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125-398: The Gelfling are the central protagonists of The Dark Crystal franchise. They are slender, elvish humanoids with protracted facial structures who originally populated most of Thra, having three long fingers and a thumb on each hand. Female Gelfling have fairy -like wings that can be folded to fit easily under their clothing, allowing them to safely glide down from high places, even with

250-473: A firca . His creature and costume design were provided by Brian Froud and his designer and fabrication supervisor was Wendy Midener. Having escaped the slaughter of her people when hidden by her mother in a hollow tree trunk, Kira ended up wandering into a Podling village and was adopted by them. Taught by the Podlings, Kira learned to converse with wild animals and is given to wandering the swamps outside

375-457: A cause of illnesses remained prominent in early modern Scotland, where elves were viewed as supernaturally powerful people who lived invisibly alongside everyday rural people. Thus, elves were often mentioned in the early modern Scottish witchcraft trials: many witnesses in the trials believed themselves to have been given healing powers or to know of people or animals made sick by elves. Throughout these sources, elves are sometimes associated with

500-454: A circle where they had danced, called älvdanser (elf dances) or älvringar (elf circles), and to urinate in one was thought to cause venereal diseases. Typically, elf circles were fairy rings consisting of a ring of small mushrooms, but there was also another kind of elf circle. In the words of the local historian Anne Marie Hellström: ... on lake shores, where the forest met the lake, you could find elf circles. They were round places where

625-524: A couple of verse spells, including the Bergen rune-charm from among the Bryggen inscriptions . The appearance of elves in sagas is closely defined by genre. The Sagas of Icelanders , Bishops' sagas , and contemporary sagas , whose portrayal of the supernatural is generally restrained, rarely mention álfar , and then only in passing. But although limited, these texts provide some of the best evidence for

750-601: A different kind of evil, such as cruelty, selfishness, greed, unchecked ambition, treachery, and wrath. The Skeksis were full-bodied puppets operated in a very similar way to Big Bird . The puppeteer's secondary arm was in the arm of the Skeksis and the puppeteer's primary arm was held up over the puppeteer's head and the hand operates the jaw. A monitor inside the suit allowed the puppeteer to see. The series prequel The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance introduced new Skeksis characters who appeared in other media. In Archaia Comics

875-545: A farming community that live on the southern plains of Thra and are a rival of the Stonewood Clan. The Spriton Clan reside in Sami Thicket, but mostly are in other parts of Thra trading items with its other inhabitants. Agriculture and creature husbandry are also part of their lives. Among the known members are: Described as "a friendly monster " in the initial draft of the screenplay, the character of Fizzgig

1000-415: A few witchcraft trials, people attested that these arrow-heads were used in healing rituals, and occasionally alleged that witches (and perhaps elves) used them to injure people and cattle. A 1749–50 ode by William Collins includes the lines: There every herd, by sad experience, knows How, winged with fate, their elf-shot arrows fly, When the sick ewe her summer food forgoes, Or, stretched on earth,

1125-642: A first element. These names may have been influenced by Celtic names beginning in Albio- such as Albiorix . Personal names provide the only evidence for elf in Gothic , which must have had the word * albs (plural * albeis ). The most famous name of this kind is Alboin . Old English names in elf - include the cognate of Alboin Ælfwine (literally "elf-friend", m.), Ælfric ("elf-powerful", m.), Ælfweard ("elf-guardian", m.), and Ælfwaru ("elf-care", f.). A widespread survivor of these in modern English

1250-661: A key development of this idea. In the eighteenth century, German Romantic writers were influenced by this notion of the elf, and re-imported the English word elf into the German language. From the Romantic notion came the elves of modern popular culture. Christmas elves are a relatively recent creation, popularized during the late 19th century in the United States. Elves entered the twentieth-century high fantasy genre in

1375-582: A major role in transmitting traditional ideas about elves in post-medieval cultures. Indeed, some of the early modern ballads are still quite widely known, whether through school syllabuses or contemporary folk music. They, therefore, give people an unusual degree of access to ideas of elves from older traditional culture. The ballads are characterised by sexual encounters between everyday people and humanlike beings referred to in at least some variants as elves (the same characters also appear as mermen , dwarves, and other kinds of supernatural beings). The elves pose

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1500-552: A manner that concept artist Brian Froud described as being "... between a dog and a dinosaur ". In Archaia Comics The Dark Crystal: Creation Myth Volumes 2 and 3 , four new Mystics were introduced: In the Dark Crystal Author Quest series by J.M. Lee, three new canonical urRu are introduced and one appearing in the Netflix series The Dark Crystal Age of Resistance . The urSkeks are the beings from which

