Alfheim (, " elf home ") is one of the Nine Worlds and home of the Light Elves in Norse mythology and appears also in Anglo-Scottish ballads under the form Elfhame ( Elphame, Elfame ) as a fairyland, sometimes modernized as Elfland ( Elfinland, Elvenland ).

An elf ( plural: elves ) is a type of supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore.

The English word elf is from the Old English ælf or elf ; in compound as

On the other hand, there is a close kinship between elves and dwarves, evident already because many dwarves have elvish names, including simple Álfr " elf ", and Alberich " king of elves ".

The conclusion of Grimm is that the classification " elf " can be considered to " shrink and stretch by turns ".

In the Thidrek's Saga a human queen is surprised to learn that the lover who has made her pregnant is an elf and not a man.

On the other hand, oaf is simply a variant of the word elf, presumably originally referring to a changeling or to someone stupefied by elvish enchantment.

Middle High German has a feminine singular elbe and a plural elbe, elber, but the word becomes very rare, mostly surviving in the adjective elbisch, and is replaced by the English form elf, elfen via 18th century German translations of Shakespeare's A Midsummernight's Dream.

In Scandinavian folklore, which is a later blend of Norse mythology and elements of Christian mythology, an elf is called elver in Danish, alv in Norwegian, and alv or älva in Swedish ( the first is masculine, the second feminine ).

It has often been suggested that Erlkönig is a mistranslation from the original Danish ellerkonge or elverkonge, which does mean " elf king ".

The elf makes many appearances in ballads of English and Scottish origin, as well as folk tales, many involving trips to Elphame or Elfland ( the Álfheim of Norse mythology ), a mystical realm which is sometimes an eerie and unpleasant place.

Most instances of elves in ballads are male ; the only commonly encountered female elf is the Queen of Elfland, who appears in Thomas the Rhymer and The Queen of Elfland's Nourice, in which a woman is abducted to be a wet-nurse to the queen's baby, but promised that she may return home once the child is weaned.

In none of these cases is the elf a spritely character with pixie-like qualities.

This philosophy is evident in Tolkien's other works, especially The Silmarillion — one Vala, Morgoth, creates the Orc race as a foul mockery of the elf.

The legend has been interpreted as a traditional folk tale which has been subjected to Christianization where the familiar story of the seduction of a human being by an elf or fairy leads to the delights of the fairy-realm but later the longing for his earthly home is overwhelming.

Over time, the remaining elves turned into drow by powerful magic, and at this time any elf who is evil enough can spontaneously turn into a drow.

Puck is a clever, mischievous elf or sprite that personifies the trickster or the wise knave.

When taxed about her condition, she declares that her baby's father is an elf whom she will not forsake.

Precisely why the two races hate each other so much is unknown, but what is known that the presence of an aquatic elf community within several miles of a sahuagin community occasionally causes some sahuagin to be born as malenti ; mutants who resemble aquatic elves.

As an elf he is presumed to be very old, occasionally alluding to his great age in jokes at Hirad's expense.

The archer Legolas Greenleaf, here portrayed by Orlando Bloom in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy | The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, is arguably Tolkien's best known elf.

He was portrayed as a manipulative and evil elf whose canny intelligence managed him a worthy position in Waterdeep's nobility.

Elaith is also portrayed as a very proud elf, where any slight made to him is answered brutally.

Alfheimr: World of the Ljósálfr (' light elf ')

One example of such an elf is the Noldorin leader Fëanor ( whose name, incidentally, means " fire-fëa ", that is, " Spirit of Fire ").

It is possible for an elf to heal a non-elf ( such as a human ) but this is significantly more difficult as their bodies are much less malleable.

Stable and peaceful elf societies such as the Sun Folk and the Gliders have no deaths for long periods and therefore no births, while the Wolfriders and Go-Backs, plagued by centuries of war against humans and trolls respectively, have a higher birth rate in order to stabilize their populations, although still very low by human standards.

The choice of races include human, ogre, dwarf, wood elf and dark elf ( and others which were available in the original EQ ) along with new options such as the Kerra ( a cat-person similar to the Vah Shir of the original EQ ), the Ratonga ( a rat-like people ) and with the purchase of an expansion, Fae and Arasai.

As in Scandinavia, when belief in the old gods disappeared, remnants of the mythos persisted: Holda, a " supernatural " patron of spinning ; the Lorelei, a dangerous Rhine siren derived from the Nibelung myth ; the spirit Berchta ( also known as Perchta ); the Weisse Frauen, a water spirit said to protect children ; the Wild Hunt ( in German folklore preceded by an old man, Honest Eckart, who warns others of its approach ); the giant Rübezahl ; changeling legends ; and many more generic entities such as the elf, dwarf, kobold and erlking.

By the end of the novel Future Sight, in Dominaria, several of the prominent Planeswalkers have been destroyed and some new looking Planeswalkers have appeared, such as Venser, an artificer living in fear on the island of Urborg and Radha, a Keldon elf.

Some members of the family such as S. coccinea and the-according to new knowledge-more common S. austriaca in western Europe and United States have bright scarlet apothecia which have given them familiar names such as the scarlet cup fungus and scarlet elf cap.

The troll wizard has already begun his secret war, going from apartment to apartment, attacking the tenants and transforming them into mythical creatures according to their personalities, such as goblins, nymphs, an elf and a bugbear, and it transforms their rooms into lush fairy worlds.

Conversely, elves of the Tolkien mould have become standardized staple characters of modern fantasy to such an extent that breaking the norms for how an elf is supposed to be and behave has become an end in itself.

The Clauses also meet Patch ( Dudley Moore ), an inventive elf who has designs for such future items like plumbing and an alarm clock, and Puffy ( Anthony O ' Donnell ).

It includes typical cup fungi like the scarlet elf cup and the orange peel fungus, and fungi with fruiting bodies of more unusual shape, such as morels, truffles and the swamp beacon.

Rathi locations and creatures all transposed themselves on Dominaria, sometimes resulting in bizarre hybrids such as Gaea's Skyfolk ( elf / merfolk ) and Razorfin Hunter ( merfolk / goblin ).

* The 1957 Soviet cartoon " The Snow Queen " is introduced by the Sandman who is depicted as an elf who puts children into a trance ( sleep ) using a black umbrella which causes a dreamless sleep or a colourful umbrella which causes dreams.

On the walking path near where Queen Avenue T's into the perimeter drive around the lake, there is an " elf house " carved into the base of an ash tree.

In this ballad, an elf threatens to abduct a young woman to be his lover unless she can perform an impossible task (" For thou must shape a sark to me / Without any cut or heme, quoth he "); she responds with a list of tasks that he must first perform (" I have an aiker of good ley-land / Which lyeth low by yon sea-strand ").

In this ballad, a young woman is warned that the elf Tam Lin is known to haunt a place called Carterhaugh, and that all who go there must lose either an article of clothing or their virginity to Tam Lin.

In the oldest extant version of this ballad ( circa 1600-1650 ), an elf threatens to abduct a young woman to be his lover unless she can perform an impossible task ; she responds with a list of tasks which he must first perform, thus evading rape.