Page "Elf" Paragraph 47

Elf-shot ( or elf-bolt or elf-arrow ) is a word found in Scotland and Northern England, first attested in a manuscript of about the last quarter of the 16th century.

Although first attested in the sense ' sharp pain caused by elves ', it is later attested denoting Neolithic flint arrow-heads, which by the 17th century seem to have been attributed in the region to elvish folk, and which were used in healing rituals, and alleged to be used by witches ( and perhaps elves ) to injure people and cattle.

So too a tangle in the hair was called an elf-lock, as being caused by the mischief of the elves ( or especially by Queen Mab ), and sudden paralysis was sometimes attributed to elf-stroke.

Compare with the following excerpt from an 1750 ode by Willam Collins: