A fairy tale ( pronounced / ˈfeəriˌteɪl /) is a type of short story that typically features folkloric fantasy characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants, mermaids, or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments.

* Fairy tale, a fictional story that usually features folkloric characters ( such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, witches, giants, and talking animals ) and enchantments

In order to explain the absence of miraculous elements, authors may introduce " a retreat of magic " ( sometimes called " thinning ") that explains why the magic and other fantastic elements no longer appear: For example, in The Lord of the Rings, the destruction of the One Ring not only defeated Sauron, but destroyed the power of the Three Rings of the elves, resulting in their sailing into the West at the end of the story.

The story in effect combines the Rip Van Winkle-type fairy tale — where a person goes underground in the company of dwarves or elves, spending an apparently brief time but on emerging finding whole generations had elapsed — with modern science fiction having the same effect through relativity and the time dilation resulting from traveling at near-light velocities.

The story is about one of Santa's elves who learns of his true identity as a human and goes to New York City to meet his biological father, spreading Christmas cheer in a world of cynics as he goes.

The two major powers in the story are the UPSF ( United Planets Space Force, or the humans, possibly a reference to the Earth Federation Space Force of Mobile Suit Gundam, or the United Federation of Planets of Star Trek, or perhaps both ) and the Raalgon Empire ( the extraterrestrials ), who with their pointy ears share a resemblance to either elves or possibly Romulans.

The Elves and the Cobbler or The Shoemaker and the Elves is an often copied and re-made 1806 story about a poor shoemaker who receives much-needed help from elves.

The story is a retelling of Cinderella featuring various mythical creatures including fairies, elves, ogres, gnomes, and giants.

# Homeland ( 1990 ) — Homeland follows the story of Drizzt from around the time and circumstances of his birth and his upbringing amongst the drow ( dark elves ).

The story portrays Sir Oluf riding to his marriage but being entranced by the music of the elves.

One of the key story points came from his friend Jack Handey, a writer for Saturday Night Live who wanted to do a sketch about a down-on-his-luck shoemaker who is visited by a bunch of elves who help him, but make very bad shoes.

At the same time, the film also tells a contemporary story in which one of Santa's elves ( alternately referred to as the " Vendequm " onscreen ), a visionary named Patch ( Dudley Moore ), sets out to employ Santa's toymaking methods on his own, unaware that he might be ruining the magic of Christmas in the process.

That which is called Álfheim is one, where dwell the peoples called Light elves ; but the Dark-elves dwell down in the earth, and they are unlike in appearance, but by far more unlike in nature.

A subrace of Earthdawn elves are called the Blood Elves.

# Windling-The windlings are small, winged humanoids ; similar to many depictions of fae creatures, they resemble small elves with insect-like wings.

The " Christmas elves " of contemporary popular culture are of relatively recent tradition, popularized during the late 19th century in the United States, in publications such as Godey's Lady's Book.

Thus the " white " elves proper are named ljósálfar " light elves ", contrasting with døckálfar " dark elves ".

This prompts Grimm to assume a tripartite division of light elves, dark elves and black elves, of which only the latter are identical with dwarves, while the dark elves are an intermediate class, " not so much downright black, as dim, dingy ".

While the Scandinavian tradition preserves some evidence of the álfar as skillful supernatural beings with positive connotations, much like the æsir or " gods ", the elves of Anglo-Saxon and continental tradition are almost exclusively presented as mischievous or malevolent beings responsible for misfortune or illness.

However, throughout Germanic tradition, given names which contain elf as an element are frequently attested, suggesting that the malevolent or evil image of elves in West Germanic tradition was a secondary development, reinforced by Christianization.

: The land governed by King Alf was called Alfheim, and all his offspring are related to the elves.

People live there that are named the light elves ( Ljósálfar ).

But the dark elves ( Dökkálfar ) live below in earth, in caves and the dark forest and they are unlike them in appearance – and more unlike them in reality.

In these elves are linked to the Æsir, particularly by the common phrase " Æsir and the elves ".

In the Alvíssmál (" The Sayings of All-Wise "), elves are considered distinct from both the Æsir and the Vanir.

The Norwegian expressions seldom appear in genuine folklore, and when they do, they are always used synonymous to huldrefolk or vetter, a category of earth-dwelling beings generally held to be more related to Norse dwarves than elves which is comparable to the Icelandic huldufólk ( hidden people ).

Gunnell stated: " Icelanders seem much more open to phenomena like dreaming the future, forebodings, ghosts and elves than other nations.

Post-Tolkien fantasy elves ( popularized by the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game ) tend to be more beautiful and wiser than humans, with sharper senses and perceptions.

Glorantha shares some fantasy tropes such as dwarves, elves, trolls, giants, but has developed them differently to the more conventional versions based on the work of Tolkien.

Large numbers of humans " Goblinize " into orks and trolls, while human children begin to be born as elves, dwarves, and even more exotic creatures.

Like other elves, they are more dexterous than humans, but have a weaker constitution.

In more recent times, Terry Brooks Shannara series of epic fantasy features elves who train and ride rocs.

From the outset, Planescape: Torments designers intended to challenge traditional role-playing game conventions: the game features no dragons, elves, goblins, or other common fantasy races ; there are only three swords ; the rats faced in the game can be quite challenging to defeat ; and the undead sometimes prove more sympathetic than humans.

In the sagas, it said that the people of this petty kingdom were more beautiful than other people, as they were related to the elves, showing that not only the territory was associated with elves, but also the race of its people.

For example, realistic swordfighting leads to a high-rate of wound-related mortality, while an unbiased presentation of Tolkien's Middle-Earth would make elves far more powerful than orcs or halflings.

Notable examples include the Danish princess Skuld of Hrólf Kraki's saga, and the hero Högni of the Thidrekssaga ( his mother was a human queen ), and the royal line of Alfheim, which was related to the elves and more beautiful than other people, according to the Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar.

Nowadays this more old-fashioned spelling often refers to the elves in Tolkien's books or other such fantasy works.

Hobgoblin: Larger, far more aggressive than goblins, they wage a perpetual war with other humanoids, particularly elves.

In most fantasy settings, smaller and more agile fantasy races like elves, gnomes and hobbits are particularly suited for the thief class.

All elves appear to have the capacity for sending, but some tribes use it more often than others ; the Wolfriders send frequently, whereas the Go-Backs send very rarely and the Sun Folk hardly at all.

Elves on the Discworld are based more on the nastier kind of fairy-folk in European ( and other ) folklores than elves as portrayed in most modern ( post-Tolkien ) fantasy fiction.

He sired many children, in and out of Recognition, supposedly with both elves and wolves, the slightly more elfin of which became the successful Wolfriders, and the descendants of their wolfish siblings became their mounts.

Saphira proves to be more powerful than Thorn, and with the help of thirteen elves including Arya he defeats Murtagh.

It adds a bit more color and dimension to Toril's elves and perhaps suggests a few new ways to think about them.

Each city-state was the home of one or more player races such as elves, humans, apskara, halflings, gnomes, ogres, artrell, fairies, and so on.

Joulupukki's assistants are called tonttu, or more precisely joulutonttu ( from Swedish tomte ); they are not elves, but essentially human, often dwarflike in character.