Abstract

Contents

3

List of figures

7

Abbreviations

7

Acknowledgements

8

1. Introduction

10

1. Historiography

15

2. Fundamental assumptions

17

3. Methodologies

18

3.1 Categorising from the bottom up

18

3.2 Language and belief

21

3.3 The dynamic nature of belief

23

3.4 Comparison

25

4. Popular belief?

26

Part 1: An Old Norse context

29

2. An Old Norse context

30

1. Snorri’s writings

31

1.1 Snorra Edda and Ynglinga saga

31

1.2 Snorri and the vanir

35

2. Álfr in skaldic verse

37

3. Álfr in Eddaic verse

42

3.1 Formulae, and Freyr

43

3.2 Völundarkviða

46

4. Interpretations

50

Part 2: The Old English textual evidence for ælfe

55

3. The earliest Anglo-Saxon evidence: etymology, onomastics and morphology

56

1. Etymology

56

2. Personal names

57

3. Old English morphology

62

4. Contexts and interpretations

64

4. The Poetic Evidence

67

1. Beowulf

67

2. Ælfscyne

71

5. Glosses

77

1. Demonisation: ælf and satanas

79

1.1 Texts

79

1.2 Origins

79

1.3 Evidence for the semantics of ælf

80

2. Ælfe and nymphs: dunælfa and landælfe

81

2.1 Texts

81

2.2 Origins

83

2.3 Evidence for the semantics of ælf

85

3. Nymphs again: from ælfe to ælfenne to ælfen

86

3.1 Texts

86

3.2 Origins

88

3.3 Evidence for the semantics of ælf

90

4. Ælfe and prophecy? Ylfig

92

4.1 Texts

92

4.2 Origins

94

4.3 Evidence for the semantics of ælf

95

4.4 Ælfþone

97

5. Ælfe and delusion: ælfisc

100

6. Conclusions

104

6. Medical texts

106

1. The elf-shot conspiracy: Bald’s Leechbook II, f. 106r., Gif hors ofscoten sie

107

2. Other ælf-ailments: Leechbook III, ff. 123a–25v

113

2.1 Ælfadl

114

2.2 Ælfsogoða

114

2.3 Wæterælfadl

116

3. Ælfsiden

117

3.1 Comparative linguistic evidence

118

3.2 Harley 585, ff. 137r–38r

122

3.3 Leechbook III, ff. 120v–21r and lenctenadl

122

3.4 Bald’s Leechbook I, section 64, f. 52v: the semantics of leodrune and the association of maran with ælfe

123

3.5 Wið ælfcynne

126

3.6 Wið ælfe & wiþ uncuþum sidsan

129

4. Interpretations

130

Part 3: North-West European contexts; interpretations; and conclusions

132

7. Narratives and contexts

133

1. Sex, sickness, seiðr and mörur, and their analogues

136

1.1 Ynglinga saga

136

1.2 Serglige Con Culainn

138

1.3 The Southern English Legendary

141

2. Males and magic

144

2.1 Skírnismál and the Bergen rune-stave

145

2.2 The Gesta Danorum

147

2.3 Evidence for ælfe

150

3. Völundarkviða again

152

4. The Scottish witchcraft trials

157

4.1 Andro Man

159

4.2 Elspeth Reoch

162

5. Conclusions

165

8. Wið færstice

168

1. What is ylfa gescot? And the coherence of the charm

170

2. The hægtessan

171

2.1 What is a hægtesse?

171

2.2 Medieval analogues for the hægtessan in Wið færstice

174

3. Issobel Gowdie: the smiths, the elves and the witches

179

4. Healing and the supernatural in Anglo-Saxon culture

186

5. Conclusions

188

9. The meanings of ælfe

190

1. Ælfe as sources of danger and power

192

2. Gendering

195

2.1 The effeminacy of ælfe: early Anglo-Saxons and mythological transgressions

197

2.2 The female ælfe~elven

204

3. Christianisation

208

4. Future directions

210

Appendix 1: The linguistic history of elf

212

1. The phonological and morphological history of elf

212

2. Germanic cognates

217

Appendix 2: Place-names ælf

218

Appendix 3: Two non-elves

221

Works cited

223