WEBVTT - From the Vault: Elfshot, Part 1 0:00:06.360 --> 0:00:08.479 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your mind. My name 0:00:08.520 --> 0:00:09.560 is Robert Lamb. 0:00:09.720 --> 0:00:12.560 And I'm Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday, so we are 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:14.920 heading into the vault for an older episode of the show. 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:18.560 This one was originally published on September twenty ninth, twenty 0:00:18.640 --> 0:00:21.599 twenty two, but it was part of our Halloween offerings 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:24.280 for last year. This was part one of our series 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:25.160 on elf shot. 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:28.080 That's right. I mean, if you're not sure what this 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:30.840 is about, well, I mean, does it get any spookier 0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:35.879 than strange, unseen, unknowable beings in the woods just firing 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:40.120 off strange missiles that may well be invisible, And when 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:43.280 they lodge themselves in the bodies of your livestock, or 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:47.560 even worse, your body, they bring about untold destruction. 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:50.240 Beware of the fairy weapons. 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:53.479 It was my fault for letting the cattle graze so 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:56.840 near the old wood, in the circular stones, where the 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:00.440 roots grow elf twisted and rain water fill the elf 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:04.320 cups in the rock where strange lights dance some nights 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:09.200 and the moonlight shines brighter than elsewhere. I'd lost cows before, 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:12.199 but never like this. I found her bloated and dead 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:14.880 by the tree line. As I strolled up to the 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:18.200 poor heifer, I saw neither bite nor puncture on her hide. 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:22.600 I scanned the surrounding grass for signs of tracks or blood. 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:26.280 I saw neither. But that's when something caught my eye, 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:29.800 A small stone point like an arrow head, with neither 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:33.920 shaft nor fletchings, and carved by some art, not practice 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:36.640 by mortal men. I stooped to pick it up, and 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:38.760 that's when I felt a white hot pain in my 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:42.279 upper left side. I felt for blood underneath my shirt, 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:46.040 such was the pain, but found only unpierced flesh, even 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:48.400 as the agony of it brought me to my knees. 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:52.840 In the tall grass, I scanned the tree line. They 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:56.040 were invisible to my eyes, but I felt them somehow, 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:59.760 the elves watching on from the chateaus of the wood, 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:04.200 perhaps snickering in their sublime odd tongue. As the elf 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:07.800 bolt racked my body, but I clutched the stone in 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:10.920 my hand, I knew what I had to do. I 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:14.320 dragged myself back across the field, sweat pouring down my 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:18.000 face and my spleen swelling fit to burst with elfcake. 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:21.240 Even then, when I arrived back at the house, I 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:23.440 dropped the little of stone in a pan of water. 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:27.120 I clutched my Bible for good measure. I strained remember 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:30.800 words and incantations by either priest or wise woman. But 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:33.280 the best I could manage was a vague prayer to 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:36.600 be interpreted by whatever heard me. In my moment of need, 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:39.679 I drank the stone, touched water down all of it, 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:43.480 though it chilled my teeth and stung my tongue. And 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:46.400 then I realized too late that the charm was no good, 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:50.160 for it had touch the ground, sunlight had fallen upon it. 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:53.800 The power of the elves had all but drained from 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:57.200 the thing, and I was afforded only passing relief. And 0:02:57.280 --> 0:03:00.600 so I write this letter by candlelight, will weigh it 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:03.480 down on the table with the Queer stone as proof, 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:07.840 for I am now elf marked and elf taken. I swell, 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:11.600 I ache the moon rises once more, and the sound 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:20.200 of their music fills the night. 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:25.080 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind production of iHeartRadio. 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:33.160 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:34.279 is Robert Lamb. 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:35.320 And I'm Joe McCormick. 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:39.120 And that little cold open definitely takes some liberties with 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:42.240 the folklore we're going to be discussing here today, and 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:46.320 you're trying to get a little seasonal Halloween flavor here 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:48.600 going in this episode, which I guess is kind of 0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:52.200 kickstarting our Halloween season here on stuff to blow your mind. 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:55.720 But today we're going to be talking about, as you 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:59.840 might guess from the opening, elf shot or elf stone, 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:04.400 pixie arrows, elf arrows, and many other names. 