This Week in Elfland: August 20th Edition

Last updated on: August 20, 2016 at 10:33 am by David Russell Mosley

Darkness in Elfland: Tolkien on Whether Fairies Are Demons and a (Hopefully) Fuller Account of Enchantment

Siegfried kills Fafner. Date1911; New Impression's plates are the same as those of the first edition.[1] Source ; Rackham, Arthur (illus) (1924-August) [1911] Siegfried & The Twilight of the Gods (New Impression ed.), London: William Heinemann, p. p. 56 Retrieved on 22 June 2011. Author Arthur Rackham (PD-US) — Siegfried kills Fafner.
Date 1911; New Impression’s plates are the same as those of the first edition.[1]
Source ; Rackham, Arthur (illus) (1924-August) [1911] Siegfried & The Twilight of the Gods (New Impression ed.), London: William Heinemann, p. p. 56 Retrieved on 22 June 2011.
Author
Arthur Rackham (PD-US)

My point here is merely to point out that the elf or fairy (whether actually existing or existing only in our stories) is not inherently related to demons and that while there are other traditions that so suggest, there is another, and longer running (even if the other is older), tradition that places them neither on the side of the angels, nor on the side of the demons. They are a people apart. I am reminded of Lewis’s That Hideous Strength where Dr. Dimble is speculating about Merlin’s abilities and notes that there were, in Merlin’s day, neutrals, not creatures neutral to the will of God, but neutral so far as we are concerned. Remember that Tolkien himself wrote, “God is the Lord, of angels, and of men––and of elves” (78).

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