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The Significant Other: a Literary History of Elves

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1616796596 The Significant Other: a Literary History of Elves By Jenni Bergman Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Cardiff School of English, Communication and Philosophy Cardiff University 2011 UMI Number: U516593 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U516593 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 DECLARATION This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not concurrently submitted on candidature for any degree. Signed .(candidate) Date. STATEMENT 1 This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD. (candidate) Date. STATEMENT 2 This thesis is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. Signed. (candidate) Date. 3/A W/ STATEMENT 3 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed (candidate) Date. STATEMENT 4 - BAR ON ACCESS APPROVED I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan after expiry of a bar on accessapproved bv the Graduate Development Committee. ABSTRACT This thesis is an analysis and literary history of the human-sized elf as a Significant Other. It argues that this character is in direct relation to humans while also situated beyond the boundaries of what is human, familiar, and ‘same*, and acts as a supernatural double that defines these boundaries. The initial section of the thesis (chapters 1-5) traces the development of elves in Western narratives up to the twentieth century. The first chapter relates the origin of the word ‘elf and the creature’s characteristics in the Germanic regions of Europe. Chapter 2 discusses similar beings in Celtic sources and the establishment of a realm in which they dwell. The development of Faerie, primarily in French sources, is further examined in chapter 3. Chapter 4 scrutinises the application of the words ‘elf and ‘fairy* to a diminutive being, here referred to as the Insignificant Other. Chapter 5 assesses the demise of the diminutive being and re-establishment of the human-sized elf. Because of his paramount influence, the central section of the thesis (chapters 6-9) is devoted to the Elves of J. R. R. Tolkien. This section begins by analysing descriptions of Tolkien’s Elves in order to evaluate his debt to earlier traditions. Chapter 7 assesses the status of Elves in Middle-earth, while chapter 8 scrutinises the presentation of gender. Chapter 9 discusses the Dark-elves and their place in Tolkien’s developing ideas about Elves. The final section of the thesis (chapters 10- 13) examines Tolkien’s influence and the current status of the elf. Chapter 10 focuses on four recent narratives that identify human-sized fairies as particularly English and homely, and the following chapter examines elves and fairies in comics and film. Chapter 12 investigates the popularity of the ‘Tolkienian’ elf in modem Fantasy fiction, while the final chapter locates the elf as Significant Other in contemporary popular culture and media. The thesis demonstrates that while the appearance of the human-sized elf character has changed over the centuries, it has consistently functioned as a figure that writers, artists and others have used to draw boundaries between the human and the Other and the known and unknown. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to my supervisor Carl Phelpstead for guidance and support, and to other helpful staff at Cardiff University: Helen Phillips, Claire Connolly, Sioned Davies, Richard Wilson, Dimitra Fimi and Juliette Wood. Thank you to my fellow PhD students and PG tutors in the English department, and to library staff who helped me access materials. A special thanks to Terry Gunnell at the University of Iceland for sending me materials otherwise inaccessible to me, and to Robert Eaglestone at Royal Holloway, University of London, who suggested the topic of the thesis. Thanks to the Tolkien Society, Taruithom, Cardiff University Pagan Society and UK Pagan for inviting me to talk, and to the audiences upon which I have tested my theories. Last but not least, thank you to my wonderful friends for many stimulating elf-discussions. Non cogito de me ipso ergo humanus non sum CONTENTS Declarations Abstract Acknowledgments Contents Introduction: What is an Elf and how is it Other? Section I: Inside the ‘Ample Volume’: Historical Views 1. The Alfar and Ailfe of the Northerners and Anglo-Saxons i. Word definitions, descriptions and