, many of which inspired Tolkien, especially in naming some of his elves and higher beings (Ilúvatar-Ilmatar, Ulmo-Vellamo, Undomiel-Untomieli etc.) Anyway, one random elven-story I like is that of the "Haltiatar" forest-maiden. Sometimes, when a man spends the night in the forest, the Haltiatar might come dancing around his bonfire, or if a man was walking in the forest, she might walk towards you. She would be delightfully beautiful from the front, with her long, radiant golden hair and fine laced dress... but her backside would be hollow, and the insides would be of tree-bark. When the man to his horror sees this he would be startled, which in turn would frighten the Haltiatar, and she would run away.
Maybe this is why she always faces the camera? 😊
I read somewhere that Finnish was actually Tolkien's favorite language.
Sounds like some myths of trolls I have heard where they have a tail and an interior of rotten wood, or myths of dryads.
I have even heard a hypothesis that the Finns themselves inspired the notion of Elves in Norse Mythology. Now, I doubt that is the case. But I thought I mention it as an interesting sidenote considering the topic. But there may very well have been ideas that did come from the Finns.
Of course, the very nature that Elves are so vague in our sources make it hard to know. And of course, Norse mythology itself it not uniform. What little we have preserved differs quite a bit depending on where and when it was record.
Interesting. I wrote a bit of a similar little story myself. Minus the hollow back made of tree bark
You didn't mention a very important book that Tolkien read in the development of his Elves, it's been mentioned a couple of times here in the comments, and that is the 1924 novel "The King of Elfland's Daughter" by Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany (under the name "Lord Dunsany"). In this book the Lord of Erl has his son woo and marry the title character, Lirazel, in order for Erl to become more popular. But the son neglects his wife and she feels she doesn't fit in with the humans so she lets her father bring her back to Elfland. The son spends years on a hopeless quest to find Elfland, neglecting his land and son whom Lirazel left behind. However Lirazel also misses her family so the Elf King uses his last magic spell to reunite them by absorbing the land of Erl into Elfland. The son and Lirazel are the literary ancestors of Aragorn and Arwen Evenstar while the great magic the King of Elfland wields prefigures both Elrond and Galadriel. Dunsany's book fell out of the spotlight for decades until it was republished in 1969 to a new generation of fans. One of those fans is Neil Gaiman who paid homage to it, and other fantasy works, in his novel "Stardust".
Another great book
I love the portrayal of elf land being timeless, as in actually frozen in time until the humans disturb it and send ripples through out. When I was reading it, the description of Lothlorien came to mind.
@@MartinHobbsActor Yes, I loved that! It felt very inhuman, like elves didn't need anything to be happy because nothing changes for them. Then humans come in, tracking mud around with our dirty shoes and making demands, and time starts moving forward. We literally can't coexist with elves without them losing something and becoming more like us.
This would be really great adapted as a movie. I am doubtful it could ever be made today though.
@@Pengalen Why?
As Galadriel said, after the destruction of the ring they could either sail to Valinor or become a rustic folk of dell and cave. The elves diminished with the onset of the age of men. Pretty Tuatha de Danaan if you ask me.
idk why i got this recommended, but it was really interesting to learn about this :) also a treat to the eye...
here (in costa rica), the stories of "elves" talk about small man-like creatures who abduct kids and steal things from houses. In my family there's the story of an aunt who disappeared for over a week when she was a kid (like maybe 60-70 years ago). She then just reappeared in her house and was saying that some elves wanted to play with her, so she went with them. That's all I know about it, but it's curious nonetheless.
What a pleasant Friday surprise
What is kinda cool (and sucks at the same time) is that everyone else decided to copy Tolkien's homework when creating their own fantasy realms.
As an elf, I can say, you did an admirable job. The truth about Santa's elves, and those that help the Shoemaker is that they are brownies and gnomes. Similar to how people limp them all together as Fey, or Seelie/unseelie.
Santa also does employ elves, as information gatherers. "He sees you when your sleeping, he knows when your awake, he knows if you've been bad or good".. because he has spies everywhere. We are very good at appearing "human"
Even though the elves were a "small" part of Anglo and Norse mythology, a startling number of people named their children some variation of the word.
It’s so refreshing seeing someone presenting in lovely natural locations like this.
What might be of interest to you is that even to this day in very rural Ireland, farmers often don’t disturb the remains of old ‘raths’ (a type of hill fort) on their land out of superstition that the fairies live there and would curse them if they do. They’d be seen more like Mister Mxyzptlk from superman in such circles though, rather than like elves or tinkerbell.
I love Tolkien's take on Elves, and it's my favorite. My favorite non-Tolkien elf quote is "I just want to be a dentist!" from Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer.
I remember the line, "Let's be independent together!" 😊
I learnt about the Tuatha Dé Danaan my entire childhood and came across LotR's much later in life but it's never ever been a question in my mind- everything the Tuatha Dé Danaan are is translated almost directly to Tolkien's Elves in description and existence.
I always found it interesting how it turns up in the name Alfred, literally "elf counsel," presumably meaning something like "wise like an elf," as well as now-obsolete Anglo-Saxon names like Aelfhelm ("elf helmet") and Aelfgifu ("gift of the elves").
