Editing Elf (section)

=== Britain ===

[[File:Scott-Minstrelsy-Works-v1-p195-True Thomas tune.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Thomas the Rhymer]]'' in [[Walter Scott]]'s ''[[Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border]]''{{sfnp|Scott|1803|p=266}}]]

From around the [[Late Middle Ages]], the word ''elf'' began to be used in English as a term loosely synonymous with the French loan-word ''fairy'';{{sfnp|Hall|2005|pp=20–21}} in elite art and literature, at least, it also became associated with diminutive supernatural beings like [[Puck (folklore)|Puck]], [[hobgoblin]]s, Robin Goodfellow, the English and Scots [[brownie (folklore)|brownie]], and the Northumbrian English [[Hob (folklore)|hob]].{{sfnp|Bergman|2011|pp=62–74}} However, in Scotland and parts of northern England near the Scottish border, beliefs in elves remained prominent into the nineteenth century. [[James VI of Scotland]] and Robert Kirk discussed elves seriously; elf beliefs are prominently attested in the Scottish witchcraft trials, particularly the trial of [[Isobel Gowdie|Issobel Gowdie]]; and related stories also appear in folktales,{{sfnp|Henderson|Cowan|2001}} There is a significant corpus of ballads narrating stories about elves, such as ''Thomas the Rhymer'', where a man meets a female elf; ''[[Tam Lin]]'', ''[[The Elfin Knight]]'', and ''[[Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight]]'', in which an Elf-Knight rapes, seduces, or abducts a woman; and ''[[The Queen of Elfland's Nourice]]'', a woman is abducted to be a wet-nurse to the elf queen's baby, but promised that she might return home once the child is weaned.{{sfnp|Taylor|2014|pp=199–251}}