Podcast Summary
Podcast: New Books Network
Host: Dr. Miranda Melcher
Guest: Dr. Matthias Egeler (Professor of Old Norse, Frankfurt University)
Episode: "Elves and Fairies: A Short History of the Otherworld" (Yale UP, 2025)
Date: October 11, 2025
Overview
This episode explores Dr. Matthias Egeler's new book, Elves and Fairies: A Short History of the Otherworld. The discussion traces the rich and evolving traditions of elves and fairies across Iceland, Ireland, England, and beyond—from medieval rural folklore to Victorian and modern pop culture. The conversation delves into how beliefs and narratives about these “otherworldly” beings have changed across centuries, adapted to different social settings, and continue to influence how we imagine fairies today, from Tolkien’s elves to the sugar-sweet winged icons of children’s literature.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. Origins and Motives of the Book
[02:37]
- Personal and Academic Roots: Egeler is a Professor of Old Norse. His professional focus on medieval studies naturally exposed him to elves as a prominent theme.
- Motivation: The book was developed during the COVID lockdown, inspired by a desire to create something “delightful to research and hopefully ... also a joy for the reader” while maintaining academic rigor.
2. Why Start with Medieval Rural Iceland?
[04:14]
- Abundance of rich sources like the Poetic Edda, legendary sagas, and extensive folklore archives allow for observable narrative patterns.
- Icelandic tradition ties elves to specific, tangible landscape features—rocks, hills—right near inhabited farmsteads. These motifs are traceable over 800+ years, through stories like the Christni saga and ongoing oral tradition.
“If you look at enough sites of elf storytelling, you start seeing ... the stories are again and again versions of the same sort of storytelling, but also the places connected with them tend to have the same sort of patterning.”
—Dr. Matthias Egeler [04:36]
3. Key Icelandic Motifs: Elves in the Landscape
[05:28 - 08:33]
- Elves are closely tied to specific landscape features, not abstract “otherworlds.”
- Once depicted as pre-Christian spirits, over time Icelandic elves became “Christianized,” mirroring human Lutheran society and even building their own churches in elf folklore.
“The Christianization seems to have been more efficient among the hidden folk than amongst the human population, if the numbers of elf churches in the stories are anything to go by.”
—Dr. Matthias Egeler [07:42]
4. Ireland and Iceland: Similarities and Differences
[09:10 - 12:38]
- Shared motifs: “Family relationship” in their fairylore—moving days, butter-making in rocks, changeling stories, migratory legends like “The Brewery of the Eggshells.”
- Differences in temperament: Irish fairies are often dangerous and bring misfortune; Icelandic elves are generally benevolent, abduction tales are rarer, and refusing their food is considered rude.
“Abductions of children are much, much rarer in the Icelandic records than in the Irish one.”
—Dr. Matthias Egeler [11:19]
5. Change and Continuity in Irish Tradition
[12:38 - 17:35]
- Difficult to track because medieval Irish literature reflects elite (aristocratic) interests, while later folklore comes from impoverished peasantry, leading to differing themes (splendor vs. suffering).
- Enduring folk customs: Some medieval beliefs persisted for centuries, e.g., the caution to throw out wash water lest it attract spirits at Halloween.
“So basically the whole same story was still told 800 years later.”
—Dr. Matthias Egeler [17:27]
6. The Fairy Queen: A Surprisingly Recent Motif
[18:11 - 21:22]
- The idea of a sovereign “fairy queen” emerges only in late medieval/early modern period (Scotland, 15th-16th centuries, e.g., Thomas the Rhymer, Tam Lin), not in earlier Arthurian or courtly stories, though powerful female fairies existed.
- “Fairy queen” as a title becomes widespread alongside later popular and literary works, such as Shakespeare’s plays.
“One would think that this is a very old motif. But actually it doesn’t seem to be ... before the late medieval early modern period.”
—Dr. Matthias Egeler [18:23]
7. Fairies as Plaything vs. Peril—Shakespeare and Witch Trials
[21:35 - 24:36]
- In Shakespeare’s England (late 16th/early 17th century), fairies are entertainment for the elite, while in Scotland, belief in fairies surfaces in witch trials with deadly consequences.
- The difference linked to class: literary use is permissible, but “folk belief” is persecuted.
“Shakespeare did not use it and he was from a higher social stratum. So he was allowed to play with things that people of lower status were not allowed to believe in.”
