"Looking eastwards I saw glittering elfin mountains, tipped with snow, going range on range into the region of Myth, and beyond it into the kingdom of Fantasy, which pertain to the Lands of Dream. Long we should meet no more, for my fancy is weakening as the years slip by, and I go ever more seldom into the Lands of Dream."
Tales of Three Hemispheres, Lord Dunsany
Are Elvish, Klingon, Dothraki and Na'vi Real Languages; is a short video that explains that proceeding “languages” not real languages, but are what we call conlangs. It is interesting to note that J. R. R. Tolkien’s, elvish has about two thousand word vocabulary, and Na'vi has a fifteen hundred word vocabulary. The Na'vi are a race of extraterrestrial humanoids who inhabit the jungle moon of Pandora. The Na'vi are characters found in James Cameron's Avatar.
Now that I have an elf in my collection (HistoriFigs, F-5, 28mm Elf- Firing longbow) I have done some research into these mystical creatures. According to Microsoft’s Word Thesaurus the following are synonyms of the word Elf (Pixie, Imp, Sprite, Fairy, Gnome, Goblin, and Brownie), however upon closer inspection each of these characters are quite different.
Elves or the singular Elf are supernatural beings are found in German mythology. Earlier traditions thought of Elves as having certain magical abilities capable of helping or hindering humans. Later traditions have Elves using these abilities to harm instead of doing well to humans.
In the fantasy genre, J. R. R. Tolkien’s makes use of Elf characters in the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Elves in these two novels live in middle earth and have come together with the forces of good to overcome evil. Although Elves are mentioned in these novels much more is mentioned about these supernatural beings in Tolkien’s, “The Silmarillion”.
In some traditions the elf is very similar in appearance to humans, but having a much fairer complexion. Some images of elves depict them as having pointy ears, while other depictions I have seen do not make this distinction. There are some Old Norse traditions that mention some cross-breeding between humans and elves. The offspring were the heroes of old.
I have found two sites that carry a line of Elves, one I assume is now out of production, Citadel miniatures, being created in the 80’s, and the other Reaper Miniatures, still carries a line of Elf miniatures.
