daoi-sith vs du-sith: a folklore question

[Bugbear]

Yes, and Tolkien had the ambitious aim of providing an Anglo-Saxon mythology (obviously heavily based on the Norse/Germanic mythologies) which he considered sadly lost.
I guess what I meant is that the people talking about daoi- and du-sith seem to me to be taking their inspiration from Tolkien and other fantasy sources rather than European legends. Put it this way, one of the highest results when searching on Daoi-sith is for a game called adventure quest....

Certainly I have never heard about dark and light Sidhe in Irish legends. The concept of the dark elf is much more likely to be represented by a Fomor or Firbolg (not that the Sidhe are considered particularly similar to light elves, they are probably equivalent to dark (or at the very least shady) elves by themselves!)

From what I've read some of the Irish ledgens relate them having kings and queens etc, and often appearing fairly anthropomorphized to humans.

I thought we were going to get to discuss some Scottish and Irish folktails of the Sith and Sidhe as told by Scots and Irish in this thread...

I was looking forward to it...
I'll go read some more history books.

[Rawlinson]

I thought we were going to get to discuss some Scottish and Irish folktails of the Sith and Sidhe as told by Scots and Irish in this thread...

I was looking forward to it...
I'll go read some more history books.

By all means, if there're folktales out there, don't withhold them.

[WClarkB]

dark and light elves t

Dark and light elves are Norse mythology

[Heming]

Dark and light elves are Norse mythology

Are they? I've never heard of elves of any colour in Norse mythology. Lots of different "otherlanders", but nothing resembling the elves of anglo-saxon and/or celtic tales. I would be thrilled to hear more of this! I see that Wikipedia tells of Norse elves, but I don't want to trust Wikipedia on subjects I don't know.


In any case I don't think elves are much considered in modern Scandinavian folklore. The otherlanders in more modern Norwegian/Swedish lore resemble pixies and leprechauns more than anything else, and the only fairy-like creature I can find is Huldra.

[Bugbear]

Are they? I've never heard of elves of any colour in Norse mythology. Lots of different "otherlanders", but nothing resembling the elves of anglo-saxon and/or celtic tales. I would be thrilled to hear more of this! I see that Wikipedia tells of Norse elves, but I don't want to trust Wikipedia on subjects I don't know.


In any case I don't think elves are much considered in modern Scandinavian folklore. The otherlanders in more modern Norwegian/Swedish lore resemble pixies and leprechauns more than anything else, and the only fairy-like creature I can find is Huldra.

This is interesting. There seems to be a modern trend to polarize old mythologies into good and evil, from what I can tell, and that really doesn't jive with the actual myths or folklore. I'm not terribly familiar with Norse mythology, but I don't recall it being polarized in that way.

I think this is a modern type of folklore coming about, and possibly from the U.S. Also from adapting old myths and ledgens to children's folklore-ish stories , and maybe even video games.

Ehh, I'm not an expert, so what do I know...
* What I can do is read up on elves in a more credible, non-Wikipedia source; which seem to point to elves being of Teutonic mythology...

I can also read up on Norse mythology, at least an overview.