E is for Elves, for fairer or worse
Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.
Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror.
The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.
No one ever said elves are nice.
Elves are bad
This quote, by Terry Pratchett (“Lords and Ladies”), along with some Shakespeare and Tam Lin by Pamela Dean and Beauty by Sherri Tepper, all of that has colored my impression of fae, faeries, fairies. Add onto that the Changeling I mentioned in “D”, where the sidhe where the hereditary rulers who had gone away for hundreds of years (*Cough* fae apoc *cough*) and, now that they were back, assumed they should rule once again – (I had this habit of playing a rebel – angry Eshu, bloodthirsty satyr…)
Elves are terrific. They beget terror.
The Grigori in Fae Apoc are the closest, I think, to the elves that I keep in my head – tall, imposing, beautiful, arrogant, self-ordained to rule and unbudging in that mandate. The Grigori are all of those things, everything except pointed ears. (and there are fae in Fae Apoc with pointy ears. Eris. Mabina-and-Cassidy. Caity. Llew, who I forgot until I needed an icon. I like pointed ears a lot, okay? If I didn’t have to work a day job, I might point my own ears).
*Cough* all right. So I suppose the sum of that is: in my head, elves are beautiful assholes. And they’re great as semi-antagonists: see Regine. Aesthetically… mm, those ears.
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