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:05.800 The missiles of the others. 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:09.880 Yeah. Yeah, So the basic idea here, I think is 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:13.680 basically embedded in the fiction we just shared here. The 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:17.480 idea that and this is just roughly so with many 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:20.279 folk traditions, as we'll discuss, there are a number of 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:23.599 variations over time and space. But the idea here is 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:27.840 that the elves, out of trickery or pure malice, they 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:31.840 might shoot cattle or humans in some cases with their 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:35.479 invisible arrows, and these invisible arrows leave little or no 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:41.560 physical trace in many tellings, but cause otherwise unexplainable pain 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:46.200 or disease or perhaps even death. The notion was supported 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:51.279 via the evidence of discovered neolithic arrowheads and other curios, 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:54.680 and the ideas especially tied to the British Isles, but 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:58.360 one sees examples of it from elsewhere in Europe as 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:01.920 well as from the America after colonial arrival. 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:04.839 Right, So the belief in elfshot, I think is best 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:08.120 understood not as a single belief but as a sort 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:14.080 of complex of related explanations for totally different types of 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:18.120 natural phenomena that are all sort of unified under a 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:22.760 common theory of fairy weapons and fairy malice. 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:26.360 Yeah. Yeah, and without diving any deeper, we can see 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:30.280 the appeal of these ideas, right. It's a superstitious, supernatural 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:34.320 script that can help explain several different things, help explain 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:39.279 and otherwise unexplained illness, otherwise unexplained pain or another malady, 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:43.800 otherwise unexplained illness or death in cattle, and otherwise unexplained 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:48.479 artifacts found on or in the earth. Now it makes sense, 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:51.000 I think at this point to discuss the elves a bit, 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:53.240 because I know for many of us out there, you 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:57.240 say the word elf and there are probably a few 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:00.839 different key images and ideas that are going to immediately 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:04.520 come to life in your mind. I mean, especially now 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:08.360 with the Rings of Power on TV and so forth, 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:11.279 many of and also you know the resurgence of dungeons 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:13.480 and dragons. People are going to think about the fantasy 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:18.960 elves of Tolkien and Tolkien derived works like Dungeons and Dragons. 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:21.360 For others of you out there, you might instantly think 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:26.200 about Santa's elves or keebler elves. Little you know, curious 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:31.080 people making novelties and imaginary idealistic workshops. 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:33.760 Right, I would say that the influence of Tolkien is 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:37.640 so strong that, at least in America. I don't know 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:40.040 if this would be as true in the rest of 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:43.480 the English speaking world even, but at least in America. 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:45.680 When you say elf, I think what people mostly think 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:49.080 is a Tolkien style high elf, an l Rond or 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:53.920 Galadrial type figure, a kind of noble and elegant fantasy 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:58.280 aristocrat who has, you know, wisdom and magic arts to offer. 0:06:58.760 --> 0:07:01.960 Yeah, and generally just super blonde hair like a real, 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:06.520 real pristine blonde wig going on in many cases. So 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:08.680 I guess l Ron Elron didn't have blonde hair. 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:10.040 Elrond have red hair. 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:12.560 I don't know, dark hair, I don't know he's I mean, 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:16.160 there's an the young el Ron, the younger version of Elrond, 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:20.320 is in the Rings of Power, and I'm I'm suddenly 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:23.559 at a loss to remember what colors hair is mainly 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:24.360 remember the ears. 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.480 I remember thinking around the ear in two thousand and 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:30.920 two or so. It's like liv Tyler, that's an elf. 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:34.120 I guess. The interesting thing is that, of course both 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:39.000 of these ideas, Obviously Tolkien's ideas of elves have have 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:43.600 their roots in actual folklore and mythology, as one would expect. 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:46.480 But even like Santa's elves and Keepler elves I guess 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:51.840 are they're not completely removed from the mythological roots here, 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:54.360 but perhaps less connected. 