Pondering Elves

reply to post by OrdoAdChao


Thank you so much for the information & your contributions to the thread ! I will now go do reading on the Sami in my spare time.

I'm open to hearing about any cultures believe in Elves or fairies or what ever they are called in any given cultural world view. Gathering the beliefs of one group of people and comparing it to another group of people, we will find similarities to pin down why each of the cultures would of held a belief in these nature creatures. We might even find some answers... who knows.

:-)
leolady

reply to post by OrdoAdChao

I should have brought up the Sami earlier- as I was thinking about mentioning the people. I think they deserve a thread all their own on ATS, and I might just make that my first thread. They are steeped with legend in Europe, along with having a rich folklore and tradition of their own. They are recognized as a Native people in Europe, with science showing that they are some of the oldest genes around. When I think elves, they spring to mind, because, well, they live in the Arctic Circle, herd reindeer, ride in sleighs, wear colorful clothes and are short in stature (see where this is going? ).

I went reading for a tad this morning and already found some good info on the Sami People

Sami legends and fairy tales

The Sami fairy tales are related to fairy tales told in other languages and other cultures, especially to the neighbouring cultures. One can recognise themes and persons. The legends are more characteristic and closer tied to the Sami´s own history and old world view.

A central character in the Sami legends is Stallo, a human-like and sometimes man-eating monster. Stallo has often borrowed character traits from the tax collectors or raiders of old history.

Many legends are about people dying because they challenge the forces of nature and the gods of these forces. In an old legend from Varanger a man is struck with bad luck and eventually killed for singing songs mocking the sun, while another legend from Karasjok tells about a man who gets killed because he curses during a thunder storm. Several legends tell of how different mountains or other natural formations came to be.

The Sami world view also consisted of what modern people would call superstition. Back in time it was in no way superstition, but a natural part of life and of living in nature and among the elements of nature. Quite clearly there were views among people – and this is in no way characteristic only for the Sami people – that ghosts and gnomes and goblins existed. Many had even seen and met these creatures from an other world, and stories of such experiences were told to children and adults on dark nights when the days work had been finished. The stories were, in addition to being passed on as knowledge, also a part the upbringing and kept children away from dangerous places.

The stories could also be about deceased persons, what we today call ghosts, which someone had dreamt about or seen, and even spoken to while awake. Many of the stories were about the little people, "gufihtar" in Sami, underground creatures resembling and living in much the same way as people. They could lure people, and especially children, into their mounds, hoping to turn them into gufihtars.

source

leolady

Hmmm, yes that would make sense. Considering the history and all. Have a search on Youtube, and do a search for the "Lazeria map collection". Quite a long video, just short of 2 hours, but it has some very accurate and interesting information about Iceland, and various indigenous "species" in the area.

reply to post by leolady

Some paranormal investigators think of this as proof of a supernatural presence -- the ghosts create the field. Others suggest that these fields can interact with the human brain, causing hallucinations, dizziness or other neurological symptoms. Some researchers have theorized that this is one of the reasons people report more ghostly activity at night. Because of the way the solar wind interacts with the Earth's magnetosphere, the planet's magnetic field stretches out on the side that's in darkness. Some researchers hypothesize that this expanded field interacts more strongly with people's brains.
Medical researchers have also studied the effects of electrical fields on people's brains. Electrical stimulation to the angular gyrus of the brain, for example, can cause the sensation of someone behind you mimicking your movements. Electrical stimulation to different parts of the brain has also caused people to hallucinate or seem to have near-death experiences.

science.howstuffworks.com...

Iceland is in the perfect location and geomagnetic influence to see things. it is so very tectonically active and there must be huge fluctuations involving both the land and the sun.

I do though believe in the little people and hidden life forms on earth, and I have seen a ghost, just an average looking man when i was 11 so i do not just dismiss things.

CallmeRaskolnikov
The documentary was amazing. Visually Iceland has a very other worldly feel to it. The terrain seems so mysterious and beautiful. Crazy all the interviews with such a wide range of experiences. Even government workers openly acknowledging these normally unspoken entities. I would love to visit!