classifications ii. Elves as Others iii. Norse Alfar iv. VQlundr v. Vidga vi. Anglo-Saxon AZlfe 2. The Celtic Otherworld and its Inhabitants i. Irish ii. Welsh iii. Gwyn ap Nudd iv. White Lord characters v. The misty type 3. The People of the Fairy i. The Word fa iry’ ii. Medieval fairies ’ iii. Marie de France iv. Sir Orfeo v. Ballads vi. Auberon vii. Auberon/Alberich as a diminutive Other vm. The Canterbury Tales ix. Applications o f the word fairy ’ 4. The Insignificant Other in Poetic Tradition i. Fairy as a name for a diminutive being ii. Elizabethan fairies iii. The Faerie Queene iv. A Midsummer Night’s Dream v. Queen Mab vi. Romantic poetry vii. Faerie as the imagination 5. The End and the Beginning i. Fairies and children ii. George MacDonald iii. Rudyard Kipling iv. The King o f Elfland’s Daughter and its sources v. The Broken Sword Section II: Tolkien’s Eldar: the Elf Re-historicised 6. An ‘Elvish-looking folk’ i. The implied reader and its expectations ii. The Eldar iii. Elven men iv. Elven women v. Elven places vi. General characteristics o f the Eldar 1. A ‘Superior Caste’: Privilege, Prestige and Race i. The Eldar and the hierarchy o f Middle-earth ii. Thingol and Thranduil as Faerie kings iii. Elvish spirituality iv. An inner light v. The Sindar as Elves o f twilight vi. The fallibility o f the Eldar 8. Nissi and Neri: On Elven Gender-roles i. Intention vs. reception ii. Laws and Customs Among the Eldar iii. Elven masculinity iv. Elven femininity v. Homosociality vi. Slash fiction vi. ‘Manly’masculinity 9. Illuminating the Dark-elf i. The term Dark-elf and Tolkien’s meaning ii. Character o f the Dark-elf iii. The Sindar or Grey-elves iv. Eol, the Dark-elf v. Saeros/Orgof vi. Green-elves vii. Beren and Barahir viii. Dark-elves and language ix. Dark-elves and Ores vii Section III: Modern Fictions, Modern Beliefs 10. The Anglicisation of Faerie 158 i. Tolkien and the fairies ii. Fantastic England iii. Smith ofWootton Major iv. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell v. The Ladies o f Grace Adieu vi. Stardust vii. Lud-in-the-Mist viii. Un-English Others 11. Scrolls of Colours: the Elf-image in Comics and Film 182 i. Inherited and created myths ii. The Sandman iii. Hellboy iv. Hellboy II: The Golden Army v. Elfquest vi. Elf-arrogance 12. Post-Tolkienian Fantasy 196 i. Genres ii. Appearance o f modem Fantasy elves iii. The Inheritance Cycle iv. Shannara series v. Death Gate Cycle vi. Deverry Cycle vii. Lords and Ladies viii. The Legend of Drizzt ix. The role o f elves in modem Fantasy 13. The Escape to Reality 215 i. Contemporary attitudes to elves andfairies ii. Faerie Tale iii. F aeL it’ iv. Fairies and femininity v. Otherkin v. E lf belief today vi. Huldufolk vii. The Significant Other Conclusion: The Significant Other 234 Bibliography 236 1 Introduction: What is an Elf and how is it Other? This thesis will look at a particular character that is sometimes called elf, sometimes fairy, and sometimes something else entirely. I have chosen to name it elf because that is a word with an origin that makes it suitable to be applied to such a character, as will be seen below. It is a character that is mostly like a human but not entirely. My primary interest is in the way in which the elf figure is different from humans while still very much like them. This difference is great enough for a person to be disqualified from humanity and labelled elf, fairy or other words designating similar characters, leaving the elf figure in a liminal space between the mundane world and the magical world. The elf can be classified as among the most humanoid of fantastic beings, along with vampires, werewolves, mermaids and the like, though the elf is unique in many ways, the most evident being that it usually lacks animal features and does not in most older accounts differ in appearance from humans. The literary history of elves demonstrates a much more intimate relationship between elves and humans: the elf often appears as an otherworldly double whose purpose is to define what is human, familiar and inside culture. Commenting on the well-preserved elf-belief in Iceland, Valdimar Hafstein concludes that We are not, however, entitled to conclude that the Otherworld is merely an extension of this one - it should rather be seen as its counterpart, circumscribing and defining the boundaries of the ‘inside’, the local human community, through its manifestation of an ‘outside’, the domain of the Other.
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