“Whatever its origin, the word Alf has continued till the present day in all the Teutonic languages. The Danes and Swedes have their Ellen or Elven Dan, and Elfvor Swed (Elvus), and the words Elf-dans and Elf-blæst, together with Olof and other proper names, are derived from it. The Germans call the nightmare _Alp_; and in their old poems we meet _Elben_ and _Elbinnen_, male and female elves, and _Elbisch_ frequently occurs in them in the bad sense of the “Elvish” of Chaucer and our old romancers, and a number of proper names, such as Alprecht, Alpine, Alpwin, &c., were formed from it; undoubtedly before it got its present ill sense. In the Anglo-Saxon Ælf, with its feminine and plural, frequently occurs. The Orcades, Naiades, and Hamodryades of the Greeks and Romans are rendered in an Anglo-Saxon Glossary by munt-ælfenne, fæ-ælfenne, and feld-ælfenne. Ælf is a component part of the proper names Ælfred and Ælfric; and the author of the poem of ‘Judith’ says that his heroine was Ælf-scīene (Elf-sheen), bright as an Elf. But of the character and acts of the Elfs no traditions have been preserved in Anglo-Saxon literature. In the English language, Elf, Elves, and their derivatives, are to be found in every period, from its first formation down to this present time.”[32] The judicious and indefatigable writer whom we have followed in the preceding extract, and who has treated the subject with a minuteness and an accuracy unequalled in this country, continues:— “The Alfar still live in the memory and traditions of the peasantry of Scandinavia. They also, to a certain extent, retain their distinction into white and black. The former, or the good elves, dwell in the air, dance on the grass, or sit in the leaves of trees; the latter, or evil elves, are regarded as an underground people, who frequently inflict sickness or injury on mankind; for which there is a particular kind of doctors, called Kloka, to be met in all parts of the country. “The elves are believed to have their kings, to celebrate their weddings and banquets, just the same as the dwellers above ground. There is an interesting intermediate class of them in popular tradition, called the Hill-people (Högfolk), who are believed to dwell in caves and small hills: when they show themselves they have a handsome human form. The common people seem to connect with them a deep feeling of melancholy, as if bewailing a half-quenched hope of redemption. “There are only a few old persons who now can tell any thing more about them than of the sweet singing that may occasionally on summer nights be heard out of their hills, when one stands still and listens, or, as it is expressed in the ballads, _lays his ear to the Elve-hill_ (lägger sitt öra till Elfvehögg): but no one must be so cruel as, by the slightest word, to destroy their hopes of salvation, for then the sprightly music will be turned into weeping and lamentation.