# Elf - Creature: Humanoid - Date: 1000 - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/bestiary/elf/ > Germanic spirits of disease and beauty, shrunk into flower-fairies by Shakespeare, restored to terrible grandeur by Dunsany, Anderson and Tolkien — and then handed a bow and a character sheet by D&D. **Why it matters:** The elf is fantasy's great 'other people': immortal, beautiful, often aloof. Tolkien's version became the default in games, and D&D's drow and Warcraft's night elves show how far designers have pushed it since. ## Quick answers **Where does the Elf come from?** Germanic folklore (Old English ælf, Old Norse álfr); remade as tall immortals by Tolkien. **When did the Elf first appear?** c. 1000, in Beowulf. **How did the Elf get into games?** Key appearances: Dungeons & Dragons (1974). **Why is the Elf significant?** The elf is fantasy's great 'other people': immortal, beautiful, often aloof. Tolkien's version became the default in games, and D&D's drow and Warcraft's night elves show how far designers have pushed it since. ## Origins The word is ancient and Germanic — Old English *ælf*, Old Norse *álfr* — probably meaning something like "white one." Early English elves were powerful and ambivalent: medical charms blamed them for "elf-shot" illnesses, while the adjective *ælfscȳne*, "elf-beautiful," described seductive biblical heroines, and parents named sons Ælfred and Ælfwine. [Beowulf](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/beowulf/) lists *ylfe* among the monstrous descendants of Cain. In Iceland, Eddic poetry pairs "Æsir and elves" as if they were nearly gods, and [Snorri Sturluson](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/snorri-sturluson/)'s *Prose Edda* (c. 1220) divides them into light-elves above and dark-elves below the earth — a scheme modern scholars think Snorri borrowed from Christian angels and demons, and one that games would later seize on. Then the elf shrank. Scottish ballads kept dangerous elf-knights and elf-queens, but in England Shakespeare's *A Midsummer Night's Dream* made fairies tiny and whimsical, and the Victorians gave them butterfly wings, stocking caps and a cobbler to help. The young [Tolkien](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/j-r-r-tolkien/) wrote in that key in "Goblin Feet" (1915) and came to loathe it. The adult Tolkien, with [Lord Dunsany](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/lord-dunsany/)'s perilous Elfland in *[The King of Elfland's Daughter](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-king-of-elflands-daughter/)* (1924) before him, reversed the shrinkage: his Eldar in *[The Hobbit](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-hobbit/)*, *[The Lord of the Rings](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-lord-of-the-rings/)* and *[The Silmarillion](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-silmarillion/)* are tall, immortal, grave and luminous, with languages of their own. In the same year as *The Fellowship of the Ring*, [Poul Anderson](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/poul-anderson/)'s *[The Broken Sword](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-broken-sword/)* (1954) went back to the sagas for elves who were beautiful, soulless and cruel. ## Into the dungeon [Chainmail](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/chainmail/)'s Fantasy Supplement (1971) put elves on the wargaming table, and [Dungeons & Dragons](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/original-dungeons-and-dragons/) (1974) made the elf a [Player character](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/player-character/) choice. Designers immediately found Tolkien's elves too good at everything; the rules let an elf fight or cast spells but capped them at 4th and 8th level, limits that lasted until the third edition. [AD&D](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/advanced-dungeons-and-dragons/)'s 1977 *Monster Manual* sorted elves into high, gray, wood, aquatic and dark kin — the last only a rumor, "the 'Black Elves,' or drow." [Gygax](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/gary-gygax/) made them real in *Hall of the Fire Giant King* (1978) and the *Descent into the Depths of the Earth* and *Vault of the Drow* modules that followed: a matriarchal, spider-worshipping civilization beneath the world. A decade later [R. A. Salvatore](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/r-a-salvatore/) gave the drow their most famous renegade, Drizzt Do'Urden, in *[The Icewind Dale Trilogy](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-icewind-dale-trilogy/)*. Computer games inherited the lot. [Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/wizardry/) (1981) and [Ultima](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/ultima-i/) offered elves at character creation; the Elf in [Gauntlet](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/gauntlet/) (1985) was the fast archer of the four heroes; [HeroQuest](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/heroquest/) (1989) paired an Elf with a Dwarf, a Barbarian and a Wizard. Bethesda split its elves into high, wood and dark peoples, making the Dunmer the hosts of [The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-elder-scrolls-morrowind/) (2002). Blizzard's night elves, introduced in *Warcraft III* (2002) and playable in [World of Warcraft](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/world-of-warcraft/) (2004), were purple, seven-foot druids; BioWare's elves in [Dragon Age: Origins](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dragon-age-origins/) (2009) were a dispossessed underclass. ## Variations The modern elf branches in every direction: the cold, alien *sidhe* of [Urban Fantasy](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/urban-fantasy/), the house-elves of [Harry Potter](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/harry-potter/), the eco-warrior elves of [Dragonlance](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dragonlance/)'s Silvanesti and Qualinesti, the High Elves and Dark Elves of [Warhammer](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/warhammer-fantasy-battle/). The drow's Underdark society and its identification of dark skin with evil drew growing criticism, and in 2021 [Wizards of the Coast](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/wizards-of-the-coast/) revised its lore to separate the drow from the cult of Lolth. Yet the basic bargain Tolkien struck still holds across nearly every game in this museum: the elf is what humans might be if they lived forever, and the pointed ears are how players say "I want to be that." ## Migration - 1000: Beowulf — Elves (ylfe) are listed with giants and orcneas among the monstrous kin of Cain. - 1220: Snorri's Prose Edda — Snorri divides the álfar into light-elves in the heavens and dark-elves under the earth. - 1595: A Midsummer Night's Dream — Shakespeare's tiny, playful fairies shrink the elf for three centuries of Romantic and Victorian art. - 1924: The King of Elfland's Daughter — Lord Dunsany restores Elfland as a perilous realm of beauty where time runs strangely. - 1954: The Lord of the Rings / The Broken Sword — Tolkien's tall, wise, immortal Eldar and Poul Anderson's cold, cruel Norse elves appear the same year. - 1974: Dungeons & Dragons — The elf becomes a player character, able to fight or cast spells but capped in level. - 1978: Hall of the Fire Giant King and the D-series — The drow, Gygax's evil dark elves, step out of legend and into the Underdark. - 2002: Warcraft III — Blizzard's purple-skinned night elves, later a playable World of Warcraft race, break the blond-archer mold. ## Facts - Old English names such as Ælfred ('elf-counsel') and Ælfwine ('elf-friend') suggest early Germanic peoples regarded elves well. - Tolkien's 1915 poem 'Goblin Feet' celebrated tiny elves; he later wished it could be 'buried for ever.' - In original D&D an elf could switch between fighting-man and magic-user, but could reach only 4th and 8th level in them. - Gygax said he took the word 'drow' — a Shetland and Orkney variant of 'trow' — from a dictionary entry for dark elves. - Warcraft artist Samwise Didier said the night elves fused D&D-style dark elves with Tolkien's woodland elves. - In 2024 D&D's new Player's Handbook replaced 'race' with 'species'; the elf offers drow, high elf and wood elf lineages. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elf) - [Wikipedia — Elves in Middle-earth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elves_in_Middle-earth) - [Wikipedia — Elf (Dungeons & Dragons)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elf_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)) - [Wikipedia — Drow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drow) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.