A fantasy/Mythical question!

[tecnowraith]

I would like to ask and I hope someone or seveal can answer this. I have been searching for information on history myth or lore about elves, dwaves, faeries and all the standard fantasy races and creatures. What ask people here is what the connection, if any, between elves, dwaves, faeries and any other humaniod creatures between them? I want to know about real-world info, not tolkien or D&D cosmology.

This for general info, not gaming related.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

Well, given that none of them are "real", I don't think you're going to find any sources that aren't fantasy of some sort. Are you talking about the real-world mythological basis for these types of creatures?

 

[tecnowraith]

Yeah, should have phrased it that way.

 

[Wombat]

Well, there are the Elder and Prose Eddas, the basis for most of our knowledge of Norse mythology and cosmology. A fair amount on dwarfs, alfar, etc., in there. I know that Penguin has at least a copy of the Prose Edda (by Snorre Sturlson), so that is pretty easy to get ahold of, but the Elder Edda, the better of the two, is harder to find.

For Tolkein-esque elves, I would check old Irish tales dealing with the daoine sidhe -- Book of Invasions/Conquests, if you can find it, is great material there.

Once you start getting in sprites and other wee peoples, find collections of old folktales, especially the ones that haven't been "cleaned up". If you can ever, ever find a copy, run, do not walk, and get a copy of Nancy Arrowsmith's A Field Guide to the Little People -- this is brimming with information on fey lore. The information is drawn from hundreds of short folktales and is inordinately useful. Sadly, I believe it went through a single printing back in about 1977. I practically keep my copy under lock and key!

 

[Pants]

My mother has a book simply called Faeries that is illustrated by Alan Lee (of LotR fame) and it contains quite a bit of info on the fey culture, folklore, and different types of fey. I believe its still in print as I saw it for sale on the SciFi/Fantasy bookclub newsletter.

 

[Filby]

My mother has a book simply called Faeries that is illustrated by Alan Lee (of LotR fame) and it contains quite a bit of info on the fey culture, folklore, and different types of fey. I believe its still in print as I saw it for sale on the SciFi/Fantasy bookclub newsletter.

Yeah, it's still in print. Pretty easy to find, too. In addition to the art by Alan Lee, about half of the illustrations and all of the text is by Brian Froud, who is best known as the conceptual designer for The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth.

I must also highly, highly recommend An Encyclopedia of Fairies by Katherine Briggs. It is the authority on the fey of western Europe.

 

[tecnowraith]

what is the connection, if any, between elves, dwaves, faeries and any other humaniod creatures between them? Are they under the same classification of faeries or are they something, a different classification?

 

[tecnowraith]

Yeah, it's still in print. Pretty easy to find, too. In addition to the art by Alan Lee, about half of the illustrations and all of the text is by Brian Froud, who is best known as the conceptual designer for The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth.

I must also highly, highly recommend An Encyclopedia of Fairies by Katherine Briggs. It is the authority on the fey of western Europe.

I have this book.

 

[Eosin the Red]

It would help if you clarified your question or maybe if I got more sleep?

You need to narrow it down a little -- Nordic Alfar, Dockalfar (Dwarves or Trolls) are one branch that is somewhat interconnected.

Anglo fae (seelie & unseelie) come from another line that does not have dwarves.

Germanic??? legends have there own stuff, elves & gnomes if I recall.

Try reading this and see if it is helpful

Elven stuff

 

[WayneLigon]

what is the connection, if any, between elves, dwaves, faeries and any other humaniod creatures between them? Are they under the same classification of faeries or are they something, a different classification?

They all fall under the classification of 'mythological creatures' Seriously, what you'll find as you read more and more about the various myths and legends our world has generated is that they refer to all those creatures and more interchangably; one source will call Creature X a 'dwarf', another will call the same creature a faerie or devil or almost anything else. Our modern and/or game book ideas of catagorizing creatures by type just didn't exist when most of these tales circulated as fact.