The elves (light-elves) are often mentioned along with the Aesir, instead of the Vanir (a race of gods). The names Vanir and Alfar (light elves) may have been either synonymous, since the expression "Aesir and Alfar" meant "all the gods", or designating a difference in status between the major fertility gods, the Vanir, and the minor ones, the elves. The Van Freyr was the lord of lfheim (meaning "elvenhome"), the home of the light-elves, and he had as servants two elves: Byggvir and Beyla. Like the Vanir the elves were associated with fertility and, in late fall, the "alfablt" (elven sacrifice) was performed in the homes. It was secret, no strangers were allowed in the homes, and so next to nothing is known of it.
The twentieth-century philologist and fantasy writer J. R. R. Tolkien had little use for Shakepearean fairy portrayals or for Victorian diminutive fairy prettiness and whimsy, aligning his elves with the god-like and human-sized elves of Norse mythology, the Ljoslfar. He conceived a race of beings similar to humans but fairer, with greater spiritual powers, keener senses, and a closer empathy with nature. They are great smiths and fierce warriors on the side of good. Tolkien's Elves of Middle-earth are not deathless and can be killed by injury, and while they are sufficiently long-lived to be called immortal by humans, they do age.
Tolkien's elves were enemies of goblins and orcs and had a longstanding quarrel with the dwarves: these motifs also often reappear in Tolkien-inspired works. In gaming, and to some extent fantasy, elves have a great depth of knowledge (especially regarding magic) due to a racial inclination as well as their extreme age. There are also "dark elves" popularized by TSR as drow.
However, in Elizabethan England, Shakespeare imagined elves as little people. He apparently considered elves and fairies to be the same race. In Henry IV, Part 1, i. 4, he has Falstaff call Prince Henry, "you starveling, you elfskin!", and in his Midsummer Night's Dream, his elves are almost as small as insects. On the other hand, Edmund Spenser applies elf to full-sized beings in The Faerie Queene.Before they became diminutive and whimsical, elves were probably akin to powerful pre-Christian forest spirits like the woodwose, the Green Man, and the drusi in the mythology of the Gauls beings to be respected and even feared. A trace of the former importance of elves in Germanic culture exists in names like Alfred (Old English lfrd, "elf-counsel") and Alvin (Old English lfwine, "elf-friend").Scandinavian mythology includes light-elves (Lioslfar) who dwell in the third space in heaven, dark-elves (Dcklfar), and black-elves (Svartalfar). The black-elves were skilled smiths, and the most skilled were reputed to be the sons of Ivaldi, the father of Idun.Elves were imported into Britain with the Anglo-Saxons.Christopher Paolini's Eragon also features elves of a Nordic persuasion.English folktales of the early modern period typically portray elves as small, elusive people with mischievous personalities (see illustration). They are not evil but might annoy humans or interfere in their affairs. They are sometimes said to be invisible. In this tradition, elves became more or less synonymous with the fairies that originated from native British mythology, for example, the Welsh Ellyll (plural Ellyllon) and Y Dynon Bach Tg.
