The Elves

1. The Elves From Myth to Menzoberranzan

2. People also prayed to the elves for healing, as it was the case for Kormak in the “Kormaks Saga” (13th century). Kormak had wounded Thorvard. The witch Thordis advised Thorvard to allow the elves to heal him, he sacrificed a bull at the elf's mound. He first slaughtered the bull, then sprinkling the blood around the mound, before preparing the meat for elves to feast on. The sacrifice was known as “álfablót”or "elf's sacrifice". There are some scattered references of elves in the Poetic Edda, but their roles in Norse myths were minimal, at best. Snorri Sturluson mention how the gods created a world for which they were to live in, and the difference between the light-elves (ljósálfar) and dark elves (dokkálfar) or black elves (svartálfar), but nothing about an individual elf. The elves were also called “álfar”. The elves were a race of mythical beings, who were, in a way, lesser deities. They weren't exactly gods in the normal sense, but they did possessed powers. They are similar to Roman household deities, such as the Penates and Lares where people prayed to them to protect home and household.

3. What we do know is that the elves or light-elves lived in one of the Nine Worlds called Alfheim. The Vanir god Freyr has his palace and hall in Alfheim, where he ruled as their god. It was said that the gods gave Alfheim to Freyr, as payment for losing his tooth. “...Alfheim the gods gave to Freyr” in bygone days as tooth-payments. “Grimnir's Sayings’ 5, from The Poetic Edda translated by Carolyne Larrington There are other types of light-elves such as “muntælfen” (mountain elf), “landælf” (field elf), “wæterælfen” or “saeælfen” (water nymph) and “wuduælfen” (wood spirit). There are several different types of elves, and they seemed to be related to the dwarves, because Snorri referred the black elves (svartálfar) as dwarves, or the black elves are not elves at all. The black elves lived in a different world called Svartalfheim, while the dwarves lived in Nidavellir. As to the dark elves (dokkálfar), Snorri says that they were blacker than pitch and lived underground. They are unlike the light-elves in appearance and nature. The Scots referred to these elves as “Trow”, where we get the word “drow” in modern fantasy. The truth is that the writers in the Norse myths don't have much to say about the elves. Their roles were developed more later in folklore, fairy tales and in the world of fantasy novels, such as by the novelist J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings

4. One interesting note about the dokkálfar is that in Saxon folk tales, these creatures were called mahre. These creatures resembled our idea of a goblin. They shunned daylight and only came out at night. Often they would perch on the chest of a sleeping person and give the sleeper horrible dreams. These nasty little critters were called nachtmahre, or in modern English nightmares.