My favorite Elves are the ElfQuest elves by Wendy and Richard Pini. It’s a graphic novel series that been in publication since 1977. Tolkien elves are the template that they use, and then throw it out! The main characters are known as the Wolf Riders. Basically, wood elves that ride on wolves because they’re bad ass! And they’re only about 4-5 feet tall. Then, there’s the High Ones (high elves ala Tolkien types), but many but not all elves in the World Of Two Moons are magical shape shifters, and some have changed to live under water, one Tydalk, was shaped into a flying bat-elf hybrid with wings instead of hands. Also, humans and elves are mortal enemies. Trolls and pixies are former slaves to the High Ones, and have a complicated relationship with elves. This is a *very* truncated synopsis.
If you don’t already know of EQ, you should definitely check it out!
and so underrated, i lost count of how many i've asked to no avail if someone's heard of ElfQuest. i started on ElfQuest so they are the elves i measure all others against, truly epic and gritty and with the greatest origin story of all for me ❤️
One of my best nerd parent achievements is to introduce my daughter to Elfquest. Her first cosplay was an Elfquest OC.
@@ciktri6389 I believe EQ is (or was) the longest continuously running, indie published comic books series.
@@gozer87 ooh thats so cool, i have failed to get my son(15) into it so far, however we are going for a holiday to the mountains today and he has promised to read book 1 (helps that there is no wifi where we're going 😂
@@TahoeNevada full on 😮, as a lot of us fans remember Wendi and Richard had talks about making EQ into a movie at times which unfortunately never came about, so i keep praying that hollywood will tire of superheroes and... well ElfQuest always made me a bit of a dreamer, any day now ❤️
At around 17:20, you discuss the idea of the Elves gradually fading away. I'm reminded of Galadriel's words to Frodo in Lothlorien: "Do you not see now wherefore your coming is to us is as the footstep of Doom? For if you fail, then we are laid bare to the Enemy. Yet if you succeed, then our power is diminished, and Lothlorien will fade, and the tides of Time will sweep it away. We must depart into the West, or dwindle to a rustic folk of dell and cave, slowly to forget and to be forgotten."
Another one of Tolkien's influences was the Irish writer Lord Dunsany. The elves in Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter pretty clearly contributed to Tolkien's version of the elves.
Dunsany also was a foundational influence on Lovecraft.
My favourite Elves are the Dunmer from the Elder Scrolls. They have a culture that feels real, their religion, their ambiguous relationship with their past and all the good and bad. It feels like an actual living culture.
Submit to the three, the spirits, and thy lords.
ah, another person on here who is not a filthy swit ☺
You friends are some fine f'lahs!
I love the 2 only options with the deer. You made me laugh, little girl.
Good video. Historically, every "magical" creature starts as a very vague and broad concept. For example, Ardat Lilith starts as Lili : a term that could be translated as "from the night", meaning that it (whatever is was) is related to natural night. There is a video from Religion For Breakfast that explains a lot better that what I could do, much recommended. Trolls, giants, demons, dwarves, gods... all of them are very vague in their early concepts and they evolve very slowly into something more specific up to a point where they are so detailed that they are obviously not real so storytellers maintain them as characters and they loose all "power".
This was a wonderful presentation, so thank you!
If I could offer yet another version of the elves, Nancy Marie Brown's, "Looking for the Hidden Folk: How Iceland's Elves Can Save the Earth," is a really fun read. The Huldufolk of Iceland are very closely tied to the land of Iceland itself, and Brown does a wonderful job of explaining the Icelandic affection for Elf stories. Her assertion is that respect for creatures so closely connected with preserving nature can teach us quite a lot about how to do the same for the land on which each of us live. For Icelander's it's not about believing in the mythical version of their elves, but in the values they represent.
Is it worth mentioning that Christmas elves are also Tolkien elves? After all, they appear in Tolkien's "The Father Christmas Letters".
Thank you for all the work that you had to have put into preparing this video. It shows in the caliber of the content that you consistently put out. Two gold stars!
Thanks so much!
In my novel, Dragon Fire, I use elves as the architypes, the armorers and wise helpers. They exit in a world where their, magic is fading fast. To preserve themselves they shrink in size and then expand to human size when they need to interact with my hero, the dragon, Mars. Elves play a brief but important part in Mars' journey
What a fabulous detailing of Elven history! In Danish folklore we have a number of creatures relating to the English elves. As you mentioned we have "nisser" typically associated with Christmas, but existing all year round, mischeivous creatures, often represented as little bearded men, but frequently they will have a nisse wife and nisse children. Then we have have-nisser, you'll know these as garden gnomes, and we have "alfer" (alf in singular), a good-natured, slender and smaller-than-humans folk that live in and care for nature. We have "feer" (fe in singular) or fairies, similar to alfer, although fairies have wings. Alfer may be the same size as faires or considerably larger. Finally, have the "elvere" (elver in singular), human sized, nearly white skinned, and known to dance during misty weather leading young men and women astray with their grace and beauty. "Astray" to be taken literally, ie. into bogs and other dangerous territory. They would lead them to their home under ground and keep them forever. Elver are generally evil, but somewhat more regal the other creatures. To a Dane Tolkien's Elves seem part Alf (in their good natured and innocent sense), part Elver (in their beauty and grace, and their hierarchical way of life), part his own Creation. In our folklore we do have one last creature, the "trold", large and ugly though not as large as trolls typically are portrayed in movies. Trolde may inhabit every emotion, some are kind, some angry, some evil, etc. They live alone or in families.
