On Elves…


elf-womanNowadays, almost everybody has a very specific idea on what elves are. When I asked a number of people how they look like, I was surprised to find out that most people gave similar descriptions: they are very beautiful human-like creatures, have eyebrows that curve up to their temples, their eyes are almond shaped and they have pointy ears. A number of people told me they wear green clothes. Elves have almost always blonde hairs, according to most people I talked to.

I think it’s very amusing to see how there seems to be a common image in modern global pop culture when it concerns elves. Had I asked this question one hundred years ago, answers would have been completely different. Back then, the general understanding was that elves are very small and they would have a mischievous character. Elves were known to prank people. Going further back into time, people would think elves would have a normal size and their physical appearance makes it hard to distinguish them from humans. As you can see, elves’ physical appearance changed over time, they shrunk in a certain era, to “unshrink” later only to shrink again a century later. They are always fair and youthful, male elves never have facial hair.
People back then did not have the same interest in elves like the people have now. The reason why elves are so popular now lies in the works of one man: J.R.R. Tolkien, writer of “The Hobbit”, “The Silmarillion” and “The Lord of the Rings”. I think the genius of this man lies not so much in telling fairy tales but in creating an almost parallel universe where these creatures live. It’s a very different world but very similar to ours as well. It fits people’s intuition when they read it for the first time because the story is new and old at the same time, which makes it very powerful.

J.R.R. Tolkien was a professor of Anglo-Saxon literature and knew a lot about history, folklore en mythology of the people of North-West Europe.  He loved the culture and folklore of Iceland. Tolkien was not a professional writer like the ones we know today. His goal was not to write books, but to create a mythology for England. His first book, “The Hobbit” is a children’s book that emerged from the tales he told his own children. In his work he combines age old existing mythologies with modern storytelling to create a unique world. He gets inspired by the old mythologies, which means there’s no one on one comparison.

Back to elves. Elves are extremely popular nowadays thanks to the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. And he used mythology to create them. So what inspired him? Where do elves come from?
If we want to know more about elves we need to go back to Norse / Icelandic mythology. That’s the only place where they show up. There is one surviving work which deals with Norse mythology: The Edda. Actually, there are two Eddas: a book with a collection of poems (poetic Edda) and a book with prose (prose Edda).
The Edda is relatively young: most of what we have now was written down int the 12th-13th century, probably using 8th-9th century sources. It disappears for a while to turn up again in 1643 when the bishop of Skáholt, Brynjólfur Sveinsson took possession of it. It’s not totally clear who wrote everything down. One name, though is brought into connection with the book: Saemundr the Learned, a 12th century Catholic priest from Iceland. The prose version is attributed to Snorri Sturlesson, a 12th century politician ‘lawspeaker’ from Iceland with great interest in the roots of Icelandic culture. Without these interested individuals most stories of Norse mythology would probably be lost forever.

Before delving deeper into this, I need to give a very short explanation on the whole creation according to Norse mythology first, because this is important to understand where elves come from.
The first similarity is the existence of several ‘realms’ or worlds. The Norse gods form two tribes or families. I’m not sure if they come from one source or not. There are the Æsir who live in a place called Asgard and the Vanir who live in Vanaheimr. Sometimes these families fight each other, much like Olympians and Titans. And then there’s our realm, our world which is called “Midgard”. The prefix ‘mid’ means ‘middle’ and the suffix -gard refers to ‘place’ or ‘earth’. Our word ‘garden’ has the same root. So Midgard actually means “Middle-earth”. Readers familiar with the works of Tolkien recognise that name of course. In total there are nine worlds, there six more from the three I just mentioned. For our story on elves one other is of interest: Alfheim (English: Elphame). The suffix -heim means ‘home’ or ‘dwelling place / world’. The word home probably has the same root as ‘heim’. In German you call your home still ‘Heim’. The prefix ‘Alf’ means ‘Elf’. Which makes Alfheim or Alfrheim the place where elves dwell.

We now know where they live, but it’s still not clear what kind of creatures they really are. Norse mythology is a bit vague on their origins as well. What is clear is that they are a divine-like kind of creatures. They do have some powers and they dwell near the gods. The god Freya lives among them according to some sources. When reading the descriptions in Norse mythology, elves are quite similar to what we now refer to as angels: they are creatures made by the gods and share some godlike powers but are not as powerful as gods. They are usually benevolent except when they are treated in a bad way. When people anger elves all kinds of bad luck is crossing their paths.

One think is strikingly different from the elves you find in Tolkien’s books. In Tolkien’s world elves are like the pinnacle of creation: they are very wise, very civilised, their architecture is very elegant and they are the only race with interest in academics and the arts. That’s something Tolkien made up himself. Elves in Norse mythology are nothing like that their “culture” (if you can use that word in this context) is much more “primitive” . They also look different: At the beginning of this article I summed up how people see elves nowadays: they have pointy ears, are very beautiful, have almond shaped eyes and their eyebrows curve up to their temples. Their frame is very delicate. This would be the perfect description of a pixie, not of an elf. In Norse mythology, elves look exactly like humans, they are indeed very beautiful but there’s nothing in their appearance that gives away their true identity. Again: just like in Christianity angels look exactly like humans and the only thing that would give their true identity away is their beauty.

