What is and Icelandic Elf?

Icelandic Elves

What is and Icelandic Elf?

An elf is a mythical creature of Norse mythology which survived in northern European folklore. Originally a race of minor gods of nature and fertility, elves are often pictured as youthful-seeming men and women of great beauty living in forests and other natural places, underground, or in wells and springs.

They have been portrayed to be long-lived or immortal and they have magical powers attributed to them.

Following the success of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic The Lord of the Rings wherein a wise, angelic people named elves play a significant role they have become staple characters of modern fantasy.

Characteristics of traditional elves

Icelandic Elves in Norse mythology

The earliest preserved description of elves comes from Norse mythology.
In Old Norse they are called álfar (singular, nominative case: álfr), and although no older or contemporary descriptions exist, the appearance of beings etymologically.....
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The first elves in Icelandic history, by Snorri Sturluson

The Icelandic mythographer and historian Snorri Sturluson seems to have referred to dwarves (dvergar) as "dark-elves" (dökkálfar) or "black-elves" (svartálfar); whether this usage reflects wider medieval Scandinavian belief is uncertain.
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Scandinavian elves in Iceland
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).
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German elves in Iceland
What remained of the belief in elves in German folklore was that they were mischievous pranksters that could cause disease to cattle and people, and bring bad dreams to sleepers. The German word for nightmare, Albtraum, means "elf dream".
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English elves in Iceland
The word elf came into English as the Old English word ælf (pl. ælfe, with regional and chronological variants such as ylfe and ælfen), and so came to Britain originally with the Anglo-Saxons. Words for the nymphs of the Greek and Roman mythos were translated by Anglo-Saxon scholars with ælf and variants on it.
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