Editing Elf (section)

=== Demythologising elves as people with illness or disability ===

Scholars have at times also tried to explain beliefs in elves as being inspired by people suffering certain kinds of illnesses (such as [[Williams syndrome]]).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Westfahl |first1=Gary |last2=Slusser |first2=George Edgar |title=Nursery Realms: Children in the Worlds of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror |date=1999 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |isbn=9780820321448 |page=153 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lrdhYWzpSDkC&pg=PA153 |language=en}}</ref> Elves were certainly often seen as a cause of illness, and indeed the English word ''oaf'' seems to have originated as a form of ''elf'': the word ''elf'' came to mean '[[changeling]] left by an elf' and then, because changelings were noted for their failure to thrive, to its modern sense 'a fool, a stupid person; a large, clumsy man or boy'.<ref>"[https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/129456 oaf, n.1.]{{Dead link|date=December 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}", "[https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/13053 auf(e, n.]{{Dead link|date=December 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}" , ''OED Online, Oxford University Press'', June 2018. Accessed 1 September 2018.</ref> However, it again seems unlikely that the origin of beliefs in elves itself is to be explained by people's encounters with objectively real people affected by disease.{{sfnp|Hall|2007|pp=7–8}}