The area also clearly brings about some isolation, some children probably don't get to town during the long winters, people who are very isolated tend more to have "imaginary?" friends. Lonely wives who live in very little sunlight and hard drinking men, very common in the fishing areas of the world but it seems even more so there.

I did notice in the video many of the interviewed mention science fiction movies and books.

reply to post by leolady


I think the true fairy people were not small, they are not the "little people", but the Tuatha Dé Danann who were believed to have moved underground.

Merlyn2014
reply to post by leolady

 

Elves are more than a fairy tale, they exist, amongst the fairies, unicorns, dwarves, and more. They do live in inner cities in the earth and they are called "Agarthans". Also if you look into a story about Elf Rock you will find that a woman went there, I forget but I think she was a zoologist or something like that, she disappeared and was found 7 years later on the same rock. No trace of anything bad had been done to her, but she disappeared for a long time.

Chimming in to clear something up with this

Its been mentioned in the thread already about this "missing person"
the page it comes from is
Anthropologist Held Hostage By Elves For 7 Years

what great is they admit the mistake later down the page labled "IMPORTANT UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE "
which goes here Elf Story in doubt

if you want the real story to the picture

Nake d woman heading to nudist beach rescued from cliff in San Diego on the net about 2 years before the Missing person story. You might have to click the naked cliff woman in the picture box to see the same pict

reply to post by Char-Lee


I think your onto something here. Notice that they talk about the Elves living in the Rocks.
Rocks hold magnetism from the earths magnetic field. The magnetic field is recorded into
the rock when they are formed. Rocks are magnetic resonators.

Could this be opening up a "doorway" for the Elves ? Do Elves appear
more regularly in cultures that have more rocky areas ?

Earth is a giant magnet. Like other magnets that you are familiar with, Earth has two magnetic poles, which we call north and south, and a magnetic field that attracts charged or “magnetic” objects. At present, these magnetic poles are close to, but not identical with, the geographical poles. Thus, we can use a magnetic compass, adjusted for the difference between magnetic and true north, to tell us which way north is. The magnetic field has not always been in its present configuration. At times in the past, the poles have reversed or changed direction so that the north magnetic pole becomes south and vice versa. There does not appear to be any regularity to these magnetic reversals, as they are called, nor do we know how reversals occur. Speculation is that the magnetic field weakens; becoming virtually nil, then builds up again. When the magnetic field re-builds, there is an equal probability that it will be either in the same orientation or in the reversed direction. If the field has the same orientation as previously, there is no reversal. A reversal occurs only when the magnetic field orientation changes to the opposite direction.

Past reversals of the magnetic field are recorded in the rocks. Many rocks contain iron-bearing minerals that act as tiny magnets. As magma or lava cool, these minerals begin to form. At this point the molten rock has not completely solidified, so the magnetic minerals floating in the molten mass, become aligned to the magnetic field. When the rock finally solidifies, these minerals “lock in” the magnetic field as so many tiny compasses. Sedimentary rocks also have a magnetic record. As iron bearing sedimentary minerals are deposited from the water column, they also become aligned with the existing magnetic field. The magnetism remains locked in the rock unless the rock is subsequently heated above the Curie Point, the temperature at which all magnets lose their magnetism. When the heated rock again cools below the Curie Point, it will record the magnetic field at this later time, and the old magnetic field will be lost. It is important, therefore, to establish that a rock’s magnetism is primary and has not been re-set at a later time.

source

leolady

Char-Lee
reply to post by leolady

 

I think the true fairy people were not small, they are not the "little people", but the Tuatha Dé Danann who were believed to have moved underground.

A lot of those stories came as propaganda to de-humanise the pre-christian people of the land. Similarly, McRitchie was a folklorist in Scotland who tried to link the Picts to fairy people.

Belief in the otherworld seems to be truly ancient, and it seems like wave after wave of generations try to rationalise it, somehow.

Leolady, you might like these, the Fairy Pools on Skye:



Anyway, it's always nice to ponder elves. Great thread!