Forum

[Galloglaich]

Álfheimr: The historical reality of … Elves? (part I of II)
After reading through this thread you may think, “Ok Galloglaich, I see there were more interesting personalities, adventures, weapons and martial-arts in the Middle Ages than I had really expected. But DnD is a fantasy game, and the world of humans is only a small part of its universe. What use is all this historical grounding when it comes to something a bit more fantastic like say, Elves?

Well, old Galloglaich likes a good challenge, and while this is a tough one, I have learned through experience that history is full of surprises and seldom lets me down when I'm willing to really plunge into it. Sure, Elves are mythological beings, but like anything else around today, they had to come from somewhere. To follow this white rabbit down the hole just open your history books (and Wikipedia) to find the original legends which are almost always more interesting than the modern derivations. And who knows, you may find something really surprising, I almost always do.

As a starting point for Elves I figured I’d begin with Tolkein. I don’t think anybody ever did Elves as well as Tolkein did. Sure an infinity of novels, comics, manga and computer games have been written now featuring Elf characters, we have Drizzt Do'urden and a few other pretty well defined Elves in the world of fantasy literature now. But to me none of them live up to the sheer “Elfiness” of Tolkeins Noldor, Sindar etc.

Tolkeins Elves
Tolkein had many influences, and many major academic papers have been written on them all, but primarily his inspiration for the Elves came from Finnish, Celtic, Welsh, and Norse mythology and folklore (not the same thing). But the closest relative of Tolkeins Elves are, in my opinion, the Norse Ljósálfar "light elves" who were consistently portrayed as human sized and human-like only fairer and wiser, with a knack for making things like rings and swords and friendly with the Gods (particularly the Vanir Frey and Freya) almost identical to Tolkeins Elves in fact.

And here is where it gets interesting. Because the infamous Vikings were an Iron Age society which had remained essentially frozen in time on the northern fringes of Europe during the centuries that Christianity and the Feudal system were replacing the old type of society on the continent, we got a snap-shot of their ancient culture in the middle of it's transformation to "civilized" cultural norms, thanks to chroniclers and record keepers of the time. It also meant the archeological record was relatively more intact (since it was a thousand years younger), as a result we know far more about the Norse than we did about their earlier very similar barbaric cousins like the Celts, the Ligurians, the Scythians etc.

More to the point, within this snapshot we can see the evolution from history to mythology and back again, and right at this juncture is where we can find our Elves.

Álfheimr was a real place
There's the first shocking fact. Strange yes, but apparently true. The early Viking Sagas describe the actual location of Alfheim as a specific place in Scandinavia, which later evolved into another world on another plane

The land governed by King Alf was called Alfheim, and all his offspring are related to the elves. They were fairer than any other people...
-The Saga of Thorstein, Viking's Son


From the wiki:

The Ynglinga saga, when relating the events of the reign of King Gudröd (Guðröðr) the Hunter relates:

Álfheim, at that time, was the name of the land between the Raumelfr ['Raum river', lower parts of the modern Glomma river] and the Gautelfr ['Gaut river', the modern Göta älv].

The words "at that time" indicates the name for the region was archaic or obsolete by the 13th century. The element elfr is a common word for 'river' and appears in other river names. It is cognate with Middle Low German elve 'river' and the name of the river Elbe. The Raum Elf marked the border of the region of Raumaríki and the Gaut Elf marked the border of Gautland (modern Götaland). It corresponds closely to the historical Swedish province of Bohuslän.
The name Álfheim here may have nothing to do with Álfar 'Elves', but may derive from a word meaning 'gravel layer'.
However the The Saga of Thorstein, Viking's Son claims that the two rivers and the country was named from King Álf the Old (Álfr hinn gamli) who once ruled there, and that his descendants were all related to the Elves and were more handsome than any other people except for the giants, a unique and possibly corrupt reference to giants being especially good looking. The Sögubrot af Nokkrum also mentions the special good looks of the kindred of King Álf the Old.

and

Álfheimr or Alfheim (Elf-home) is the abode of the Álfar "Elves" in Norse mythology and appears also in northern English ballads under the forms Elfhame and Elphame, sometimes modernized as Elfland or Elfenland. It is also an ancient name for an area corresponding to the modern Swedish province of Bohuslän.

(and also apparently the neighboring Norweigen province of Østfold) Østfold - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So yes, it was a real place. But does that necessarily mean it was mundane or boring? Perhaps not. This is in fact a quite interesting part of the world. Bohuslän and Østfold are literally the heartland of the Vikings. They are part of a special region of islands and bays called the Viken right near the choke-point where Norway, Denmark and Sweden intersect, the name of which is the actual source of the word "Viking". This is one of the oldest continuously inhabited regions of Europe, possibly as far as 8,000 years, and was one of the key centers of the pre-Viking Vendel culture and the earlier bronze age Norse culture. It is an area known for many extremely ancient stone circles, like this one in Bohuslän




And this one in Ostfold



..and even older petroglyphs



…which were considered important enough to be made into a Unesco World Heritage site. Bohuslän is today partly deforested, a center of granite carving and fishing, the extensive ancient Oak forests were cut down apparently in the 19th century to supply the fishing industry (Sauruman and his Orcs were inspired by industrialization which Tolkein despised) but firs and pine trees have been replanted. Meanwhile Østfold still seems largely pristine.




Next: Gandalf was a real person
So what was he like?plus much more about the living tradition of Elves in Scandinavia