1625-613: A misunderstanding: the image proves to be a conventional illustration of God's arrows and Christian demons. Rather, twenty-first century scholarship suggests that Anglo-Saxon elves, like elves in Scandinavia or the Irish Aos Sí , were regarded as people. Like words for gods and men, the word elf is used in personal names where words for monsters and demons are not. Just as álfar is associated with Æsir in Old Norse,

1750-471: A threat to the everyday community by lure people into the elves' world. The most famous example is Elveskud and its many variants (paralleled in English as Clerk Colvill ), where a woman from the elf world tries to tempt a young knight to join her in dancing, or to live among the elves; in some versions he refuses, and in some he accepts, but in either case he dies, tragically. As in Elveskud , sometimes

1875-456: A threatening, even demonic, force. For example, some prayers invoke God's help against nocturnal attacks by Alpe . Correspondingly, in the early modern period, elves are described in north Germany doing the evil bidding of witches; Martin Luther believed his mother to have been afflicted in this way. As in Old Norse, however, there are few characters identified as elves. It seems likely that in

2000-399: A transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of primary or secondary succession . Higher-density areas of trees with a largely closed canopy that provides extensive and nearly continuous shade are often referred to as forests . Extensive efforts by conservationist groups have been made to preserve woodlands from urbanization and agriculture . For example,

2125-402: Is Alfred (Old English Ælfrēd , "elf-advice"). Also surviving are the English surname Elgar ( Ælfgar , "elf-spear"), and the name of St Alphege ( Ælfhēah , "elf-tall"). German examples are Alberich , Alphart and Alphere (father of Walter of Aquitaine ) and Icelandic examples include Álfhildur . These names suggest that elves were positively regarded in early Germanic culture. Of

2250-640: Is a Sanctuary Tree that appears in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and makes it home in Grot, being one of the many Great Trees that held the Darkening at bay for a millennia before it became too strong for them to subdue thanks to the Skeksis' experiments with the Dark Crystal. When the tree's death occurs, Vliste-Staba gives Deet the ability to absorb the Darkening into herself to purify

2375-547: Is also evidence associating elves with illness, specifically epilepsy. In a similar vein, elves are in Middle High German most often associated with deceiving or bewildering people in a phrase that occurs so often it would appear to be proverbial: die elben/der alp trieget mich ("the elves/elf are/is deceiving me"). The same pattern holds in Early Modern German. This deception sometimes shows

2500-643: Is also to be found in the Prose Edda . The Old High German word alp is attested only in a small number of glosses. It is defined by the Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch as a "nature-god or nature-demon, equated with the Fauns of Classical mythology   ... regarded as eerie, ferocious beings   ... As the mare he messes around with women". Accordingly, the German word Alpdruck (literally "elf-oppression") means "nightmare". There

2625-790: Is difficult to be sure how many of other words, including personal names, can appear similar to elf , because of confounding elements such as al- (from eald ) meaning "old". The clearest appearances of elves in English examples are Elveden ("elves' hill", Suffolk) and Elvendon ("elves' valley", Oxfordshire); other examples may be Eldon Hill ("Elves' hill", Derbyshire); and Alden Valley ("elves' valley", Lancashire). These associate elves fairly consistently with woods and valleys. The earliest surviving manuscripts mentioning elves in any Germanic language are from Anglo-Saxon England . Medieval English evidence has, therefore, attracted quite extensive research and debate. In Old English, elves are most often mentioned in medical texts which attest to

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2750-412: Is not necessarily the case, however. For example, because the cognates suggest matt white rather than shining white, and because in medieval Scandinavian texts whiteness is associated with beauty, Alaric Hall has suggested that elves may have been called 'the white people' because whiteness was associated with (specifically feminine) beauty. A completely different etymology, making elf a cognate with

2875-432: Is now southern Sweden. There does not seem to have been any clear-cut distinction between humans and gods; like the Æsir, then, elves were presumably thought of as being humanlike and existing in opposition to the giants . Many commentators have also (or instead) argued for conceptual overlap between elves and dwarves in Old Norse mythology, which may fit with trends in the medieval German evidence. There are hints that

3000-403: Is often thought to be derived from it. These all come from a Proto-Indo-European root *h₂elbʰ- , and seem to be connected by the idea of whiteness. The Germanic word presumably originally meant 'white one', perhaps as a euphemism. Jakob Grimm thought whiteness implied positive moral connotations, and, noting Snorri Sturluson's ljósálfar , suggested that elves were divinities of light. This