Speaking from a Swedish perspective, those are all familiar to me with only slightly different spellings. A word that might be related is the word for river, "älv", or "elf" in older spelling (but same pronunciation, probably best transcribed as "elv" in English). It's likely it's related to "älvor", the creatures dancing on rivers and meadows (which is where mist often forms). It's less certain that it's connected to "alver" (elves; "alv" or "alf" in singular), as it could just be a coincidence that the words are as similar as they creatures sometimes are, but as far as I know that's unknown.
A Tomte in Scandinavian folklore is a spirit that dwells in farm houses. It's like an extra little farmhand that makes sure the animals and people on the farm are doing well, preforming extra chores and so on... if you treat it well. As with most Scandinavian folklore creatures, there's a specific way to treat them, often nicely and courteously, and a way to offend them, often rude and/or abusive. If you offended a Tomte, it could wreak havoc on your farmstead, including, but not limited to outright killing your farm animals. They are incredibly strong, fast and can turn invisible.
If I recall correctly, in one story where a farm hand had put feces in the Tomtes porrige, a traditional offering at Christmas, (the porrige, not the shit), the Tomte head butted the farms prized bull to death with one blow as revenge.
The Tylwyth Teg always fascinated me, especially as I grew older and became attracted to Welsh myths and legends. I read a fascinating dissertation that was written in the 1830s by a priest who spent years collecting fairie stories and first hand accounts from locals (I cant remember the region from which he collected the first hand accounts, please forgive me... I read this a long time ago!). It was so interesting to me to read how many people spoke of their Fairie ancestors. They truly believed they were related to fairies and were proud of their fairie blood! (Or so they attested). From what I've read, there's still a strong belief in these beings within Wales today, so cool! One older priest (from the above mentioned dissertation) gave a chilling account of being abducted by fairies as a child...spooky.
Do you know any online resources where i can read about Welsh folklore? I know the Mabinogi is translated online but I need like just the folklore and fairy tales
I would say Tolkien invented the modern version, same with dwarves, so that it is hard work for a fantasy writer to avoid them. Most tabletop RPGs of the seventies just copied and pasted that archetype. DND had moved away but seems to be drifting back.
The fantasy author Tad Williams, wrote a superlative series called " Sorrow, Thorn, and Memory." He introduces the Sithi, which is another version of elves. Some are good. Others are evil. The books are well written, detailed, and fascinating. As a lover of well written fantasy, Tad Williams is a favorite. Another great fantasy writer is Patrick Rothfuss, except he has taken his own sweet time to bring his fans the last book of his King Killer trilogy. This is a fascinating program. Thank you.
I'm not familiar with Williams, but I assume that's a variant spelling of Sidhe (pronounced shee), an Irish word for elves or fairies.
@@joelpartee594 Basically. Sithi are the good elves plural, Sitha is singular. Norns are the bad elves (and there are other types). He lifts a lot of tolkein (in all the best ways) and puts into a more traditional medieval setting. Tad Williams that is.
I think there’s a story to be told about how Tolkien’s elves left Tolkien’s writing and entered the wider culture.
To my estimation this happened through video games and Dungeons and Dragons, and didn’t really occur until Tolkien’s works were rediscovered by young people in the 60s.
My favorite elf stories as a kid was Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling. Loved Kipling as a child. Really surprised that you did not note Tolkien wrote about Christmas Elves before he wrote LOTR. Every year Father Christmas wrote a letter to Tolkien's kids telling tales of the events of the North Pole, with elves and goblins, and a clumsy Great North Polar Bear. Which is where the Elvish language came from. I had a book, Letters from Father Christmas, many years ago.
I love Letters from Father Christmas, not least for Tolkien's charming illustrations. I'm pretty sure, though, that he had already been writing about Elves like Luthien Tinuviel and Beleg Strongbow (and their languages) for years before his kids were born.
I came here to mention this. I still have the book on my shelves. I’ve ‘helped’ Santa for many years and I draw on Tolkien’s letters to furnish his backstory. Sometimes I get a child that wants shoes for Christmas, and I like to remind them that Santa’s elves used to make shoes before they came to work for him and so they will be the very best.
In the German translation, the word Elb is used instead of Elf. Elb is basically a merger of Alb and Elf, which both are words used for the other kind of elves. Apparently this was suggested by Tolkien himself, because he also didn't like this ambiguity in English.
Nicely done! Your hard work is always appreciated. You did a good job laying out a clear and easy to understand outline of the history of Elves throughout Western history and literature. I always like to include Lord Dunsany as well, especially his book "The King of Elfland's Daughter," which is an early example of the inherent tragedy of romance between mortals and Elves, a favored subject of Tolkien's as well.
Thats a great example! Thank you for watching and saying nice things!
I always enjoy the design and lore of the elves in the Elder Scrolls, especially in Skyrim. They seem more unique then the average elf depiction in fantasy.
fun fact: in the German translation the Tolkien Elves are called Elb. Wich is a word that does not exist in the German language previous to Tolkien. It is kind of amalgamation of the words Alb and the word Elf.
Not quite right. While "Elb" is used exclusively when referring to Tolkien's elves today, it was in normal use up to the 18th century in Altdeutsch. (Alb and Elb were used interchangeably)
The new form "Elf" came to Germany through the English language.
I've found conflicting reports on whether it was the translator suggesting the use of the old form, or Tolkien. Either way, I'm not surprised Tolkien favoured "Elb", considering his love for old languages.
I thought Germans did have their own native word for "Elf". Like in Goethe's poem "Erlkoenig."
