Fairy Legends and Traditions by Thomas Crofton Croker [1825]

;
with them.
ON THE NATURE OF THE ELVES. 85
A girl who had passed a whole year
in an Elfin mountain fancied that she had been
there only three days (Hausmarchen, No. 39)
and a hundred years appeared to the two Scotch
musicians as but one night passed in pleasure;
while a poor woman (Deutsche Sagen, No. 151)
slept the whole time. Tannhauser does not perceive
how quickly the time passes in the subterraneous
mountains.
7- LANGUAGE.
1. The Edda ascribes a peculiar language to
the fairies,, different from that of gods, men, and
giants ; the terms in which, for the principal natural
phenomena, are given in the Alvismal. In
the same manner as Homer in several places distinguishes
between divine and human appellations.
It is remarkable that in northern traditions the
echo is called dvergmdl, or bergmal ; that is, "dwarf,
or mountain language." (See Biorn Haldorson,
i. 73 1 > and Faroiske Quader. Randers, 1822, p.
464. 468.) The subterraneous beings in Wales
have an entirely distinct language, of which a
person, who had been among them, learned a few
words.
2. The Elves speak in a very low voice. In
Ruodiger's poem of the Zwein Gesellen (Konigsberg
MS. fol.
17 d )> a person speaks in a low voice.