Thank you for this! These are precisely the kind of sources I don't currently have any ability to draw from (though I'd like to learn German for this and other reasons. I'm taking my first tentative steps via Duolingo and Anki decks so I can talk to my sister-in-law's soon-to-be in-laws).
On your last point, elves also feature prominently in the Old English to Early Modern English sources, where "elf-shot" is a term for some kind of sudden-onset ill health that was thought to be caused by arrows shot by elves hiding in the woods.
There's several lines of evidence on "elves" that I feel need to be looked into, but I'm not sure they can necessarily be neatly reconciled: the Old Norse poems, various charms in Old High German and Old English, the later folklore your source and others talk about, health-related writings like "Leechcraft" guides, takes on the fae, beliefs on ancestor worship, and so forth.
Cheers, Jeff
P.S. I will definitely be reviwing the translations you sent to me, I've just been moving through the "to read" pile slower than I hoped.
That “elf-shot” thing is interesting - I will look out for whether Mannhardt mentions it. Don’t feel rushed on the books - I know what it is like to have a backlog to get through!
If you want to get more of the Old English context for "elf-shot" as an ailment, Stephen Pollington's Leechcraft is excellent. I'm not sure if he covers anything comparative in German.
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Re: Regarding elves
On your last point, elves also feature prominently in the Old English to Early Modern English sources, where "elf-shot" is a term for some kind of sudden-onset ill health that was thought to be caused by arrows shot by elves hiding in the woods.
There's several lines of evidence on "elves" that I feel need to be looked into, but I'm not sure they can necessarily be neatly reconciled: the Old Norse poems, various charms in Old High German and Old English, the later folklore your source and others talk about, health-related writings like "Leechcraft" guides, takes on the fae, beliefs on ancestor worship, and so forth.
Cheers,
Jeff
P.S. I will definitely be reviwing the translations you sent to me, I've just been moving through the "to read" pile slower than I hoped.
Re: Regarding elves
Re: Regarding elves
I look forward to seeing what you find!