The name is taken from the Danish "Ellerkonge". It was Johann Gottfried Herder (another German poet and writer) who translated it to Erlkönig.
@@Thraim. so this is not a refference to the bird?
@@MusikCassetteI'm not nearly knowledgeable enough to dive any deeper but according to Wikipedia:
"[...]dass Herder die Doppeldeutigkeit des dänischen Homonyms elle - das sowohl „Erle“ als auch „Elfe“ bedeuten kann - bekannt war und er also bewusst den Begriff „Erlkönig“ wählte, „um auf die Verbindung der mythologischen Vorstellung von Elfen mit den feuchten Orten anzuspielen, an denen Erlen wachsen und wo Nebel entsteht, der an tanzende Schleier erinnert.“"
I'm Scandinavian so I wanna add some clarity around the words we use for elves in Denmark for anyone who's curious.
There's "nisse" which you mentioned. House spirits that look like tiny men, who treat you well if you treat them well. During December it's normal here to leave a bowl of the winter dish "risengrød" by the fireplace or the attic for the nisse to eat, and in return he will bring you gifts. If you forget, he will bring mischief (older tales is like... he'll burn down your farm or kill your animals). So very similar to Christmas elves, except with more violence lol.
Then we have the word "elver" which describes something more akin to the Tolkien kind of elf. Add more violence, though. Their thing is to trick you into dancing with them until you die from exhaustion. It's also said they have "hollow backs", which could either be interpreted as their backs arching a lot, or that their spine sorta leaves a hollow between the back muscles. Most old art I've seen of them here depicts them dancing in the nude. Honestly they were probably a cautionary tale about temptation.
Lastly we've got the "alf", which is more the classic Tinkerbell fairy. I don't really know lots about these guys. I think they're flightless in some tales, while having wings in others, and they're super tiny. Some stories convey them as being elemental spirits too.
This is more into the proto-Romantic, Sturm und Drang version of elves, but one portrayal that is memorable to me (though not my favourite of course) is Goethe's "Erlkönig" (Erlking), which is in turn based on a poem of the Elf-king of Danish legend. Here the Erlking is a malevolent creature of the woods who unalives children with a deadly touch, and the German poem involves a father racing home on horseback with his son, who is being called and chased by the Erlking.
Why memorable to me? Because I was a music student at one time, and Schubert's song setting of "Erlkönig" is famous for its galloping rhythm and dramatic tension, and especially infamous among pianists for its physically demanding octaves. 😝
_Mein Vater, mein Vater! Und hörest du nicht..._
Set to music by Schubert, then the piano part was modified by Liszt: ua-cam.com/video/4_BmRekeJ8A/v-deo.html
When I read the Hobbit in 12th grade English, the description of Thranduil and the Mirkwood elves reminded me exactly of Erlking riding in the haunted woods (even his title, the Elvenking, sounds similar). It's a fascinating image really, the idea that although Thranduil hadn't fallen under the shadow of Dol Guldur, he still is formidable and fearsome in his own way.
Warhammer Wood Elves and Dark Elves, Warcraft Night Elves and Blood Elves, and the Hellboy Elves are also cool.
I quite like Dark elf’s from elder scrolls, i think they have the most interesting lore. Like the great houses, the tribunal and so forth.
As an Irish person, thank you for pronouncing Irish myths accurately also great video
I actually really enjoy Sapkowski’s variety of Elves in the Witcher series. Their status as innately magical beings that are persecuted during the endless spread of humanity echoes those themes of industrialization ruining the beauty of nature that Tolkien brought
Sadly Netflix's The Witcher series has ruined elves and everything else.
Yes I see them that way too. And maybe a better 'metaphor' for todays delicate people who have to toughen up to cope with the modern world and derogatory insults from other people. Go Elves!!
@@albertkowalski5629 When I saw what they did to The Witcher Elves I stopped watching that show
@@04nbod I have not watched the show. What did they do the the elves?
@@legojedimasterplokoon2173I genuinely don't know, I mean some of the elf actors are black but eh
A brilliant and beautiful elven maiden exploring the history of elves? I'm here for it! Excellent dissertation.
A fairly recent depiction of elves I really liked is the elves in Hilda (graphic novel/ animated show) they are really tiny, very organized and invisible unless you fill out paperwork
The only thing more difficult than finding detailed and complete works of original Scandinavian and Celtic folklore is filming outdoors.
Love your work! Keep it up. One note: the ae in Anglo Saxon was the letter ash & made the short 'a' sound, so aelf would have been pronounced "alf." It's also where we get the name Alfred which meant "elf counsel." 😁
If you are a part time hobbit. I do not ever want to look at another Elf again, as you my dear are radiant.
Damn, she didn't go on a date with you?
Goethe's Erlenkönig as well. A creepy cool poem.
In the Netherlands when I grew up, the word "elfen" (elves) was used mostly for the winged creatures we usually call faeries, I remember being confused when my mother first started reading the Hobbit to me as a child and I figured out halfway through the book that these were actually big, human-sized creatures and couldn't fly.
Sometimes I also wonder what kind of difference it would have made to the genre of fantasy if Tolkien had decided to stick with his original term "gnomes" for the Noldor.
Elfs/elves = älvor in Sweden and they have been around for a very long time. The are also refered to as the "underground people" and they were considered magical, etheral and extremely dangerous. They could captured the unwary underground or spread decease. They could be observed dancing in the fields as swirling mist.
