Wendy and Richard Pini's long-running comic book Elfquest attempts to avoid the usual Tolkienesque elven clichs by placing their elves in a setting inspired by Native American rather than European mythology. It later turns out that they are actually the descendants of a shape-shifting alien race rather than mythological beings.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.
In USA, Canada, and the United Kingdom, the modern children's folklore of Santa Claus typically includes diminutive, green-clad elves as Santa's assistants. They wrap Christmas gifts and make toys in a workshop located in the Arctic. In this portrayal, elves slightly resemble nimble and delicate versions of the dwarfs of Norse mythology. However, the elf legends are in fact, even older than Saint Nicholas, the bishop on whom Santa Claus was originally based.
Elves are mythical creatures of Germanic mythology that have survived in northern European folklore. Originally a race of minor gods of nature and fertility, they are often pictured as small, youthful-seeming men and women of great beauty living in forests and other natural places, underground, or in wells and springs. They have been imagined to be long-lived or immortal and magical powers have been attributed to them. Something associated with elves or the qualities of elves is described by the adjectives elfin, elven, elfish, or elvish. Elves are staple characters in modern fantasy. They are also called:In the Nordic countries where elves have since become associated with Christmas, elves are clad all in red and have long beards and black boots. On Christmas Eve, one must give the elves a bowl of porridge to keep them from playing pranks. In Iceland, from December 12 until Christmas Eve, thirteen elves called the Yule lads visit homes, a lad each day for 13 days, and play tricks on the children, as well as leaving presents for them.German folklore held that elves had a particular fondness for children and would appear to those about to die, rather like the Irish banshee. This aspect of the legend was immortalised by Goethe in his poem Der Erlknig, later set to music by Schubert.In Scandinavian folklore, which is a later blend of Norse mythology and elements of Christian mythology, there are several groups of human-like nature spirits than are akin to "elves" in a modern sense. These are called tomtar, vittror, and lvor, and are grouped under the general name of vttar (compare wights).
The Brothers Grimm fairy tale The Shoemaker & the Elves is probably the most famous original elf tale. The elves are only one foot tall in this story, naked, and like to work on shoes, as leprechauns do. When the shoemaker rewards their work with little clothes, the elves are so delighted, that they run away and are never seen again. (This tales is echoed in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter stories: see below.)
Post-Tolkien literary elves (popularized by the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game) tend to be human-sized or only slightly smaller than humans, and tend also to be capable warriors, especially skilled in archery. Terms like hob or brownie or other genuine regional folklore terms are seldom used of such creatures: they are unlikely to sneak in at night and help a cobbler mend his shoes. The canonical role-playing style elf is Deedlit, a major character of the anime series Record of Lodoss War.There are also in the Heimskringla notions about a line of local kings who rule over lfheim, situated between the Gautelfr and the present border between Norway and Sweden on the Swedish westcoast. The last king is named Gandalf.
