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Post by Mairi on Apr 8, 2006 13:24:34 GMT -5
Is there a distinct difference between a fairy and an Elf? Are they not from the same family?
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Post by Elix on Apr 18, 2006 16:03:49 GMT -5
Hi Mairi, I posted a whole long opinoin under the thread: differences between elves and fairies. Here's a snip it:
My opinoin is the elves are still of the fey races and have fairy blood, however they embraced their earth bound bodies and gained banality. They became more human as a result of their enviroment. With an ever-changing world, new species coming and going, humans dominating the Earth, one would need to adapt or cease to be.
Fey:
Having or displaying an otherworldly, magical, or fairylike aspect or quality: “She's got that fey look as though she's had breakfast with a leprechaun” (Dorothy Burnham). Having visionary power; clairvoyant. Appearing touched or crazy, as if under a spell. Word History: The history of the words fey and fay illustrates a rather fey coincidence. Our word fay, “fairy, elf,” the descendant of Middle English faie, “a person or place possessed of magical properties,” and first recorded around 1390, goes back to Old French fae, “fairy,” the same word that has given us fairy. Fae in turn comes from Vulgar Latin F ta, “the goddess of fate,” from Latin f tum, “fate.” If fay goes back to fate, so does fey in a manner of speaking, for its Old English ancestor f ge meant “fated to die.” The sense we are more familiar with, “magical or fairylike in quality,” seems to have arisen partly because of the resemblance in sound suggestive of an elf in strangeness and otherworldliness; "thunderbolts quivered with elfin flares of heat lightning"; "the fey quality was there, the ability to see the moon at midday"- John Mason Brown [syn: elfin] between fay and fey.
Fairy also faerie:
A tiny imaginary being in human form, depicted as clever, mischievous, and possessing magical powers. Middle English fairie, fairyland, enchanted being, from Old French faerie, from fae, fairy, from Vulgar Latin F ta, goddess of fate, from Latin f tum, fate. See fate.]
Elf:
A small, often mischievous creature considered to have magical powers.
A lively, mischievous child. A usually sprightly or mischievous or sometimes spiteful person.
[Middle English, from Old English ælf. See albho- in Indo-European Roots.]
n 1: (folklore) fairies that are somewhat mischievous
As you can see in the above example: Fey is kind of the general definition where fairy is more specific, and elf is related to fairy.
So however one wants to call it, cousin, kin, brother, sister, elves are part of "Fey". There is a connection.
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