elf howe

English

Noun

elf howe (plural elf howes)

1. Synonym of fairy hill
   • 1877, William Greenwell, British Barrows: A Record of the Examination of Sepulchral Mounds in Various Parts of England, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, page 271:

     The first of these, called Elf Howe, had been removed to a great extent, and the grave had been dug out before I had an opportunity of examining it.

   • 1896, William A. Craigie, Scandinavian Folk-lore: Illustrations of the Traditional Beliefs of the Northern Peoples, London: Alexander Gardner, page 162:

     [I]f they are out on the pastures, thirsty and tired, then the mound opens and the girl comes out to offer them ale or milk to drink, and unless they blow off the froth (for in that lies the charm), they forget everything as soon as they drink, the fairy gets power over them, and carries them off with her into her elf-howe.

   • 1908, James Hastings, Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, volume V, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 682, column 1:

     In folk-belief and Märchen, fairies are associated with tumuli or burial-mounds. These are sometimes called “Fairy-hills,” “Elf-howes,” “Alfenbergen,” etc.; but they are also believed to be haunted by the ghosts of those buried in them, or at least are associated with these.

   • 1911, J.A. MacCulloch, The Religion of the Ancient Celts, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clarke, page 66:

     "Elf" and síde may thus, like the "elf-howe" and the síd or mound, have a parallel history.