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INFEEIOK DEITIES AS OBJECTS OF WOESHIP. 193
the Landvsettir were most commonly considered as
belonging to the Jotun race, and as dwelling chiefly
in the mountains. To regard the Jotuns as still
being in a manner the actual ownera of the country
with reference to inanimate nature, was fully in accordance
with the dogma-s of the Asa-faith; and
that, although the Jotuns on the whole were recog-
nized as evil beings, yet the people still endeavored
by a kind of worship to make friends of the few
within whose territory they lived, and whose in-
fluence they imagined themselves to feel continually—
^this was but a natural consequence of the usual
conception which heathens' form of supernatural
beings in general, and of their influence on human
life.
The third kind of inferior Deities which the
heathen Northmen worshiped was the Elves (Alfr,
a spirit ; jpT/wr. -Alfar). The belief in them rests
wholly upon the Asa doctrine, which represents
the Elves as the inhabitants of that region of the
atmosphere nearest to the Earth's surface, and of
the interior of the Earth. The former were called
properly, Light-Elves (Ljosdlfar), the latter, Dark-
Elves (Dokkalfar) ;* but thfe two classes were blend-
ed together at an -early period in the popular faith,
and it appears to have been a very general belief
that the Earthly Elves were neither black nor evil.
It was thought that in their whole nature and appearance
they were like men, and that they had
their dwellings in moimds. They showed themselves
occasionally and were thought to have power
* TheL. Edda: Gtylf. 17.