Then there were "the little people", also called pysslingar or nissar. They would live close to humans, but avoid direct contact. A farm would usually have a "tomtenisse" who watched over the house, the animals and the family. If the people on the farm were good, honest and hardworking the nisse would bring luck and prosperity. But if the farmer was bad, cruel or incompetent, much bad luck would befall the farm.
The ElfQuest graphic novels are amazing. These elves will always be what I think of first when I hear
“Elf”
The way I think of things:
Christmas Elfs/ Brownies/garden gnomes/tomte/leprechauns/Yunwi Tsunsdi are the little guys who make shoes and play tricks
Pixies/Azizi/Tinkerbell fairies are small tricky humanoids with wings
the Tutha de danann/archfae are kinda like demigods, who eventually lost power to become the lesser fae of the mounds: the Celtic Sidhe, American Nunnehii, and African Yumboes.
Nymphs are more connected to the land than the other fae, they don't merely live in/on it, they are it. They are the embodiment of it, having become sentient itself.
"Fae" is an umbrella term that describes all the above magic creatures, pixies, gnomes, sidhe, etc
(Modern fantasy) Elves are a fantasy race, as distinct from humans as say a neanderthal. Slightly different build (a little shorter and thinner on average), slightly different features (pointed ears and daintier faces) , but about the same intelligence, and they are perfectly capable of reproducing with humans. They might have a little fae blood but are ultimately just another race of commonfolk
like modern fantasy elves, fantasy Dwarves, Gnomes, and Halflings/hobbits are also other races , like the manh extinct species of humans there used to be before they got outcompeted by our species. They are specialized in different areas, their builds being fairly different from eachother but still able to interbreed.
This might sound a bit silly, but I think, as a people, we miss the other humans. we are subconsciously longing to live amongst them again, so we create almost humans to populate our fantasy worlds.
We used to think that we wiped out the other humans, and while that happened some, its more likely that we just interbred so much that their gene pool got consumed back into ours. Fun fact, unless you are 100% african, 1-2% of your dna is from neanderthals!
To me it seems that Tolkien's elves bridge the gap between the demi-god like Tutha de and the human subrace of modern fantasy elf.
I find it interesting how the Swedish language seems to have tried to keep these different kinds of elves separate.
- Tinkerbell style fairies are usually translated as "fé" (plural "féer") or "älva" (plural "älvor"). Älvor are also commonly seen in Swedish folklore post-Christianisation. Fairy circles are often called "älvring" (elf ring) or "älvdans" (elf dance), because it is believed that the elves dance there.
- Christmas elves have kept (or combined) the names of their older Nordic predecessors and are usually called "tomtenisse" (plural "tomtenissar") while Santa Claus in Swedish is called "Jultomten" ("The Yule Tomte").
- Tolkien's elves (and later elves inspired by Tolkien) are called "alv" (plural "alver"). This word can sometimes be used as a modernised form of the "alf" (plural "alfar") of Norse mythology, but often we just stick to "alf"/"alfar" when referring to those.
To add a bit, the other type of "älvor", the creatures dancing on rivers and meadows, are usually distinct from the smaller "féer". "Älvor" are more human-sized and sometimes try to entice humans into the water where they'll drown. They're usually depicted as mist-like creatures. Also, the word for river in Swedish is "älv", or "elf" in older Swedish, which is probably related to them, but not to the words for other elf like "alv/alf".
@AnotherDuck I think that difference depends on who you ask, though. I have heard people use "älva" and "fé" interchangeably. That doesn't mean they're correct in doing so, but it does signal more of a blurred line than the other categories. Nobody would refer to Legolas as a "tomte" or Santa Claus as an "älva".
Also, I'm pretty sure the words "alv", "alf", and "älva" (as well as the English word "elf") all share a common origin. So, "älv" (meaning a big river) is technically related to all of them.
@@KarlKristofferJohnsson What I meant with "the other type" was that the word "älva" is used for two different creatures. First the smaller ones we also call "féer", or fairies, and second the larger ones which are more fey-like; the misty ones.
@AnotherDuck Right, but that still shows a lack of a clear boundary between the two terms, if "älva" can be used for both.
And to confuse things even further, fairies such as Cinderella's Fairy Godmother and the Blue Fairy from Pinocchio are usually called "fe", even though they're human-sized.
To me fairies are the living idea inside of things, such as grasses, the wind, birds, raindrops, flakes of snow, not unlike the kami and the anima, but not necessarily "a soul". Elfs used to be that and ended up being their own thing, like people who once were grass, mushrooms, trees, rocks, whirlwinds.
Great video ! I enjoy the elf lore that has found its way into the European folk music tradition. It seems there was a period where the darkest direst deeds of humanity were attributed to elves. They became bogeymen in song and story. The song "The Elf Knight" as performed by the Steeleye Span comes to mind. I like to think that Tolkien called it right when he wrote that any darkness a human encounters in Elf land is that which they themselves brought in with them. The word "eldritch" is derived from the Middle English that means Elfland (elf-riche). Thank you and blessed be.
Very interesting. I think in the poem the Night Before Christmas, Santa was called an elf. Also, Tolkien probably read Lord Dunsany's works like The King of Elfland's Daughter, and Beyond the Fields We Know.
Loved the outdoor fillming. I'm from Finland and as a child my parents told me to watch out for the sauna elf, in a teasing manner. It's a traditional Finnish type of elf (we have many different kinds) that is the spirit of the house and especially likes to stay in the sauna. During Christmas you should leave porridge for it, and overall behave nicely in the sauna not to upset the elf or it might do tricks in the house.
