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Just when things are looking bleak, elves come to the rescue. When the old shoemaker became too poor to buy more leather, elves sneaked in at night to stitch such fine shoes buyers lined up at his door.And when Santa could no longer grant all children's Christmas wishes, elves took over and ran his workshop all year long. Elves capture the human imagination with their knack for creating a kinder, gentler world, say scholars who study such things."The real world is messy," says Donna Casella, a professor of film, fantasy and pop culture at Minnesota State University (Mankato). "Crime often pays, and some people die for no reason. Inthe alternative reality of elves, things can be fixed."
Elves and
their otherworldly cousins — fairies, dwarves, gnomes and other
creatures of the fairy kingdom — have endured for centuries in
folklore, literature, movies and pop culture.
Elves steal our hearts
with their magic, mischief and mystery and help us understand ourselves.
Because elves live in
nature and appear timeless, they remind us of our connection to the
universe, Casella says. As technology drives people farther from "the
simple life," that's a growing need, she says. "Our collective
consciousness yearns for things more basic, things close to nature and
the idea that whatever dies come back again," she says. "It's very
comforting."
Kids relate to elves
because they seem sochildlike. Elves remind adults of their playful
sides, too. More complex elves, such as those in J.R.R. Tolkien's
popular "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, mirror for adults other aspects of
humanity, including a complex spirituality.
We love elves, too, because
they're among life's mysteries, says Lise Lunge-Larsen, a student of
folklore who lives in Duluth and has written children's books exploring
the fairy kingdom.
"People are attracted to
mystery, the things that are not always explicable," she says. "There
has always been this sense the universe was inhabited by forces you
could not see but you knew were there."
That's how elves help us to trust in our dreams.
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