The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-04-12
The Belief in Fairies.
ICornbill Mapazine.1

[Cornhill Magazine]
1t is significant fact that the belief in fair
les is most rife in the most thoroughly Celtic
portions of our islands-Wales, Devon and
Cornwall, Derbyshire, the Highlands of Scot
land and Ireland. These are also the parts
where the Euskarian or Iberian pc opulation has
most largely survived, and it is in these dis
tricts that the fairies most retain their primi-
tive characteristic as mischievous people. in
juring cattle and causing sickness among chill
dren. Here, too, the use of fairy charms to
counteract such mischief the boarding of elin
shots and thunderbolts, and the employment of
euphemistic or conciliatory language about the
"good people" is general. In Teutonic Eng
land, ON the other hand, the fairies have dwin-
died into mere pretty poetic fancies enshrined
in children's tales, and made beautiful by the
genius of Shakespeare; their mischief has be-
come mere playful tricksiness. Yet even in
Teutonic England, especially in early times,
many traces of fairy worship and propitiation
still fingered on, in which it is difficult to dis
entangle the element of ancestor-worship from
the element of propitiatory sacrifices to hostile
ghosts. There was an early English family of
Filings, OF descendants of the elves, and they
have left their traces at Alphington in Devon,
Arlington in Gloucester, Somerset, and De-
Won, and Alvingham in Lincoln. But all these
counties are noticeable for the large proportion
of Euskarian blood which they still retain, and
so these sons of the elves may be really Angli-
cised clans Of primitive elfish descent. The
word elf an elf, occurs constantly in Anglo
Saxon names, and it may have reference eth
er to the ancestral spirits or to the notion that
the fairies must be propitiated by being invited
to the birth of child. Thus we have the
name Elfgifu Casually modernized into Elgi-
va. meaning "the gift of the elves" Just as
Godgifu, similarly tortured into Godiva,
means 'the gift of Cody Alfred, originally
elves" Efric is elf-rich; and Elfstan, a very
significant name, is the elf-stone. Elgar, elf
heah, (St Alphage) Elfhere, Elfm@r, ELF
moth, Elfsige, Elfweard, and Elfwine are
formed in the same manner; the last three
mean respectively: elf victory, elf protection.
and friend of the elves-all Of them names
pregnant with meaning. We see their full sig
nificance when we put them side by side with
other names compounded with stan, stone,
such as Ethelstan, noble stone; Wulfstan,
wolf stone; Dunstan, Ealhstan, and Frithestan
All show the long survival OF the ancient elf
and stone esworship, whose relics are to be found
in our midst to the present day. In the Isle OF
Skye, monoliths exist in almost every parish,
and libations of milk are still poured out upon
them, doubtless to prevent the drying up OF
the cows udders; and in Ireland, to very late
period, the fairies were formally invited on the
occasion of a birth, lest they might injure the
child through spite at the neglect shown to
their dignity by not informing them of the
event. On the other hand, it is worth notice
that mention is made in Anglo-Saxon works of
hostile spirits which harm men and beasts,
though, of course, not under the heathenish
name of elves: "The neat they sting as it
wends through the field the kline they destroy,
the horse they bow, they hew him with horns" !"
And we have an Anglo-Saxon spell which di-
rects that, if witchcraft has spoiled farm, the
farmer should build an altar, lay on it milk
from each COW and leaf from each herb, sprin-
kle the whole with holy water, and pronounce
a Christian form of prayer. Here, surely, we
may see Christianity used as defense against
the power of the elves.