Commentary on Arda and JRR Tolkien, provided by Arwen Undómiel. Your episodes are extremely well written and informed by an excellent understanding of Tolkien's work such that I wouldn't be at all surprised to find the whole History of Middle Earth gracing your bookshelf (bookshelves). You deliver your thoughts eloquently--with intelligence, grace, and thoughtfulness--and it's lovely to see a young woman who offers something so beautifully against what that prevails in modern culture. (The copy of Dune in your video about the Maiar was a nice hint at the extensive range of your interests. I loved that!)
She is indeed a rare and special lady amidst the darkness of this degenerate age.
You’ve done such a comprehensive job on this. When you introduced the nisse I was expecting brownies but pleasantly surprised to learn a new version of these Indo-European tiny folk. The woodland background was the right choice. For the record, pretty sure that deer was there to approve of your content as a messenger of the sidhe, not maul you 😊
I grew up in Germany as a child (I'm american and my dad was stationed there). I remember the fantasy elements of that culture in the 70's. Later I descovered "The Hobbit" and fell in love with elves and the like.
Thank you for this video ❤️
And for correcting my pronunciation of tuatha de danann.
I always emphasize the “tha” lol
There is a broad difference in folk lore on elves. I am a fan of both Terry Pratchett’s Discworld and the folk rock band Steeleye Span (including Maddy Prior’s other works). There were many songs about elves and their enchanting humans to kidnap them. Some of these are “Tam Lin”, “Thomas the Rhymer” and “Dance With Me”. There are Christian influences in the songs as the elves are always in league with the devil. They stole babies, etc. Pratchett included that in his view of elves as they live in a shadow world entered by breaks between the worlds. They appear mostly in his “Tiffany Aching” books of Discworld. Gnomes and brownies are also included as separate beings.
Lords and ladies is a good one.
Some elves are based off angels. Some are based off dwarfs. Some are said to be gremlins. All are basically the same creature being described. But elves originally were not five even six feet more four foot to 3 foot. It’s also likely they seen dragon flies and thought they looked similar to little people.
My newsfeed just came up with this video and I want to thank you for the summery of this rather complex topic. Researching this must have taken a while. And despite the troubles while recording, I really appreciate your style of videomaking. It is honest, natural and well done all in all.
Thanks for explaining =)
Stumbled across your delightful video by chance & was plesantly delighted in your boundless knowledge & how obviously passionate you are talking about elves & your ethereal beauty truely brightened up my day!! 😉 You really are a delight to watch my dear!!
Great piece and wonderfully presented. The only thing I truly missed amongst the many bits not able to be included (well, maybe the Menehune too) it the happy fact that Tolkien changed the words Elfs and Dwarfs to Elves and Dwarves single handedly! Well done!
Intrigued to learn more about Tolkien's dislike of Shakespeare.
Beyond the Tolkienian and Christmas varieties, another interesting modern take on elves/fairies is in Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. The "gentleman with the thistle-down hair" is enormously powerful, lives in Faerie, and is closely tied to the powers of nature. He is dangerous, not because he is evil (I'd say he's neither good nor evil), but because he is deeply inhuman and amoral. (The book is wonderful and everyone should read it.)
Shoutout to the deer that clearly wanted to know more about the elves she's been dealing with.
Another banger! You've quickly become my favorite UA-camr who goes over Tolkien.
I've been obsessed with his legendarium and the sources he drew inspiration from ever since I first picked up the Hobbit when I was 7 or 8. Thank you for making such informative videos!
First of all - great video! You got a new follower!
I'm from Germany and we usually don't associate elves with Santa Claus (or "Christkind" as it is in some Regions here). This is something that has only recently spilled over to us through the relevant media.
And while by "Elfen" we formerly and mostly mean the winged fairies from Victorian times and fairy tales. The German translation of the "Lord of the Rings" uses the term "Elben". Interesting here is the proximity to the German word "Alb", which is also a bad fellow with us. And the term "Albtraum" (Nightmare) also goes back to this word. Today in Fantasy-Literature the term "Elfen" is used, because "Elben" has a copyright on it.
In Tolkien's work I'm quite a fan of elves, while as a role-playing player I sometimes "hate" elves quite a bit. To explain: When I started role-playing (a looooong time ago), all "power gamers" had to play an elf because they always got a bonus on intelligence, dexterity, archery, music, looks, etc., while most races simply got nothing. That has changed in more modern RPGs, thank goodness.
So again, thanks for this video, I am looking forward to see a lot of more great stuff from you!
I’d be interested to know what artists first depicted elves with pointed ears. They have become such an indispensable part of the elf image that all adaptations and artworks of Tolkien’s elves are given pointed ears, even though Tolkien never specified ear shape in his descriptions of them.
That comes from centuries of common depictions of "woodland/wild" creatures like fauns and Puck and fairies with butterfly/dragonfly wings, which had various animal traits to show that they were more a part of nature than just plain humans are. When the "nature" aspect started getting toned down & faded out in elves, pointy (but otherwise human) ears were just the last bit left over to show any kind of difference from humans at all. Fauns & Puck were a Medieval holdover from Greek mythology, which gave us not only them & Pan & Medussa & satyrs & centaurs but also animal-animal combinations like griffins/gryphons, manticores, and chimeras. But the Greeks were also preserving their version of something older. Egyptians, of course, waffled between depicting gods as looking like animals or humans or humans with different animals' heads, but the Greek tradition probably owes more to the Babylonians, because that's where else animal traits represent animalistic behavior, and it's where else you're more likely to find human heads & faces & torsos & arms but animal horns & ears & legs & tails.
