Editing Elf (section)

==== Appearance and behaviour ====

[[File:Älvalek.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|''Älvalek'', "Elf Play" by [[August Malmström]] (1866)]]

The elves of Norse mythology have survived into folklore mainly as females, living in hills and mounds of stones.<ref name="He-1">{{cite book|last=Hellström |first=Anne Marie |year=1990|title=En Krönika om Åsbro|isbn=978-91-7194-726-0 |page=36|publisher=Libris }}</ref> The Swedish ''älvor'' were stunningly beautiful girls who lived in the forest with an elven king.<ref>For the Swedish belief in ''älvor'' see mainly {{cite book|last=Schön|first=Ebbe|year=1986|title=Älvor, vättar och andra väsen|isbn=978-91-29-57688-7|chapter=De fagra flickorna på ängen|publisher=Rabben & Sjogren }}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Keightley|1850|pp=78–}}. Chapter: "Scandinavia: Elves"</ref>

The elves could be seen dancing over meadows, particularly at night and on misty mornings. They left a circle where they had danced, called ''älvdanser'' (elf dances) or ''älvringar'' (elf circles), and to urinate in one was thought to cause venereal diseases. Typically, elf circles were [[fairy ring]]s consisting of a ring of small mushrooms, but there was also another kind of elf circle. In the words of the local historian Anne Marie Hellström:<ref name="He-1"/>

{{Quote|... on lake shores, where the forest met the lake, you could find elf circles. They were round places where the grass had been flattened like a floor. Elves had danced there. By [[Tisnaren|Lake Tisnaren]], I have seen one of those. It could be dangerous, and one could become ill if one had trodden over such a place or if one destroyed anything there.<ref name="He-1"/>}}

If a human watched the dance of the elves, he would discover that even though only a few hours seemed to have passed, many years had passed in the real world. Humans being invited or lured to the elf dance is a common motif transferred from older Scandinavian ballads.{{sfnp|Taylor|2014}}

Elves were not exclusively young and beautiful. In the Swedish folktale ''Little Rosa and Long Leda'', an elvish woman (''älvakvinna'') arrives in the end and saves the heroine, Little Rose, on the condition that the king's cattle no longer graze on her hill. She is described as a beautiful old woman and by her aspect people saw that she belonged to the ''subterraneans''.<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Lilla Rosa och Långa Leda |title=Svenska folksagor |trans-title=Swedish Folktales |language=Swedish |year=1984 |publisher=Almquist & Wiksell Förlag AB |location=Stockholm |page=158}}</ref>