When we read a bit more in the prose Edda, we find that Sturlesson divides the race of elves into three groups. There’s the Light Elves, the Dark Elves and the Black Elves. The way Sturlesson writes about elves is utterly confusing. Sometimes it seems that Black Elves and Dark Elves are interchangeable and sometimes they seem to be separate groups.
The Light Elves are the elves we met so far: they are the benevolent creatures who live in Alfheim and who are friends with the god Freya. They are ‘good’ elves, so to say. Then there are those not so benevolent elves, the Svártalfr (Black Elves). It is interesting to note that dwarves (dverger) and goblins (kobold in German, kabouter in Dutch) are in fact black elves. They are of elven origin but evil. Dwarves in Norse and Germanic mythology are nothing like Gimli and his friends in “The Lord of the Rings”. It’s not clear how the relationship between dwarves en elves works, you can find a number of dwarves in Norse mythology with elven names, but it sure explains the animosity between Gimli and Legolas. It could be that there has been a war and part of the elves went to the “Dark Side”, thus becoming “Black Elves”. This would be similar to the clash between angels in the Bible which led to the emerge of demons in our world. The devil and his demonic minions are fallen angels.

In Tolkiens world the elves became divided by a historical sundering: there as a group called “Calaquendi” (Elves of Light who have seen the light of the two Trees of Valinor) and the Avari, who did not want to go to Valinor. There was also this inbetween group of the “Elves of Twilight”, the grey elves. To make things even more confusing, Tolkien calls Eöl “Dark elf”. Indeed, Eöl had close relations with the dwarves.

I think this comparison sums up nicely what the similarities between the appearance of elves in Norse mythology and Tolkien’s works are. In a new post I want to take a closer look at the subject by comparing both creation myths: How similar is the creation saga for Arda in Tolkien’s literature to the creation myth in Norse mythology? We’ve already seen there are some striking similarities in the cosmology between the two, so who knows.

Links for further reading:

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“Someone is more likely to get pregnant from kissing than a paedophile because of celibacy.”


Please don't rape meA while ago, some German friends pointed me to an excellent article in Cicero magazine. It deals with some questions concerning the abuse scandals that’s haunting the Church for quite a while already. As soon as a discussion starts about abuse in the Catholic Church, people are quickly to blame celibacy for it. The people with the toughest stances are usually those with little factual knowledge on either pedophilia and/or celibacy. Therefore I translated the article into Dutch, and my friend Mark used that for his translation into English. Go and read it, it’s an excellent piece!

The Dutch version can be found here, whereas the English version is located here. Both are a translation of the original article in German.

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Smallest ever baby born in Germany… and survives


baby-feet I read the following story in different German newspapers:

Goettingen, Germany – A baby weighing just 275 grams has been born in Germany and survived, the lowest weight for a viable birth of a boy ever recorded, doctors said Thursday. Doctors normally assume that survival is impossible at birth weights below 350 grams.

The little boy was born in June last year in the 25th week of pregnancy, said Stefan Weller, a spokesman for the University of Goettingen Hospital. He spent six months in intensive care and was finally discharged in December after growing to 3.7 kilograms.

Weller said doctors had checked every available record worldwide of premature births and found no viable birth at a lower weight.

English version found at: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/312505,smallest-ever-baby-born-in-germany-and-survives.html#ixzz0hDwIdApm

In The Netherlands, abortion is legal until 24 weeks of pregnancy. So the difference between ‘a person whose life is worth it to be saved’ and ‘a bunch of cells which can be aborted’ is just one week in this case. Am I the only person who thinks this is mind-boggling?

Link to the image: sfkids.org

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A Letter To Pat Robertson


haitiquake A few days ago Pat Robertson caused an uproar among his fellow Christians by claiming that the devastating earthquake that happened in Haiti last week was their own fault because they are cursed because they made a pact with the devil.

“They were under the heel of the French, you know Napoleon the third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said ‘We will serve you if you will get us free from the prince.’ True story. And so the devil said, ‘Ok it’s a deal.’ And they kicked the French out. The Haitians revolted and got something themselves free. But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after another,”

Source: CBS News

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Social Networking, The New Peer Pressure?


communities already existClive Thompson over at wired.com wrote an interesting article about how what we like is affected by what people around us like. Most people will recognise this and psychologists call this phenomenon peer pressure. It’s strongest in teens, as every parent who has teen kids can affirm. In adults the process is much more subtle. Group Think, as Thompson calls it, is in psychology something entirely different. In a groupthink situation you’ve got a group who is very close and communicates in jargon. They all think along the same lines and often are led by a directive leader who tells them what to do. What happens next is that they fail to come up with the best solutions because there’s no creativity in the thinking process. In small groups this is too bad for those involved, but it can be very dangerous when it happens to large societies, for instance like the German society during 1933 − 1945.