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:56.600 Yeah, as you're saying, once you get outside of the 0:07:56.720 --> 0:08:00.760 very sort of narrowly Tolkien influenced idea, the elf is 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:03.320 actually an extremely broad tradition. 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:07.400 Right right, And you get into many of these traditions 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:12.400 and beliefs of old and elves get more mysterious and 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:18.000 also more dangerous. They become less human and harder to fathom. 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:20.800 So two of the sources I often turn to when 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:23.760 when thinking about these things are Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:28.320 and Fable, which is which is a pretty pretty good 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:31.520 book even today for for highlighting some of this stuff. 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:33.600 And then, of course I always look at the books 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:37.280 of folklorous Carol Rose in particular for this one Spirits Theories, 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:40.079 Leprechauns and Goblins, which is still very much in print. 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:44.920 I always recommend that one to fans of mythological and 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:48.600 folkloric beings. But in Brewer's Dictionary, Phrase and fable, the 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:52.400 definition of elf is quote a dwarfish being of Teutonic 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:55.640 mythology possessed of magical powers which is used for the 0:08:55.640 --> 0:09:00.400 good or ill of mankind. Carol Rose in in the 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:04.480 Spirits Faries, Lepriicuns and Goblins, mentions that in Teutonic mythology 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:08.720 the alphar are subdivided into dark elves and light elves, 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:12.319 and Rose refers to them as well as a type 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:17.760 of sprite found in British, Icelandic, Scandinavian and Teutonic legend. 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:21.360 They are the alf the alf. There are several different 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:23.960 spellings that are kind of like elf or alf or 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:27.080 yield or in some cases you have like the ellen 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:30.320 or el folk, and Danish you have the elvore in 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:35.720 Swedish traditions, and then they're the spey wives in Icelandic traditions, 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:39.000 and many more. Now there have been attempts to understand 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:44.280 elves as both sort of folkloric and mythological reverberations of 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:48.400 our understandings of indigenous peoples, which certainly ties in with 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:51.000 some of the themes we'll be exploring here, as well 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:55.560 as with people born with certain birth defects or people 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:59.920 that have certain illnesses, and these are perhaps broader explorations, 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:02.680 but I think we can see the validity of both 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:05.480 avenues combined. Of course, as always with the self sustaining 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:09.280 power of myth, folklore, and belief. You know, as we 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:12.040 often mentioned on the show, we can't we can't discount 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:16.680 the power of human imagination and creativity, be that you know, 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:22.000 imagination acting out of pure whimsy, or imagination seeking to 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:27.240 understand things, or does even make shape of various realities 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:27.760 of life. 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:30.320 Yeah, And another way I would put that is that yes, 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:33.839 people often did probably see something they didn't understand and 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:37.520 then try to put together a mythical theory of it, 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:40.360 a kind of supernatural explanation that would make sense of it. 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:43.319 But then other times, clearly people just make things up. 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:46.719 I mean, people have imagination and they dream things up. 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:50.040 So get you get both in our mythical traditions, I think. 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:53.880 And it's limiting to assume that you're always looking at 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:55.880 one thing or the other right right. 0:10:55.920 --> 0:10:58.960 But once the Once the script is established, the script 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:04.240 is generally nourished and maintained. So like other similar beings 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:06.600 in folklore, such as say, the Irish tradition of the 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:10.640 Tuaphatadan and fairies and so forth, there's kind of a 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:14.720 ghost species are to the elves. They're the sublime other 0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:19.560 that occupies places that we cannot occupy. They hold powers 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:22.959 that we scarcely comprehend, and they may wish as well. 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:25.400 They may wish us ill, or they may just sort 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:30.800 of be neutral in all matters, and their reasons are 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:33.240 hard to fathom. They might do the things they do 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:36.960 on a whim, or they might have seemingly good reason 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:40.680 to act against us or for us. They are also 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:45.079 associated with a host of unexplained phenomena, including visual phenomena, 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:49.320 making them a core supernatural script for the unexplained that 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:53.240 I think aligns. Many have pointed this outlined closely with 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:56.840 twentieth and twenty first century uses of the UFO script 0:11:57.360 --> 0:12:01.000 of the alien visitor script for the unexplained as a 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:04.200 way of shaping and processing things that we don't understand. 