The elves in Nordic Folklore are usually described as very small, female beings, dressed in shimmering white and with wings, often dancing on a misty field. But as with other supernatural beings, they can change their appearance and turn invisible. They can also take the form of small animals, such as toads, ants or flies.
Elves live together in communities, often in the earth under the meadows, mires or fields where they use to dance, and are ruled by a king and queen. The male elves play the music to which the female elves dance.
In Scandinavia, there is still a saying that if you see white mist over a field or meadow at dusk or dawn, it is the elves dancing. But dont be too quick to try to watch them – it can be very dangerous for humans. If you get too close, you’ll get caught up in the music and the dance, and lose all sense of time and space. Once the dancing stops, you might find that years or even decades have passed. And you will always hear their music inside your head, which eventually can drive you insane.
The dance of the elves leaves traces on the ground in the form of circles, for example you can find mushrooms growing in a ring on the ground. Then you know that elves danced there, and it’s best not to destroy the ring. If you pee in such an elf ring, you can become mortally ill.
If you angered an elf, they would blow a disease on you. The most common was a sort of skin condition that itched something terribly, and to get rid of it you had to do counter-magic by blowing back. You could take a vessel of water and blow on it through a hollow tube, which charged the water with magical power and could counteract the itching. You could also use a bellows.
Another way to cure an elven disease was to make sacrifices to them in so-called “elven mills”, i.e. cup marks carved in stone back in the Bronze Age. To appease the elves, the cup marks were greased and offerings in the form of coins or needles were placed in them.
Children were especially vulnerable to the elves, who came at night and sucked on their fingers and toes so that they could not sleep, and so that the skin became completely red and sore.
To cure the sick child, you could make three small dolls from their hair, nails and clothes. Then these dolls would be sacrificed to the elves for three Thursday nights in a row and the following rhyme would be said: “Take this and play with it and let (child’s name) be”.
Sources:
Egerkrans, Johan. Nordiska väsen. (2023)
Schön, Ebbe. Älvor, vättar och andra väsen. (1996)
Wall, Tora. Folktrons väsen. (2021)