be wıhtum

the nature of humans, elves, & gods

ingwine húnfriþ
harvest mmxxii

🚪 beginning

we are not the only ones who make a home on this earth. folde módor houses not only us, but many wights of the land & the sea & the wind & the fires of the world. many of these wights have a fleshly body in brook or beam, stream or stone, well or whirlwind, or even wander the world as a mind-soul untethered; the mightiest of these we call the gods, the ése, who can take many shapes.

the goal of this ramble is to share my own heathen understanding of the makeup & links between wights such as

🏡 fíras humans

in this article, i presented the evidence in old english literary sources for the parts of the self as they may have been understood in pre-christian early england. these all have various names that were utilized in different poetic contexts, but i primarily chose to call these the líc (body), the mód (mind/heart), & the feorh (life/soul). the líc has a conscious element that can act independent of or even against the mód, which i interpret in a contemporary context as the physical brain & nervous system. the mód, which the early english located in the heart or chest, is the seat of thoughts & emotions, actively takes on passions (as opposed to the contemporary understanding of emotions as mental states we passively experience), & has the ability to travel beyond the líc (chiefly in sleep, but also in the contexts of trance or meditation); while so traveling, it can, at least in the perception of the mód’s proprietor, don other shapes, particularly of birds, but also possibly of bears, wolves, or other animals. the feorh is the living soul or breath, which we lay down when we die; it is that part of the self which was also called the sáwol ‘soul’ or gást ‘ghost’ & which could, through the necromancer’s art, be shown forth as a scínhíw ‘phantom shape.’

it is my view, especially based on the etymological connection between feorh & ferhþ (the latter being another attested term for the mód), & on the (albeit limited) mental autonomy of the líc we can see in some of the old english elegiac poetry, that the mód can be viewed as an emergent quality of the self that resides in the physical líc’s heart/chest & is given life through the feorh; thus, its nature & personality are shaped in large part by the kind of body (in our case, human) that it inhabits, its circumstances, the life it leads, &c. i also see the use of the word feorh, which derives from a term for ‘oak tree,’ as evidence that the life-essence found in people is not wholly unlike that which we can surmise for other inhabitants of the world, even while the líc, & therefore also the mód, of these inhabitants may be drastically different. i believe the relationship between the parts of the human self (líc/mód/feorh) functions similarly for other entities, whether they be rock, tree, horse, or lake.

🌿 ielfe elves

i have written before about the difficulty of identifying the meaning & role of the wights which are called ‘elves’ in the lore, so i feel it should be said that what follows is my personal view of these wights based on my reading of the sources as well as my time spent with the elves in thought & practice. i take the extant usage of ‘elves’ as an umbrella-term for a range of wights which are given a greater degree of personhood in the view of the practicioner. while i believe any physical líc in our environment, from beetle to brook to boulder, could be said to possess a soul (feorh) & (mód), an elf to me is an entity which is dissembodied, though, in the case of landwights, may be bound to a general locality; an elf is an entity with which one might interact either because the elf has revealed themself to a person, or because a person has reached out to them with the intention of worship or some other kind of interaction. they can be characterized as beings of great wisdom & beauty, but also as potentially dangerous or capricious beings.

🍂 landwights & the afterlife

since i define the elves, in part, as non-human minds & souls with which we may interact that are not tied to a physical individual, the mód of an elf, in my view, would have inherent differences from that of a human, other animal, plant, or pebble; for example, unlike the mód of a human (or octopus), which is normally bound within the líc & can only venture & take a new shape during sleep or trance, the elven mód seems to be able to wander at will about the physical domain to which it pertains, & change shape & size at will. however, despite these fundamental differences, we do find indications that some humans (particularly legendary figures from the distant past) may, after death, come to be viewed as elves or at least similar to them^*e.g. the difficult early middle english lines of the lost tale of wade quoted in a homily in ms. 255 in penterhouse library, cambridge could be interpreted in a way that suggests that some humans may become ‘elves, snakes, or nicors’, perhaps as a result of their extended time continuing to develop as dissembodied mind-souls outside of the human bodies from which they long ago departed. moreover, we have evidence for an assocation between the god ing, the king of the elves, & the burial mound, & there is a folkloric concept of the elven realm as a place where those dead or dying may be cared for by the elves.