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:08.640 For example, as pointed out by both in both Roses book, 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:11.559 and in brewers. We have a number of elf related 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:15.880 phenomenon in folk traditions, and they include the following. There's 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:20.360 elf bore, which is this is apparently a piece of 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:23.080 wood from which the knot has been dropped out. I 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:26.120 don't know how much I really need a supernatural script 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:29.600 to explain that, but fair enough. There's elf cake. This 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:34.680 is an enlargement of the spleen elf child. This is 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:38.360 a changeling getting into changeling traditions. This one was new 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:41.040 to me. An elf cup elf cup. This would be 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:43.800 where you have stone that has a hollow formed from 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:47.200 dripping water and water collects there. Well, that's the elf cup, 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:50.199 and I guess the elves drink from it. Elf fire. 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:52.680 Getting into traditions of the will of the wisp, which 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:55.200 we've covered on the show before. Now here's one that 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:59.120 people with longer hair or with children with longer hair 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:03.199 can definitely comment on. Elf locks. These are tangles and 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:06.000 knots in the hair caused by elves in the night. 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:09.600 If one is elf marked, that may refer to birth 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:13.200 defects or birth marks caused by the elves. If you 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:15.920 are elf taken, that means you're a bewitched or an 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:21.600 enchanted person. Elf twisted may refer to someone who has 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:24.679 suffered a stroke, but it also can refer to deformed 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:28.559 vegetation elf twisted vegetation. And then this was an interesting 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:30.040 when I ran across as well. I don't think this 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:33.080 was in either of these texts, but elf milling the 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:36.720 sound of woodworms chewing. And then of course we have 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:40.400 our elf arrows our elf shot, which again is a 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:43.000 perfect script to turn to in an attempt to explain 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:46.360 the unexplainable. And also, as alluded to in the Cold Open, 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:52.239 the artifacts associated with elf shot, the little found stones 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:56.400 and arrowheads, are also associated with various folk medicine and 0:13:56.480 --> 0:14:01.160 magical practices, generally thought to heal or deviate illness in 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:06.160 animals or humans. Generally, illness is caused or perceived to 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:08.760 be caused by the elf shot, Like if you get 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:12.439 shot by a fantasy arrow, by a magical arrow from 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:15.880 the elves, well, if you can find that artifact, well 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:18.520 then maybe we have a chance of curing things. Or 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:21.720 if we happen to have any in the collection of 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:27.320 the local healer, maybe a little satchel of elf stones somewhere, well, 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:30.680 those can be used in the curative. 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:33.960 Arts, drawing on the traditional logic of like cures like 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:38.440 or sympathetic magic, the idea that if your ailment is 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:43.080 caused by a certain type of object or action, then 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:46.120 it can also be maybe cured by a similar or 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:47.880 related type of object or action. 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:53.800 Right, right, And sometimes these stones, these elf arrows and 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:56.880 so forth, they're thought to be essentially the ones that 0:14:56.880 --> 0:15:01.320 were fired. Other times they may have been dropped by 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:03.960 the elves, and some other cases you have situations where 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:06.360 these things are interpreted as having fallen from the sky 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:07.280 and so forth. 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:10.360 Yeah, a lot of the older sources that I read 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:12.520 quoted said that they were dropped from the air. 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:17.480 Now for a couple of related concepts. Here in Scotland, 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:20.440 there are also tales of faery riding, by which a 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:24.440 livestock's paralysis is explained as being due to exhaustion caused 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:27.360 by fairies riding the animals around as mounts all through 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:31.520 the night. There's also the use of thunderstones, of which 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:33.480 I guess elfshot is kind of a subset or at 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:37.280 least the very related concepts in which people have reinterpreted stone, 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:41.360 axe heads, tools, and also fossils as sacred objects that 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:45.000 may have fallen from the sky or experienced some other 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:48.280 supernatural entry into our world, and we see examples of 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:51.440 this in European, Native American and Asian traditions as well. 