14 THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS 



ceremonies connected with the picking and administering of 

 them. 



But, first, what can we learn of the beliefs as to the origin 

 of disease? Concerning this the great bulk of the folk lore in 

 these manuscripts is apparently of native Teutonic origin, or 

 rather it would be more correct to speak of its origin as Indo- 

 Germanic; for the same doctrines are to be found among all 

 Indo-Germanic peoples, and even in the Vedas, notably the 

 Atharva Veda. Of these beliefs, the doctrine of the " elf-shot " 

 occupies a large space, the. longest chapter in the third book of 

 the Leech Book of Bald being entirely " against elf-disease." 

 We know from their literature that to our Saxon ancestors 

 waste places of moor and forest and marshes were the resort of 

 a host of supernatural creatures at enmity with mankind. In 

 the Leech Book of Bald disease is largely ascribed to these elves, 

 whose shafts produced illness in their victims. We read of 

 beorg-aelfen, dun-aelfen, muntaelfen. But our modern word 

 " elf " feebly represents these creatures, who were more akin to 

 the " mark-stalkers," to the creatures of darkness with loathsome 

 eyes, rather than to the fairies with whom we now associate the 

 name. For the most part these elves of ancient times were 

 joyless impersonations and creatures not of sun but of darkness 

 and winter. In the gloom and solitude of the forest, " where 

 the bitter wormwood stood pale grey " and where " the hoar 

 stones lay thick," the black, giant elves had their dwelling. 

 They claimed the forest for their own and hated man because 

 bit by bit he was wresting the forest from them. Yet they 

 made for man those mystic swords of superhuman workmanship 

 engraved with magic runes and dipped when red hot in blood 

 or in a broth of poisonous herbs and twigs. We do not under- 

 stand, we can only ask, why did they make them? What is 

 the meaning of the myth? The water elves recall the sea 

 monsters who attended Grendel's dam, impersonations of the 

 fury of the waves, akin to Hnikarr, and again other water elves 

 of the cavernous bed of ocean, primeval deadly creatures, 