That far back in history & prehistory, most land was still occupied by nomads & hunter-gatherers, and recorded mythology from that time sometimes focuses on the difference between those people out there in the wild land and us normal people here in our cities & farms. Stories would juxtapose the civilized & wild lifestyles & environments, sometimes by pairing up a civilized character and a wild character in some way, and part of how the wild character's wildness was shown & emphasized was with animal parts. In the most famous example, the king of the greatest city, Gilgamesh, teamed up with his new best buddy, Enkidu, a wild man with a bull's legs & tail & ears & horns. And the Bible gives us twins with one (Jacob) looking normal & staying on the family farm and the other (Esau) being covered in fur & leaving to live off the land.
Tolkien lived in a world where, because of that long chain of ideas leading to the partial de-animal-izing of traditional imagery of fauns/Puck, he didn't need to say that his vaguely magical almost-human-but-not-quite species had pointy ears; they'd be imagined that way anyway unless he specified otherwise. (And even if he had done that, people might have ignored him and put pointy ears on them anyway because that's just what those kinds of critters were supposed to be like.) Also, although his published stories never mentioned what Elves' ears looked like, I'm not sure his unpublished personal notes didn't, and they did at least describe Hobbits has having Elf-like ears, which has to mean he imagined that there was something different about Elf ears to compare with. He also doesn't seem to have drawn Elves himself as far as I can tell, but did do at least one sketch of a Hobbit, in which the ears look pointy to me but also strangely small for pointy ears, so you could argue that the points are an illusion created by hair partially covering them.
The traditional Elves in folklore more closer to a Dwarf in the Tokens stories. The Elves of Tolkien are more bit more of his own creation.
Santa's workshop is actually the Halls of Mandos. So now we know what Fëanor is doing.
More seriously though, the similarities between Germanic and Celtic "elves" might stem from a common Indo-European background.
The Scandinavian Nisse/Tomte are usually given a bowl of porridge as payment, at Christmas-eve, placed in the barn. In Norway this sort of usually helpful nisse is called a "Fjøsnisse" (Barnnisse). The Nisse is mostly helpful, but might prank people sometimes. Unless insulted. Then he can be mean and do damage, like hiding stuff or more seriously harming or killing livestock. If you fall out with your nisse, and decide to move, he might follow you to continue the punishment for your transgression.
It is hypothesised that the belief in the nisse might be a remnant of ancestor-worship, and that the nisse actually is the spirit of the farms original founder. We have more of these creatures in Scandinavia. Often called "Underjordiske" (Subterranean) or "Vetter".
I don't remember what he was advertising, but I love your rat.
And moving past Tolkien, one of the biggest influences on modern depictions of elves is Poul Anderson, especially through his influence on D&D. His books "The Broken Sword" and "Three Hearts and Three Lions" in particular.
Definitly a Disney Prinzess: Charming beautifull and we saw that animals love you :P
Your mention of Lilith in the ever-evolving elven lore brings me to my favorite pop-culture sub group: The wicked Drow of old-school Dungeons & Dragons.
The Monster Manual ominously gaslights you by explaining that the Drow do not exist, but they do appear in the classic adventure modules G1-G3 "Against the Giants" and D1-D3 "Descent into the Depths of the Earth". They can be seen as children of a black widow spider demoness named "Lolth" and have modeled their underground society on her worship.
In the climax of this whole adventure arc, Q1 "Queen of the Demonweb Pits", players can actually visit the strange faerie realm of another treacherous elfin race called The Pharisees, which is a direct nod to author Poul Anderson's 1961 novel "Three Hearts & Three Lions."
This novel includes many of the inspirations for the monsters in Dungeons & Dragons that creator Gary Gygax and the T.S.R. gang borrowed heavily from: including the regenerating green Troll, the shape-shifting Swanmay and much of the Good/Neutral/Evil/Law/Chaos Alignment system used in the game.
You can also see Lolth in action in the 1980's D&D Saturday Morning Cartoon Show: ua-cam.com/video/6AGU6vtJLR8/v-deo.html
The look of Lolth her Drow minions went on to inspire many other iterations of "Dark Elves" in later fantasy series: The Dunmer of Elder Scrolls, The Teir'Dal of EverQuest and Pirotess from The Record of Lodoss War, just to name a few.
The Spider Monster aspect of "Stranger Things" as well as one character's fixation on Black Widows seems to be telegraphing Drow vibes as well. (Foreshadowing?)
Please note the Elf Quest books/graphic novels by the Pini's. The Elves in Elf Quest & right betwixt Christmas & Tolkien Elves.
One of the earliest pre Christian depictions of Elfs in AngloSaxon lore, is from a poetic magical/medical text called Lacugna, that preserves a charm used against "Elf-Shot" which was a kind of sudden sickness thought to be caused by the Elfs. Folklore in England preserved the tradition , where the Neolithic stone arrowheads found in farmer's fields, were thought to be the remains of these magical Elf Shot arrows
This really makes me think of the wonders of language. Because whilr it's so easy to think of these creatures being connected when they share a name. If you grow up with them having two completly diffrent names, then it won't even come to mind
The elves in Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword are a force to reckoned with. The Ballantine Adult Fantasy series has other books with other takes on them worth looking at.
