Editing Elf (section)

=== Early modern elite culture ===

[[File:Rackham elves.jpg|thumb|Illustration of Shakespeare's ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' by [[Arthur Rackham]]]]

Early modern Europe saw the emergence of a distinctive [[High culture|elite culture]]: while the [[Reformation]] encouraged new skepticism and opposition to traditional beliefs, subsequent Romanticism encouraged the [[Fetishism|fetishisation]] of such beliefs by intellectual elites. The effects of this on writing about elves are most apparent in England and Germany, with developments in each country influencing the other. In Scandinavia, the Romantic movement was also prominent, and literary writing was the main context for continued use of the word ''elf,'' except in fossilised words for illnesses. However, oral traditions about beings like elves remained prominent in Scandinavia into the early twentieth century.{{sfnp|Taylor|2014}}

Elves entered early modern elite culture most clearly in the literature of Elizabethan England.{{sfnp|Bergman|2011|pp=62–74}} Here [[Edmund Spenser]]'s ''[[Faerie Queene]]'' (1590–) used ''fairy'' and ''elf'' interchangeably of human-sized beings, but they are complex, imaginary and allegorical figures. Spenser also presented his own explanation of the origins of the ''Elfe'' and ''Elfin kynd'', claiming that they were created by [[Prometheus]].{{sfnp|Keightley|1850|p=57}} Likewise, [[William Shakespeare]], in a speech in ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' (1592) has an "elf-lock" (tangled hair) being caused by [[Queen Mab]], who is referred to as "the [[fairy|fairies']] [[midwife]]".<ref name="oed-elf-lock">{{Citation|title=elf-lock|url=http://www.oed.com/|year=1989|series=OED Online|work=Oxford English Dictionary|edition=2|publisher=Oxford University Press|url-access=subscription}}; "Rom. & Jul. I, iv, 90 Elf-locks" is the oldest example of the use of the phrase given by the OED.</ref> Meanwhile, ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' promoted the idea that elves were diminutive and ethereal. The influence of Shakespeare and [[Michael Drayton]] made the use of ''elf'' and ''fairy'' for very small beings the norm, and had a lasting effect seen in fairy tales about elves, collected in the modern period.<ref name=tolkien1969/>