SWARTALFAHEIM
Was the abode of the Black Elves, (to distinguish them from the Light or shining Elves, who dwelt in Loisalsfaheim,) and also of the Dwarfs.
But there were elves who dwelt in the air, in water, amongst the trees. These could not be called underground people; and it is almost doubtful whether they can be classed among the Black Elves. As the term, however, has been adopted for the purpose we have indicated, viz., to distinguish the elves of earth from those of the highest heaven,—both those who dwell on, and those who dwell below, the earth’s surface—the well and the ill disposed—may here be considered.
“Our heathen forefathers,” says Thorlacius[[28]], “believed, like the Pythagoreans—and the farther back in antiquity the more firmly—that the whole world was filled with spirits of various kinds, to whom they ascribed in general the same nature and properties as the Greeks did to their Dæmons. These were divided into the celestial and the terrestrial, from their places of abode. The former were, according to the ideas of those times, of a good and elevated nature, and of a friendly disposition towards men, whence they also received the name of White or Light Alfs, or spirits. The latter, on the contrary, who were classified after their abodes in the air, sea, and earth, were not regarded in so favourable a light. It was believed that they, particularly the land ones, the δαίμονες ἐπιχθόνιοι of the Greeks, constantly and on all occasions sought to torment or injure mankind, and that they had their dwelling partly on the earth in great and thick woods, whence came the name Skovtrolde[[29]] (Wood-Trolds); or in other desert and lonely places, partly in and under the ground, or in rocks and hills: these last were called Bjerg-Trolde (Hill Trolds); to the first, on account of their different nature, was given the name of Dverge (Dwarfs), and Alve, whence the word Ellefolk, which is still in the Danish language. These Dæmons, particularly the underground ones, were called Svartalfar, that is, Black Spirits, and inasmuch as they did mischief, Trolls.”
The prose Edda draws a broad distinction between the light and the black elves,—the former being whiter than the sun; the latter darker than pitch.
“Of the origin of the word Alf,” says Mr. Keightley, “nothing satisfactory is to be found. Some think it is akin to the Latin albus, white; others to alpes, Alps mountains. There is supposed to be some mysterious connection between it and the word Elf or Elv, signifying water in the northern languages; an analogy which has been thought to correspond with that between the Latin Nympha and Lympha. Both relations are perhaps rather fanciful than just. Of the derivation of Alf, as just observed, we know nothing certain[[30]]; and the original meaning of Nympha would appear to be, a new-married woman[[31]], and thence a marriageable young woman; and it was applied to the supposed inhabitants of the mountains, seas, and streams, on the same principle that the northern nations gave them the appellation of men and women, that is, from their imagined resemblance to the human form.
“Whatever its origin, the word Alf has continued till the present day in all the Teutonic languages. The Danes and Swedes have their Ellen or Elven Dan, and Elfvor Swed (Elvus), and the words Elf-dans and Elf-blæst, together with Olof and other proper names, are derived from it. The Germans call the nightmare Alp; and in their old poems we meet Elben and Elbinnen, male and female elves, and Elbisch frequently occurs in them in the bad sense of the “Elvish” of Chaucer and our old romancers, and a number of proper names, such as Alprecht, Alpine, Alpwin, &c., were formed from it; undoubtedly before it got its present ill sense. In the Anglo-Saxon Ælf, with its feminine and plural, frequently occurs. The Orcades, Naiades, and Hamodryades of the Greeks and Romans are rendered in an Anglo-Saxon Glossary by munt-ælfenne, fæ-ælfenne, and feld-ælfenne. Ælf is a component part of the proper names Ælfred and Ælfric; and the author of the poem of ‘Judith’ says that his heroine was Ælf-scīene (Elf-sheen), bright as an Elf. But of the character and acts of the Elfs no traditions have been preserved in Anglo-Saxon literature. In the English language, Elf, Elves, and their derivatives, are to be found in every period, from its first formation down to this present time.”[[32]]
The judicious and indefatigable writer whom we have followed in the preceding extract, and who has treated the subject with a minuteness and an accuracy unequalled in this country, continues:—
“The Alfar still live in the memory and traditions of the peasantry of Scandinavia. They also, to a certain extent, retain their distinction into white and black. The former, or the good elves, dwell in the air, dance on the grass, or sit in the leaves of trees; the latter, or evil elves, are regarded as an underground people, who frequently inflict sickness or injury on mankind; for which there is a particular kind of doctors, called Kloka, to be met in all parts of the country.
“The elves are believed to have their kings, to celebrate their weddings and banquets, just the same as the dwellers above ground. There is an interesting intermediate class of them in popular tradition, called the Hill-people (Högfolk), who are believed to dwell in caves and small hills: when they show themselves they have a handsome human form. The common people seem to connect with them a deep feeling of melancholy, as if bewailing a half-quenched hope of redemption.