Elves are mythical creatures that belong to the supernatural world. While they have Germanic origins, having first appeared in the myths of Northern Europe, elves became popular throughout the world, particularly after the birth of cinema. While their description is vague in stories, they are often imagined today as tall, beautiful human-like creatures, with pointy ears. Traditionally, “the hidden people” have been performing tasks similar to those of human beings, and also have the same basic social structures in the society. While the traditions of elf stories go back thousands of years, they gained true fame the twentieth century, with the popularization of the fantasy genre in literature and the cinema. Elves’ relationship with humans is ambivalent, which allowed for a variety of representations in popular media. Thus, elves can be beautiful or ugly, good, bad or ambivalent, as well as strong or weak and helpless. Regardless of the variety of representations in popular media, elves maintain certain characteristics which allow them to be recognized as such, namely the fact that they are outsiders , living in a natural space that is out of human reach, that they have magical powers, and that they have knowledge far above ordinary human beings.
The explanation for the birth of the “hidden people” motif, is the fact that people of the past needed an explanation for sudden and unexplained death, disappearance or other misfortunes, but also, unexpected prosperity. In the mythology from Iceland and Denmark, elves are often tricksters, or they rarely help humans, and often they do it without their will, being forced by humans themselves, or by a mysterious bond to them. For example, in “The Elves’ Dance on New Years’ Eve”, the watcher who took upon himself to keep a house under surveillance while the masters were at the church, despite the fact that all previous watchers had disappeared (Simpson 66) . He manages to gain the elves’ golden objects after warning them of the approaching daylight. However, he did this by himself, not allowing the elves to see him, in which case he would have disappeared as well. The same attempt to hide is also present in many other stories, such as “Hild, the Queen of the Elves” where the elf –queen travels to her kingdom on Christmas Eve accompanied by shepherds who then die. While they do not directly die by her hand, she is nevertheless ultimately charged for their death. The shepherd is however able to return safely, and after having made a service to the elves, he is rewarded with prosperity.
However, in other stories, the elves are rather malefic, and people of the Northern Europe often used different strategies in order to ‘fight’ against elf evilness. The sheer evil of elves is illustrated, for example, in Sehmsdorf’s collection of stories. In “Taken to the Mountain”, a girl is kidnapped by the elves. In order to help her, people “rang the church bells for her, and the girl returned” (Sehmsdorf 212). The story also shows that the girl went mad, but later recovered. However, less lucky than her, a young boy who was herding in the woods was forced to dance the elves, and for this reason, he went mad (Sehmsdorf 212). In explaining this story, Sehmsdorg shows that “the elves were generally feared because they struck humans with sickness, as reflected in the term "elf shot" (Sehmsdorf 212). However, the leves could also bring luck to those who obeyed their commands, or performed extraordinary service to them. In Hild’s story, the shepherd has a prosperous and happy life after releasing the queen from the curse, and the reason behind this prosperity is suggested to be the elfish queen. Furthermore, in Simpson’s story of the fisherman, the man has prosperity for as long as he respects the commands of the elf who acted as his neighbor. As soon as he disobeyed the fisherman stopped seeing the elf and the luck evaporated (Simpson 31).
The modern representations of elves began with the Brothers Grimm, in whose collected materials in elves have a particular importance. Thus, in Grimm’s representations, the elves are mysterious and often troublesome actions are left mostly unexplained. The shoemaker’s story shows a positive representation of elves, a helpful and beneficial. The narrator says that, as soon as they receive clothing from the shoemaker’s wife, the elves rejoice and leave the cobbler's job. However, the shoemaker continues to prosper (Grimm 36). This idea is reiterated in the popular novel and film series, “Harry Potter”. In Rowling’s story, the young wizards meet Dobby, the house-elf in the service of the Malfoy family. Dobby is a slave to the family, as all the other elves, but he may be released by receiving clothing from the master. While completely subject to the wishes of the family, and bound to them exclusively, Dobby is also a magical being and he is able to accomplish magic, although he is forbidden to do so. While resembling the small people described by Brothers Grim in the story of the shoemaker, both in size, and in their function, the house-elves in “Harry Potter” are unlike mythological elves from the Northern tradition in that they are weak and defenseless in front of their masters.
Apart from Rowling’s “Harry Potter”, one monumental series of novels, which discusses the topic of the elves is Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”. In this novel series, the elves become superior and extremely powerful beings, with unmeasured knowledge and healing powers. Characters are immortal, and their knowledge and self-chosen outsider status may be a result of their superiority. By means of such characters as Legolas, Arwen, Galadriel or Elrond, the author, and later, the director of the film series with the same name, transforms elves into fascinating creatures whose morality and knowledge is outside the man’s limited power of understanding. While they fight against evil if necessary, Tolkien’s elves are mostly neutral and they try to remain as uninvolved as possible, in order to preserve the integrity of their people, and avoid unnecessary death. The elves, in “Lord of the Rings” have a distinctive language, and they live an ecological lifestyle. Rivendell seems a corner of paradise and the home of the wood elves is equally enchanting. While trying to maintain neutrality, elves nevertheless often join the fight against evil, where their own well-being is threatened, or out of a sense of duty towards the Middle Earth and its fate.
While in popular media today, the elves are mostly represented as beautiful and positive characters, some narratives depart from this idea, and imagine elves as evil. For example, in the film “Thor”, the “Dark Elves” are evil creatures from another world. They are represented as tall, dark and ugly, with sharp teeth and massive bodies. The only attribute they share with other representations encountered in popular media, is their pointy ears. While they may seem unfamiliar for mainstream viewers, who are more used to imagining elves as beautiful and serene, the dark elves are nevertheless also part of the popular culture, being particularly present in video games, and films. The dark representation of elves as evil is also part of the Northern mythology, as shown in Sehmsdorf’s collected myths. However, despite their evil intentions, the evil elves who cause people to become sick, disappear or lose their mind, are still serene creatures who dance in rings (212). Unlike them, the evil elves in popular culture are represented as dark and threatening,
Furthermore, Terry Pratchett’s elves from the Discworld are a threat to human beings, whom they often kidnapped, as they are fascinated with the imaginative power and talents of human beings. In her novels, elves are conceived as creatures that lack emotions and consequently, are incapable of creating beautiful things, or of feeling empathy. While, similarly to Tolkien’s representation, elves are perceived by humans as beautiful, elegant and superior by humans, in fact, this is merely an illusion, because in reality, they are shallow on the inside, and they lack humane characteristics. Therefore, this representation is still drawing from mythological elves that kidnapped people in order to help them with the functions that they were incapable of accomplishing by themselves.
Therefore, while stylized and glamorized in popular culture today, contemporary representations of elves draw from old myths of the northern peoples and continue to fascinate the audience due to their “hidden” and mysterious appeal, and the variety of their representations. Elves’ supernatural powers, their human-like appearance and their capacity to influence human life create a powerful appeal and continue to represent sources of inspiration for filmmakers, drawing artists and video game developers.
Works Cited
Grimm Brothers. “Elves”. n.d. Print.
Simpson, Jacqueline. “The Hidden People”. N.d. Print.
Sehmsdorf, Henning. “The Invisible Folk”. N.d. Print.