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:56.000 I found an interesting quote on this. This is from 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:59.520 eighteen ninety four and need Fire, published in The Illustrated 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:05.040 arche Geologists by archaeologist J. Romilly Allen. Quote, there is 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:08.360 hardly a single prehistoric remain in the country whose name 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:12.120 does not show that common people associated with fairies, which 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:15.920 is hags or the devil. So too with the implements 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:19.520 and objects found on ancient sites, the stone celts looked 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:22.800 upon as a thunderbolt, the flint arrow and elf arrow, 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:27.400 the spindle wheel, a fairies millstone, the colored glass bead, 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:30.600 an adder bead adder beads. By the way, these were 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:33.160 thought to have been created by snakes, and they were 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:37.040 used in folk medicine as well, and of course in general, 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:40.600 the idea of invisible missiles sent by a supernatural enemy 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:44.640 that causes illness. This is also comparable to other concepts 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:47.200 of magic, spells and curses that can be found in 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:50.920 cultures throughout the world from their examples, like the traditions 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:53.640 of the skin walkers, among the Navajo, the concept of 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:58.040 goo poison and the Han Chinese traditions. You know, many 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:00.320 such traditions around the world that involve the word work 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:04.960 of outsiders or secret outsiders that bring about sickness in 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:05.760 a given people. 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:14.119 Yeah. Now, I thought it would be a good idea 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:18.480 for elfshot, specifically to look at a paper that collected 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:22.800 some direct accounts of folk beliefs about elfshot, especially in 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:25.880 Scotland where a lot of this folklore work was done. 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:30.919 And this paper is by Thomas Davidson. It's called Elfshot Cattle. 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:35.120 It was published in the journal Antiquity in nineteen fifty six. Now, 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:37.240 I do want to preface. In the next episode, I 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:39.080 think we're going to talk about a couple of papers 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:43.080 that offer some criticism of the subject of elfshot, maybe 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:46.119 questioning some things about this alleged folk belief. But I 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:48.479 thought it would be good to first look at some 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:52.439 of the more prevailing notions from previous scholarship. Now, this 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:57.040 paper by Davidson kicks off offering a number of accounts. 0:17:57.240 --> 0:18:00.280 The first one is one that was recorded in Scottish 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:05.639 Notes and Queries in the first series, and this is 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:09.400 rendered with a wonderful bit of transliterated Scottish accent, which 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:11.920 I will not attempt to do in my own voice 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:16.320 as I read it. But it is quoting a buckin' farmer. 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:20.719 This is a region of Scotland, a buckin farmer in 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:25.480 the late autumn of eighteen eighty four, and his complaint 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:29.240 was as follows, quoted in Scottish Notes and queries. Oh 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:30.880 and there are a couple of terms in here I'll 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:33.199 have to come back and define in a minute, probably, 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:37.160 But the quote goes like this, I've gotten an ill 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:40.400 job this morning, in the death of a fine stirk 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:43.879 by elfshot. And the pity is he wasn't fastened to 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:46.480 a hair tether, which is a halter made of hair 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:50.199 fan the weapon would have fallen short of him. And 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:53.280 then Davidson writes, when asked whether it might not have 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:56.480 been due to quarter ill, he replied that couldn't be. 0:18:57.160 --> 0:18:59.680 My neighbor and me open up the beast and there 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:02.359 was a hole through his heart. So a couple of 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:04.600 things there. He says that this happened to a sterk. 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:07.600 A sterk is a yearling bullock or heifer, so think 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:11.480 a calf young cattle. And then there's this reference to 0:19:11.640 --> 0:19:16.240 quarter ill as the opposite explanation. Quarter Ill is a 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:19.440 common disease found in livestock, also known as black leg. 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:23.200 It's caused by an infection, often in one of the limbs, 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:27.439 by Clostridium bacteria. And I've read in other sources that 0:19:27.480 --> 0:19:30.880 death can be very rapid after symptoms first present, sometimes 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:32.919 just a matter of hours, So you could have a 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:36.679 calf fall dead of quarter ill without really much warning 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:37.040 at all. 