3125-470: Is ongoing. The noun elf-shot is first attested in a Scots poem, "Rowlis Cursing," from around 1500, where "elf schot" is listed among a range of curses to be inflicted on some chicken thieves. The term may not always have denoted an actual projectile: shot could mean "a sharp pain". But in early modern Scotland, elf-schot and other terms like elf-arrowhead are sometimes used of neolithic arrow-heads , apparently thought to have been made by elves. In

3250-536: Is still relatively common. Even when Icelanders do not explicitly express their belief, they are often reluctant to express disbelief. A 2006 and 2007 study by the University of Iceland's Faculty of Social Sciences revealed that many would not rule out the existence of elves and ghosts, a result similar to a 1974 survey by Erlendur Haraldsson . The lead researcher of the 2006–2007 study, Terry Gunnell , stated: "Icelanders seem much more open to phenomena like dreaming

3375-416: Is the pet of Kira: resembling a dog in voice and manners, but unlike a dog in that his facial features are tiny and his entire body is represented by a brown/red/gray ball of fur. Fizzgig moves by rolling, though he does appear to have at least two legs. His mouth, when open, appears to encompass most of his size and possesses two sets of sharp teeth. He is fiercely loyal to Kira, has an aggressive temper, and

3500-586: Is to say, the supernaturals protect and enforce religious values and traditional rural culture. The elves fend off, with more or less success, the attacks, and advances of modern technology, palpable in the bulldozer." Elves are also prominent, in similar roles, in contemporary Icelandic literature. Folk stories told in the nineteenth century about elves are still told in modern Denmark and Sweden. Still, they now feature ethnic minorities in place of elves in essentially racist discourse. In an ethnically fairly homogeneous medieval countryside, supernatural beings provided

3625-407: Is twice seen using these wings to slow a fall. Kira was designed by Wendy Froud (Nee Midener) and her design and fabrication supervisor was also Wendy Midener. The Vapra Clan are a Gelfling clan that reside in the city of Ha'rar within the snowy high mountains and appear in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance , having ruled the other Gelfling tribes for ages. They are experts on camouflage. Among

3750-635: Is used in British nature conservation to refer to any wooded land that has existed since 1600, and often (though not always) for thousands of years, since the last Ice Age (equivalent to the American term old-growth forest ) Woodlot is a closely related term in American forest management , which refers to a stand of trees generally used for firewood. While woodlots often technically have closed canopies, they are so small that light penetration from

3875-458: Is wary of unfamiliar things. Fizzgig is at first wary of Jen, but becomes his friend. Fizzgig later made a cameo in the Fraggle Rock episode "Gobo's Discovery", as one of the background cave creatures. Fizzgig was designed by Brian Froud and his design and fabrication supervisor was Rollie Krewson . In relating media and prequels, Fizzgig is the name of the species as well. Fizzgig is

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4000-442: The plurale tantum woods ), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see differences between British , American and Australian English explained below). Some savannas may also be woodlands, such as savanna woodland , where trees and shrubs form a light canopy . Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses . Woodland may form

4125-495: The Ṛbhus , semi-divine craftsmen in Indian mythology, was suggested by Adalbert Kuhn in 1855. In this case, * ɑlβi-z would connote the meaning 'skilful, inventive, clever', and could be a cognate with Latin labor , in the sense of 'creative work'. While often mentioned, this etymology is not widely accepted. Throughout the medieval Germanic languages, elf was one of the nouns used in personal names , almost invariably as

4250-571: The British Isles and Scandinavia, originating in the medieval period, describe elves attempting to seduce or abduct human characters. With modern urbanisation and industrialisation, belief in elves declined rapidly, though Iceland has some claim to continued popular belief. Elves started to be prominent in the literature and art of educated elites from the early modern period onwards. These literary elves were imagined as tiny, playful beings, with William Shakespeare 's A Midsummer Night's Dream

4375-466: The Elder Edda . The only character explicitly identified as an elf in classical Eddaic poetry, if any, is Völundr , the protagonist of Völundarkviða . However, elves are frequently mentioned in the alliterating phrase Æsir ok Álfar ('Æsir and elves') and its variants. This was a well-established poetic formula , indicating a strong tradition of associating elves with the group of gods known as

4500-539: The Germanic languages . It seems originally to have meant 'white being'. However, reconstructing the early concept depends largely on texts written by Christians, in Old and Middle English , medieval German, and Old Norse . These associate elves variously with the gods of Norse mythology , with causing illness, with magic, and with beauty and seduction. After the medieval period, the word elf became less common throughout

4625-536: The Icelandic Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda . In medieval Germanic -speaking cultures, elves were thought of as beings with magical powers and supernatural beauty, ambivalent towards everyday people and capable of either helping or hindering them. Beliefs varied considerably over time and space and flourished in both pre-Christian and Christian cultures . The word elf is found throughout