—Dr. Matthias Egeler [24:08]
8. Wings and the Modern Fairy Image
[24:58 - 28:10]
- Fairies in true European tradition never had wings—this is an 18th-century literary invention, traced via Paracelsus' “sylphs” to Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock.
- In the late 1700s, British illustrators adopt the winged fairy thanks to these poetic sources—not to folklore.
“A genuine tradition never gives wings to the fairies. ... The idea of the winging fairies was taken up by artists working in London in the 1780s.”
—Dr. Matthias Egeler [25:00, 27:46]
9. Industrialization, Victorian Elites, & the “Bucolic Fairy”
[28:10 - 29:59]
- Rural beliefs persisted unchanged, but Romanticism and industrialization brought fairies to urban elites as “nostalgia” for a lost simple countryside life—thus, the idea of steam engines driving away fairies became a literary topos.
10. From Fearsome to Cute: The Rise of Twee Fairies
[30:33 - 32:02]
- Cute, inoffensive fairies were born out of 19th-century children’s literature, but this has always been controversial—Andrew Lang, Tolkien, and even J.M. Barrie (of Peter Pan) despised cutesy fairies.
- The “adorable” archetype never truly replaced nastier fairy traditions, and literature often pushed back.
“Tolkien despised them ... his disgust with the cutesy fairy, he consciously went back to medieval heroic fairies.”
—Dr. Matthias Egeler [32:29]
11. 20th–21st Century: Modern Fairies and the Otherworld
[33:55 - 36:29]
- Modern authors have access to a wide array of past sources, blending old motifs with new messages.
- Notable shift: fairies’ settings became detached from specific rural localities to abstract, alternative worlds—fueling the idea of “conservationist fairies” as nature protectors.
12. Full Circle: Modern Iceland and the Tourism Elf Industry
[36:43 - 39:20]
- Fairy and elf belief in Iceland now serve the tourist industry—with elf maps, schools, and commercialized narratives that blend local and international traditions.
- The ongoing dynamic shows how international influences continually reshape local fairylore.
“We see this story of change and continuity and intercultural exchange and contact, people talking to each other and people telling each other stories and other people loving those stories and retelling them.”
—Dr. Matthias Egeler [38:28]
13. Current and Future Research
[39:37 - 42:21]
- Egeler is working on a biography of Merlin and editing a unique Icelandic text from the 1830s, offering a glimpse into living, deeply-held elf belief as co-habitation with myth.
“In the case of this writer, Olaf Russ Velnsson, it’s really clear he fully subscribed to it all. ... He took the harsh realities of life on the edge of the Arctic Circle and transformed them into a cohabitation with myth.”
—Dr. Matthias Egeler [41:29]
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
- “Enjoying the magic of traditional stories and the Middle Ages, but without losing the academic rigor. That was what I wanted.” [Dr. Matthias Egeler, 02:56]
- “The closest neighbor to an old farmstead is still a standard motif in the 19th century ... the idea that elves are the closest neighbor.” [Dr. Matthias Egeler, 07:00]
- “People started complaining about the silliness and the sugary cuteness quite early on.” [Dr. Matthias Egeler, 31:33]
- “Legolas and Tinkerbell being in the same category is definitely something of a strange grouping.” [Dr. Miranda Melcher, 33:33]
- “Everybody likes fairies, even though some people passionately hate winged, sugary fairies while liking fairies.” [Dr. Matthias Egeler, 38:58]
Major Timestamps
- 02:37 — Author’s background and purpose for writing
- 04:14 — Why medieval Iceland, folklore, and landscape
- 09:10 — Comparing Irish and Icelandic elves
- 12:38 — Continuity and change in Irish fairylore
- 18:11 — The surprising late emergence of the fairy queen motif
- 21:35 — Shakespeare, witch trials, and class differences in belief
- 24:58 — When and why did fairies get wings?
- 28:10 — Industrialization and elite nostalgia
- 30:33 — How and why fairies became cute
- 32:02 — Literary backlash against cutesy fairies
- 33:55 — Modern and environmental fairies
- 36:43 — Icelandic elf belief and tourist industry today
- 39:37 — New research projects and rare primary sources
Conclusion
Dr. Egeler’s conversation brings together folk history, literary evolution, and social dynamics, revealing elves and fairies to be mirrors of human imagination, anxieties, nostalgia, and joys. From habiting rocks near farmsteads to starring in tourism brochures, their story is one of constant reinvention—anchored, nonetheless, by enduring patterns and long-lived tales.