while i am largely agnostic about the afterlife, it makes sense to me that, given that the land is the ultimate resting place for the líc, it would be the wights of the land who welcome the deceased líc (and perhaps also the mód) into their realm. the feorh on the other hand is indicated, at least in epic poetic sources, to journey to hell, which can refer to a place, a goddess^*(as is possibly suggested by the gospel of nicodemus), or (in my view) both; another possible destination is perhaps the sea, as many scholars etymologically connect the word sáwol with sǽ ‘sea’ — it could be up to the individual feorh to decide its destination, or it may be free, like the mód is in life, to roam; we at least see that it is possible for a necromancer to conjure a projection of the feorh, or to remain near the líc’s resting place to haunt the area. regardless of destination, however, i believe that the entities that most of the dead will find each other in the company of, apart from each other, are the landwights (which i tend to simply refer to as ‘elves’/ielfe without further specification). due to these connections, i practice the joint veneration of ancestors & landwights, particularly during autumnal festivals (cf. norse alfablót, irish samhain).

⚒️ dwarves & ents

old english references to dwarves (dweorgas) are very few, & those we find do not seem to distinguish them much from elves. in my elf article linked above, i questioned the notion that these are necessarily separate beings; it is partly on this basis that i use ‘elf’ as an umbrella term encompassing non-human entities. however, in an article on ettins, i posited that the role we see dwarves filling in old norse sources seems to be most analogous to the role of ettins or entas in old english sources, i.e. that of ancient builders & smiths; indeed, we see dwarves & jǫtnar associated together in old norse as well. a superficial difference might be the ents’ typical stature in old english as giants, whereas dwarves are seen glossing the latin term nānus which refers to a diminutive creature. however, as these entities are associated with the earth itself, & are thus (in my usage of the term) elven in nature, the apparent size of the disemboddied mód of such a being is not necessarily fixed.

i personally hold dwarves & ents to be similar descriptors of the nature & role of these elves — they are chiefly builders of great stone works & metal relics, & among them we may also find some legendary human figures. there are also some ettins which may clearly pose a threat: þyrsas such as grendel are clearly inimical to human well-being, as are the dweorgas/ielfe whom the metrical charms blame for disease, & the mara (nightmares).

✨ ése gods

having put forward that elves are dissembodied entities, what distinguishes them & the gods may seem a bit difficult to discern; indeed, i do think the term ‘elf’ (&, in some cases, ‘ettin’) is an appropriate attribution for a good number of those entities which heathens tend to call ‘gods.’ in some latin-old english glossaries, we find the term cófgodas ‘chamber-gods’ translating latin penātēs ‘household deities,’ suggesting perhaps that the old english term god was suitable for the designation of such entities. however, the key distinction i would draw between the gods whom i call ése & other elves is that, unlike landwights or cófgodas, there is not necessarily a locality to which these entities are tied; in other words, the extent of their domain & power is not limited in the same way it may be for other elves. this simultaneous connection & distinction between these gods & other elves is attested in the frequent verse formula that coordinates ése & ielfe.

it is my usage to refer to the most powerful of the elves which are not tied to one region as ése (gods), while i refer to the wights of the land (including the house) consistently as ielfe (elves). at the same time, there are some gods who, despite not being limited to a single local sphere of influence, have a particular connection with aspects of land (in general) or a similar role which would also make another label appropriate, e.g. the term ent applied to wéland due to his connection with smithing (not to mention the instances in which his work is metrically analogized to that of ettins), or the term ielf used of ing in his role as elven king; such labels seemed to have been used fluidly in the sources, so i avoid rigidity in my own application of these terms.

🔑 continuing

what i have written above is a rough overview of my thoughts on the nature of & connections between wights from my old english heathen perspective. it is only meant to represent the understanding that i have found most comports with my practice, personal experiences, & my reading of old english (& adjacent) sources. my thoughts on this topic are bound to evolve as i continue to experience & read more.

thank you for reading. férþú hál·

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