4750-709: The Late Middle Ages , the word elf began to be used in English as a term loosely synonymous with the French loan-word fairy ; in elite art and literature, at least, it also became associated with diminutive supernatural beings like Puck , hobgoblins , Robin Goodfellow, the English and Scots brownie , and the Northumbrian English hob . However, in Scotland and parts of northern England near

4875-458: The Other through which everyday people created their identities; in cosmopolitan industrial contexts, ethnic minorities or immigrants are used in storytelling to similar effect. Woodland A woodland ( / ˈ w ʊ d l ə n d / ) is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants ( trees and shrubs ), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S.,

5000-515: The chivalric sagas tend even to be whimsical. In his Rerum Danicarum fragmenta (1596) written mostly in Latin with some Old Danish and Old Icelandic passages, Arngrímur Jónsson explains the Scandinavian and Icelandic belief in elves (called Allffuafolch ). Both Continental Scandinavia and Iceland have a scattering of mentions of elves in medical texts, sometimes in Latin and sometimes in

5125-632: The subterraneans . Elves have a prominent place in several closely related ballads, which must have originated in the Middle Ages but are first attested in the early modern period. Many of these ballads are first attested in Karen Brahes Folio , a Danish manuscript from the 1570s, but they circulated widely in Scandinavia and northern Britain. They sometimes mention elves because they were learned by heart, even though that term had become archaic in everyday usage. They have therefore played

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5250-552: The succubus -like supernatural being called the mare . While they may have been thought to cause diseases with magical weapons, elves are more clearly associated in Old English with a kind of magic denoted by Old English sīden and sīdsa , a cognate with the Old Norse seiðr , and paralleled in the Old Irish Serglige Con Culainn . By the fourteenth century, they were also associated with

5375-625: The svartálfar create new blond hair for Thor's wife Sif after Loki had shorn off Sif's long hair. However, these terms are attested only in the Prose Edda and texts based on it. It is now agreed that they reflect traditions of dwarves , demons , and angels , partly showing Snorri's "paganisation" of a Christian cosmology learned from the Elucidarius , a popular digest of Christian thought. Scholars of Old Norse mythology now focus on references to elves in Old Norse poetry, particularly

5500-593: The Æsir , or even suggesting that the elves and Æsir were one and the same. The pairing is paralleled in the Old English poem Wið færstice and in the Germanic personal name system; moreover, in Skaldic verse the word elf is used in the same way as words for gods. Sigvatr Þórðarson 's skaldic travelogue Austrfaravísur , composed around 1020, mentions an álfablót ('elves' sacrifice') in Edskogen in what

5625-618: The "Mystics", the urRu are benign counterparts of the Skeksis and embody the urSkeks' redeeming qualities yet are mostly indifferent and rarely act. After two of their own are killed by a rogue Skeksis, they learn that they are still linked with their counterparts, and most of the urRu take refuge in the Valley of the Standing Stones, leaving the Skeksis to their devices. While initially lean and fairly agile creatures, nearly identical to

5750-408: The "Son of Aughra", Raunip was born from the organic material of a meteorite that landed on Thra which Aughra brought to life. Unlike the more reserved Aughra, Raunip is more outgoing and with an adventurous curiosity, allowing him befriend Gelfings and other members of Thra's races. But Raunip earned the urSkeks' ire, his distrust of them playing a factor in the events that splintered the urSkeks into

5875-666: The Age of Division, resembling Gelflings enveloped in flame, the Firelings adapted to their environment with their physiology altered to the point that they are unable to survive on Thra's surface without assistance and with exposure to water weakening them. While they resemble Gelflings, the female Firelings lack wings and the older members of the race had fin-like ears and sported a pair of antennae on their foreheads. Firelings also possess an ability similar to dreamfasting called "firefasting", that enabled them to learn of events and emotions from

6000-415: The Dark Crystal . In the film, Aughra is portrayed primarily by Frank Oz in costume. Oz also voiced Aughra originally (similar to a combination of Fozzie Bear , Yoda , and Miss Piggy ); but her lines were redubbed by Billie Whitelaw . Aughra appears in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance . She awakens from her journey to find that the Skeksis have corrupted Thra. She gave up her life essence to help

6125-521: The Dark Crystal , Archaia Comics The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths and Dark Crystal Author Quest , various Skeksis and Mystics were introduced which provides the identities of some of the deceased urSkeks (Skeksis/urRu), but thanks to The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance , alongside the J.M. Lee novels, these are the canon 18 UrSkeks: The Podlings , also known as the Pod People , are a species of gentle "earth-people" native to Thra and affiliated with