Broken Sword is also interesting because it was released in the same year as Fellowship of the Ring, long before most of what Tolkien wrote was seen by anyone outside of his circle.
Wondered if someone had beaten me to this... The Broken Sword is my favorite non-Tolkien book with elves (and trolls, the White Christ , and Norse gods...) Anderson discussed the differences between his elves and Tolkien's in an introduction that's well worth reading...
It's pretty dark, but suited me perfectly as a teen who viewed the world in black and white.
I agree with the older Poul Anderson, who said his later book, Three Hearts and Three Lions was more his speed...
The Broken Sword and Three Hearts and Three Lions have, indirectly, had a significant impact on Fantasy. They were a major influence on Dungeons & Dragons, and on Michael Moorcock, who in turn was a major influence on Warhammer.
While Tolkien is certainly the main source for the popular image of Elves I think there's more Anderson in there than people realise.
I was like "Woo, outside! Why don't more content-creators create their videos outside like this?"
But now I think we know. There's only so much control you can have over the elements.
Either way, I enjoyed this, and would like to see more!
I'm partial to the Keebler variety of elves... just kidding, I've always found the Dwemer from The Elder Scrolls very fascinating!
That was my introduction to elves.
@@josephmayo3253me too. Though Christmas elves especially in Rudolph, are a close second. Though these days highborn elves appeal to me more. Still I find myself dabbling in Pigwiggenry to an extent. (Sorry Tolkien.)
@@gurnsey1621 which is why I was say we need a whole new lexicon to differentiate all these different types of fantasy creatures. Elves should be the highborn dwellers of forests and cities. "Cobblers" should be used to denote dwarfish people in fantasy, and smaller sorts of a 'smurfish' stature should be called sprites or some other different names. That way you avoid the confusion.
Elder Scrolls is my favorite game.
@@josephmayo3253 Keebler elves was my introduction to elves about 50 pounds ago.
i feel like the idea of other humanoids, magical, otherworldly humanoids, specifically ones which seem to be dying out can only come from one place. I guess there's no way we could ever prove it but what if the whole idea of elves, trolls etc comes from ancient retellings of the days when humans coexisted with neanderthals and other hominids?
As a scholar of the Anglo-Saxons, the word "elf" would have been a constant in Tolkien's academic world. The name Aelfred translates as "wise elf" or "elf-counsel".
Thank you, didn't know that. So the name "Gandalf" may have some root origin with elves as well ?
@@martineldritch You might've looked it up by now, but the name "Gandalf" means "wand elf", so in that regard it has the same origin (the latter part, obviously).
"Gandalf" was also the name of a dwarf in Norse mythology. While not certain, the dwarves of Norse mythology might've been the same as the black elves and dark elves. It's is a bit unclear there, since records are a bit lacking. In other words, "Gandalf" is a dwarf name and dwarves are a type of elves, so the name is indeed connected to elves from a mythological perspective aside from the etymological connection.
@@AnotherDuck Yes, I found "wand elf" the other day, thank you for the additional history. I just read that Gandalf was "Olorin" in Valinor, "Mithrandir" to the elves and in Gondor, "Incanus" to the Haradrim, and to the dwarves he was "Tharkun", "Staff man". To the Harvard Lampoon he was "Goodgolf" but I think this name may be suspect. I think "Gandalf" is his name in Eriador and a name he prefers due to his fondness for the Shire ?
As a die hard elf simp, my favorite varieties of elf in fantasy are:
Elder Scrolls Dunmer
Tolkien’s Noldor
Warhammer Fantasy’s Asur and Asrai
Congrats on getting 40k subs! I firmly believe by the quality of your videos your channel exploding into popularity was inevitable. I myself found your channel through the Tom Bombadil video, but have watched some of your earlier stuff too and it's all top notch.
I'm so glad you're enjoying my videos!
The fantasy that Tolkien created and we love so much is just an attempt at depicting how stories and words meld together and evolve. But I loved this video talking about the melding and evolution of real stories that inevitably inspired Tolkien.
I've always liked the idea that Santa's elves are just a lower class of the same being. But Tolkien's elves are the OG for sure! One thing that got missed when the books moved to film was the how they somehow manage to straddle being serious badasses and being lighthearted jokesters. The elves in The Hobbit are more aligned that way but even in LOTR they come off as pretty funny.
I love the humor of Tolkien's elves! I'm not sure it would have fit in the PJ films, but it's such a delightful dimension in the books
@@Jess_of_the_Shire Every time I read one of Tolkien's descriptions of the elves (ageless, dark wavy hair, clear gray eyes, yet somehow containing both wisdom and sorrow) you realize just how difficult they would be to cast!
Since I don't see a lot of other comments mentioning them, somehow, my favorite fantasy elves are the multiple varieties from the Warcraft series, especially World of Warcraft (my main character has always been a Night Elf), which are inspired by Tolkien's elves, among others.
Julian Mays Pliocene Saga is still a pretty unique take on the source of elves and fairys, and a pretty exciting read overall
Tanu and Fivurlag. One of my favourite authors
elves have always fascinated me, i was introduced to World of Warcraft when i was in elementary school and that led the elves of that franchise to have a HUGE impact on me, its crazy as i grow up and read Tolkiens work to realize just how inspired by his elves the elves of warcraft are but i love them and tolkiens