Elves

It’s hard to classify elves, for they aren’t mentioned systematically but inconsistently in the literary sources. No one knows anything about their creation, however they do exist in many different kinds. Sometimes they go hand in hand with the gods and represent one of the four divine houses. Generally these creatures are divided in light elves and dark elves. Light ones treat humans kindly and symbolise attributes like nature, growth and fertility, whereas dark ones are responsible for illness, death and perishability. Both phenotypes live in Alfheim and originally, they were probably not separated in two groups but had different responsibilities to accomplish. Later in the middle ages appeared a third group called black elves located in Svartalfheim that can rather be equated with the dwarves. A second name for dark elves is mares and the English word nightmare bases on that because people saw a combination between their negative nature and their own bad dreams.