Already in Scandinavian mythology the fairy people were elves and were divided into two classes, the light elves and the dark elves, like the Scottish seelie court and unseelie court. The name came over into Britain, and in the Anglo-Saxon Leechdoms we find remedies against elf-shot and other sinister elvish activities. The mythological light elves were not unlike the small trooping fairies of England as we find them in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream and many common traditions.

In Christian times the Scandinavians continued to believe in the elves, or huldre folk, who showed many of the same characteristics as the Scottish fairies, both Highland and Lowland. They stole humans away, destroyed their cattle and avenged any injuries done to them. The huldre girls were beautiful and alluring, wearing grey dresses and white veils, but the defect of the fairies by which they could be recognized was their long cows' tails. A man who was dancing with a huldre girl saw her tail and realized what she was. He did not betray her, but only said, 'Pretty maid, you are losing your garter.' His tact was rewarded by perpetual prosperity. The defect of the Danish elves or ellewomen is that though they appeared beautiful and engaging from the front, they were hollow behind. The Danish elves were great thieves of dough and other human foods.

In Lowland Scotland and in England the usage differed. In Scotland the fairy people of human size were often called elves and Fairyland was Elfame; in England it was the smaller trooping fairies who were called elves, and the name was particularly applied to small fairy boys. Titania's 'To make my small elves coats' is a typical example of the later use. 'Elf, however, was as unpopular with the fairies themselves as the tactless name of 'fairy', if we may judge from the rhyme given by Chambers in his Popular Rhymes of Scotland (p.324):

Gin ye ca' me imp or elf,

I rede ye look weel to yourself;

Gin ye ca' me fairy,

I'll work ye muckle tarrie;

Gin guid neibour ye ca' me,

Then guid neibour I will be;

But gin ye ca' me seelie wicht,

I'll be your freend baith day and nicht.

[Motif: F200-399]