Elves have in many times and places been believed to be real beings. Where enough people have believed in the reality of … See more

The English word elf is from the Old English word most often attested as ælf (whose plural would have been *ælfe). Although this word took a variety of forms in different Old English dialects, these converged on the form el… See more

The earliest surviving manuscripts mentioning elves in any Germanic language are from Anglo-Saxon England. Medieval English evidence has, therefore, attracted quite extensive research and debate. In … See more

From around the Late Middle Ages, the word elf began to be used in English as a term loosely synonymous with the French loan-word fairy; in elite art and literature, at least, it also became associated with diminutive … See more

Early modern Europe saw the emergence for the first time of a distinctive elite culture: while the Reformation encouraged new skepticism and opposition to traditional beliefs, subsequent Romanticism encourage… See more

With industrialisation and mass education, traditional folklore about elves waned; however, as the phenomenon of popular culture emerged, elves were re-imagined, in large part based on Romantic literary depictions … See more

Beliefs in humanlike supernatural beings are widespread in human cultures, and many such beings may be referred to as elves in English.
Elfish beings appear to have been a common ch… See more