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:39.679 I love the detail about the whole through the heart. 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:42.119 This lines up with some other accounts I was looking 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:46.040 at where while in which elfshot is not thought to 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:49.240 present a traditional wound. In some cases there's no wound 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:51.800 at all, but other times there is a wound if 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:54.119 you know what to look for, if you look closely enough. 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:57.679 And of course this easily falls in with the realities 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:01.920 we see mirrored and other supernatural scripts, like if you 0:20:02.040 --> 0:20:03.920 know the mark of the witch, well, if you look 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:06.960 closely enough and you want to find it enough, you 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:09.160 will find the mark of the witch. If you want 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:13.520 to find the you know the hidden censor that the 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:16.760 aliens put in a person's flesh, well, just keep looking. 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:20.080 You'll find something that seems a little odd and surely 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:20.920 that is the mark. 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:23.720 Yeah, there are all kinds of methods to detect the mark. 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:25.959 I'll talk about that a bit in a minute. One 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:28.560 of them I read about is like the oldest member 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:31.280 of the family should wear a blue bonnet, and then 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:33.920 the blue bonnet will be rubbed all over the cow. 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:37.320 And somehow the rubbing of the flower or the actually, 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:39.199 I don't know if that refers to a flower or 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:42.000 an actual bonnet. It says blue bonnet in the paper. 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:44.000 But whichever one it is, you rub that on the 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:47.879 cow and that will reveal the where the animal was struck. 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:52.120 But anyway, so to recap this story from eighteen eighty four, 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:55.920 this farmer is saying a healthy young calf drops dead 0:20:56.040 --> 0:21:00.720 in its first year, suddenly, no apparent explanation. Again, of course, 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:04.240 there are diseases that cause sudden death in bovines, and 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:07.800 the farmer and his neighbor confirm the cause of death 0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:11.560 was elf shot because they did an autopsy and found 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:14.040 that even though the animal had no external wounds, there 0:21:14.080 --> 0:21:17.680 was a hole in the animal's heart. Okay, second account 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:21.960 cited by Davidson. This was originally published in Proceedings of 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:27.159 the Society of Antiquaries in Scotland, and it goes like this, 0:21:27.320 --> 0:21:31.160 Davidson writes. Quote some years before, in eighteen sixty seven, 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:34.800 a mister Hugh Morrison saw a cow which was said 0:21:34.840 --> 0:21:37.679 to have been killed by the fairies. When he pointed 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:40.480 out to the farmer that her death had been caused 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:44.520 by rolling over and her long horns penetrating the ground 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:46.560 had kept her in a position from which she could 0:21:46.600 --> 0:21:50.040 not rise, he was told that that was a common 0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:53.919 way in which cows fall when struck by the And 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:57.000 then this is something that is spelled like it looks 0:21:57.040 --> 0:22:00.320 like saghead scyth, but I believe this is safe she 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:04.639 or side she, which is Scott's Gaelic for fairy arrow. 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:08.600 So Davidson connects these beliefs too, as we already mentioned 0:22:08.640 --> 0:22:13.520 the discovery of neolithic flints in the fields and the countryside, 0:22:13.560 --> 0:22:18.359 where he claims that these were not generally associated with 0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:23.560 prehistoric human technology. Now there are some associations of that 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:25.800 kind going all the way back to the seventeenth century, 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:30.080 but they're not generally accepted by the people, Davidson says, 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:34.240 and he quotes the story of a reverend John Fraser, 0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:37.639 who was writing a letter dated to the year seventeen 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:40.919 o two was recorded in a work called The Darker 0:22:41.000 --> 0:22:45.200 Superstitions of Scotland by J. G. Dalyell. And the letter 0:22:45.359 --> 0:22:49.000 is talking about how Fraser thought it was strange quote 0:22:49.119 --> 0:22:54.080 that these elfstones, whether little or mickel, mikel meaning large, 0:22:54.560 --> 0:22:58.720 little or mickel, has still the same figure, though certainly 0:22:58.840 --> 0:23:03.639 known to fall from the air. The commonality superstitiously imagines 0:23:03.720 --> 0:23:06.840 that the fairies hath made and gives them that shape, 0:23:07.160 --> 0:23:09.680 and that they do hurt by them, which we call 0:23:09.760 --> 0:23:12.919 elf shot. And then he goes on to quote a 0:23:13.080 --> 0:23:17.760 wonderful work the seventeenth century minister and proto folklorist Robert 0:23:17.840 --> 0:23:22.680 Kirk's treatise The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fawns and Fairies, 0:23:22.800 --> 0:23:26.760 which is a fantastic historical read if you ever get 0:23:27.400 --> 0:23:31.159 time to check that out. So Kirk is describing the 0:23:31.160 --> 0:23:34.800 beliefs of the people of Scotland and talking about the 0:23:35.080 --> 0:23:38.480 weapons made by elves and fairies, and so to quote 0:23:38.480 --> 0:23:42.240 here from Davidson. Similarly, Kirk describes the weapons as being 0:23:42.320 --> 0:23:46.679 quote most what solid earthly bodies, nothing of iron, but 0:23:46.840 --> 0:23:51.000