Elves in Anglo-Saxon England

"Anglo-Saxon elves (Old English alfe) are one of the best attested non-Christian beliefs in early medieval Europe. Current interpretations of the evidence, however, derive directly from outdated nineteenth-and early twentieth-century scholarship." "Integrating linguistic and textual approaches into an anthropologically-inspired framework, this book reassesses the full range of evidence relating to elves. With a new degree of reliability, it traces continuities and changes in medieval non-Christian beliefs, from pre-conversion times to the eleventh century and beyond and uses comparative material from medieval Ireland and Scandinavia to argue for a dynamic relationship between beliefs and society"--BOOK JACKET.