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Pink Stinks: Telling Young Girls How To Think Properly


Vintage Postcard ~ Little Girl in PinkDuring the Christmas season a campaign launched in the UK drew my attention. I saw a lot of news sources ran the story and decided to have a look. After all, they touch upon my field of interest: psychology. Two sisters from London, Abi and Emma Moore started a campaign against the “pinkification” of the world: Pink Stinks. On their site they state what the goal of their campaign is:

PinkStinks aims to counteract the slurry of media obsession on women who are ‘famous’, ‘thin’ ‘rich’ or ‘married to famous men’, by celebrating those women that we see as inspirational, important, ground-breaking and motivating. On these pages we’ll point you in the direction of some of those women … some from history, some just starting out, from all walks of life. It’s amazing how great they are, and when they’re brought together in a list like this there’s a real power to them, that can only serve as an uplifting inspiration.

Also, they showcase a number of “new role models” for girls, while ranting against the feminine stereotyping of girls, dressing them in pink, selling them pink toys and most of all “force them” into stereotypical girly role models. They argue, maybe not explicit that society forces girls with a model on how to behave and how to think and how wrong that is, the current situation that is. What they don’t seem to realise is that they themselves try to do exactly the same, with other role models, other toys and other ways of dressing. It strikes me maybe because it’s all to familiar with me, with my mom being rather feministic trying to avoid the gender stereotyping. It almost seems like they have some issues with girls wanting to be girls, wanting to wear any colour pink, wanting to play with dolls and when they grow up they want to be a teacher, a nurse or wife of some famous person.

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Saint Nicholas Arrives in Holland… Political Corectness Gone Overboard


sinterklaas-amsterdam-2009 The Dutch have a long tradition when it comes to Saint Nicholas, whose feast day they celebrate today. Even after most Dutch abandoned the Catholic tradition in earlier ages and more recently Christian symbols and culture as a whole, St. Nicholas remains. It’s not done to decorate your shop window in the Netherlands before St. Nicholas left the country and Santa Clause is frowned upon, despite the fact Santa’s history reveals he is the same person as St. Nicholas. The Dutch want St. Nicholas and want to celebrate St. Nicholas’ Eve on Dec. 5th. They also don’t want to have anything to do with Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. They are so proud they are open to other traditions, and therefore St. Nicholas needs to be “culture neutral”. Which means in the eyes of some enlightened souls that the cross on his mitre needs to be replaced by something neutral. And so they did.

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Where Food Meets Faith


catholicfoodie Most of you who read this blog frequently know I went to the United States last summer. Now towards the end of the year it’s still hard to grasp I really went there. I hardly can’t believe it. It was a dream come true, because one of the things I always wanted to do was visit the United States to see how it is like. During my stay, which was made possible by the great people over at SQPN, I attended SQPN’s Catholic New Media Conference, where I made a lot of new friends. One of those friends I met was Jeff Young, who started to podcast not too long ago. Over at SQPN they refer to him as the “Catholic Foodie”, because there are a number of Jeffs around already. So who is Jeff Young, and what makes him tick? I interviewed him in honour of October being the Catholic Speaker Month over at Fallible Blogma.

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A Neti Pot To Treat Allergies?


Day 296: that time of year...It’s that time of the year again. A few weeks ago the weather was cold and damp, but today temps hit 23 degrees Celsius over here and the trees are blossoming. It’s great, but for me it has one big disadvantage: allergies! I’m always late getting started on my allergy medicine, but this year I notice my allergies start extremely early. I remember from previous years that I had to order new ones late May, early June, so this year’s allergies are extremely early and it took a while before I made the connection. I thought I had the flu because I suffered from extreme fatigue, felt sick and wanted to stay in bed all day long. I felt to miserable to do anything.

I use a feedreader to keep up-to-date with internet news, and using that I read something in the New York Times about a simple and cheap way to get rid of allergies. It already exists for thousands of years in India but it gets more popular in the West right now: the Neti Pot. According advocates is good for about anything. The device itself is fairly simple: it’s a small ceramic jug, which looks like a flattened tea pot. You put a saline solution in it and rinse your nose and sinuses with it. It treats colds, sinusitis but also hay fever. At least, it claims it does.

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Yoga: Good For Your Body And Mind?


yoga I really like practicing yoga. It clears my mind and strengthens my muscles. On top of that I notice it improves my flexibility. I feel much better altogether after starting my yoga practice. I just read an article on Science Daily in which is argued that yoga is good for you and that there are scientific reasons to prove it. In the article they write that “scientists proved that” practicing yoga is related to higher  levels of the neurotransmitter GABA in one’s brain and therefore it helps to decrease anxiety and stress-related symptoms. It also would decrease depression.

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