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460 WIGHTS AND ELVES.
Breton legend informs us : A
man had dug a treasure out of a
dwarf s hole, and then cautiously covered his floor with ashes and
glowing embers ; so when the dwarfs came at midnight to get
their property back, they burnt their feet so badly, that they set
up a loud wail (supra, p. 413) and fled in haste, but they smashed
all his crockery. Villemarque 1, 42 (see Suppl.).
From this dependence of the elves on man in some things,
and their mental superiority in others, there naturally follows
a hostile relation between the two. Men disregard elves, elves
do mischief to men and teaze them. It was a very old belief,
that dangerous arrows were shot down from the air by elves ;
this evidently means light elves, it is never mentioned in stories
of dwarfs, and the AS. formula couples together esagescot and
ylfagescot, tbese elves being apparently armed with weapons
x
like those of the gods themselves the divine thunderbot is even
;
called an albschoss (pp. 179, 187), and in Scotland the elf-arrow,
elf-flint, elf-bolt is a hard pointed wedge believed to have been
discharged by spirits ; the turf cut out of the ground by light
ning is supposed to be thrown up by them. 2 On p. 187 I have
already inferred,
that there must have been some closer con
nexion, now lost to us, between elves and the Thundergod :
if it
be that his bolts -were forged for him by elves, that points rather
to the black elves.
Their touch, their breath may bring sickness or death on man
and beast; 3 one whom their stroke has fallen on, is lost or in
capable (Danske viser 1, 328) : lamed cattle, bewitched by them,
un de buer, de vorher nichts nich seien harre, un den et so lichte in schipp vorkoinen
was, ans of he nichts inne herre, siit de ganze Allero von Inter liltjen minschen
krimmeln un wimmeln. Dat sind de twarme west, dei wier trokken sind. Von der
tit heft Hovermanns noch immer vull geld ehat, dat se nich kennen deen, averst nu
sind se sau ein nan annern ut estorven, un de hof is verkoft. Wann ist denn das
gewesen ? Vor olen tien, ans de twarme noch sau in der welt wesen sind, nu
gift et er wol keine mehr, vor drvittig, virzig jaren. [Substance of the foregoing :
Hovermann, a large farmer at Offensen, had also a ship on the K. Aller. Two
little men asked him to ferry them over. He did so twice, each time to a large
: open space
A a head ? Farmer :
called Allero. Dwarf Will you have a lump sum, or be paid
so much
lump sum. Dwarf : You d better have asked so much
a head. He put his own hat on the farmer s head, who then saw the whole Allero
swarming with little men, who had been ferried across. The Hovermanns grew rich,
have now all died out, farm sold. When did that happen ? Ages ago, in the
olden time, when dwarfs were in the world, 30 or 40 years ago.]
1 Arrows of the Servian vila, p. 436. The Norw. ali-skudt, elf-shotten, is said
of sick cattle, Sommerfelt Saltdalens prastegield, p. 119. Scot, el/shot.
2 Irish Elf-stories xlv. xlvi. cii.
3 Ibid. ciii.