Re: [tied] ELF ETYMOLOGY

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski
<piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:

> 20-08-03 07:45, lifeiscool86 wrote:
>
> > Well, is there an Proto-Indo-European etymology to the word

<<elf>>.

> > As we know, it can be traced back to ancient Germanic cognates

but

> > does this word occur in Proto-Indo-European or just a borrowing?
> >
> > o... Germanic ELF, ALF; Latin ALB = fair?
>
> The Germanic word is *albaz (OE ælf, OHG alp, ON álfr) with a
> heteroclitic i-stem plural (OE ylfe) as in ethnic names (which

shows

> that the elves were regarded as a "society"). They came to be

confused

> with fays/fairies (BTW the words <fairy> and <fair> are unrelated!)

in

> Mediaeval literature, but the original Germanic elves were supposed

to

> be dwarfish and somewhat frightening rather than tall and

beautiful.

> They were believed to cause nightmares and diseases, and to steal
> babies, leaving changelings or "natural fools" in their place. The
> etymological connection with *h2al(h?)bH-o- 'white, shining' is

possible

> but dificult to justify, let alone prove. Skt. r.bHú-, the name of
> Indra's artisan, or collectively (<r.bHavah.>) of a whole triad of
> semidivine artisans) has been compared, but I think other

etymologies

> are more convincing.
>

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/24041

Not in Danish folk tales, wherever in the sequence you want to put
them. Elve women were supposedly were seductive, siren-like.

Torsten