6250-532: The Dark Crystal to drain the surrounding lands of their life essence to prolong their lives while using the extracted essence of their enslaved kinsmen for rejuvenation purposes. This started the events of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance , which reveals that the Gelfling were organized as seven matriarchal clans who made their homes in areas of Thra consisting of the Stonewood Clan, the Spriton Clan,

6375-531: The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths 2, two Skeksis are seen: In the Dark Crystal Author Quest novels, two more Skeksis appeared. Both were referenced in the ninth episode of Age of Resistance : In Tokyopop's OEL manga Legends of the Dark Crystal vol. 1 and 2, two more Skeksis are introduced. Since later novels and the TV series, these characters are no longer canon: More commonly known as

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6500-657: The Drenchen Clan's location in their consensus. Among the known members are: The Sifa Clan are a sea -faring Gelfling Clan that appear in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance . They reside in coastal villages along the Silver Sea where they work as fishermen and sailors . Among the known members are: The Dousan Clan are an elusive Gelfling Clan that reside on the Crystal Sea desert . They appear in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance . The Dousan Clan navigate

6625-545: The Elf-Knight , in which the Elf-Knight bears away Isabel to murder her, or the Scandinavian Harpans kraft . In The Queen of Elfland's Nourice , a woman is abducted to be a wet nurse to the elf-queen's baby, but promised that she might return home once the child is weaned. In folk stories, Scandinavian elves often play the role of disease spirits. The most common, though the also most harmless case

6750-650: The Gelfling Kensho. Her return home after the crisis saw her confront Nita, a rival claimant to her position as Ember Queen, though the two eventually joined forces in order to stop the Fire That Stays from finishing what the Great Dim had started. She subsequently ruled Mithra jointly with Nita and Fiola. The Myth-Speaker (voiced by Sigourney Weaver ) is the narrator of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance . Vliste-Staba (voiced by Theo Ogundipe)

6875-409: The Gelfling. In The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance , the Gelfling puppets require only two puppeteers thus permitting greater freedom of movement. Also, while the animatronic components of the original film's Gelfling puppets were controlled via cables, the mechanical parts of the new Gelfling were remotely operated via a modified Wii controller. Jen is a young male Gelfling and the protagonist of

7000-568: The Gelflings in many conflicts. The Arathim eventually become the Gelflings' allies in their rebellion against the Skeksis, who respond by having skekTek graft some Arathim corpses with the remains of one of his Gruenak slaves to create the first Garthim. Elf An elf ( pl. : elves ) is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic folklore . Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology , being mentioned in

7125-449: The Gelflings, named for the giant seed-pods in which they live. In their own language, they referred to themselves as apopiapoiopidiappididiapipob , which translated as "master gardeners who live in bulging plants." The Podlings are dwarf -like in stature yet with very rounded, circular-shaped, bulbous potato-like heads and small round eyes. They have a love of music and parties. In tune with nature, they can speak to Thra's wildlife and Kira

7250-474: The German-speaking world, elves were to a significant extent conflated with dwarves ( Middle High German : getwerc ). Thus, some dwarves that appear in German heroic poetry have been seen as relating to elves. In particular, nineteenth-century scholars tended to think that the dwarf Alberich, whose name etymologically means "elf-powerful," was influenced by early traditions of elves. From around

7375-541: The Germanic languages, losing out to terms like Zwerg ('dwarf') in German and huldra ('hidden being') in North Germanic languages , and to loan-words like fairy (borrowed from French). Still, belief in elves persisted in the early modern period , particularly in Scotland and Scandinavia, where elves were thought of as magically powerful people living, usually invisibly, alongside human communities. They continued to be associated with causing illnesses and with sexual threats. For example, several early modern ballads in

7500-616: The Old English Wið færstice associates elves with ēse ; whatever this word meant by the tenth century, etymologically it denoted pagan gods. In Old English, the plural ylfe (attested in Beowulf ) is grammatically an ethnonym (a word for an ethnic group), suggesting that elves were seen as people. As well as appearing in medical texts, the Old English word ælf and its feminine derivative ælbinne were used in glosses to translate Latin words for nymphs . This fits well with

7625-444: The Old Norse word álfr . The following table summarises the situation in the main modern standard languages of Scandinavia. The elves of Norse mythology have survived into folklore mainly as females, living in hills and mounds of stones. The Swedish älvor were stunningly beautiful girls who lived in the forest with an elven king. The elves could be seen dancing over meadows, particularly at night and on misty mornings. They left

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7750-488: The Podling village, accompanied by Fizzgig. She is soft-spoken and gentle as a rule. Kira wears a golden-brown dress and a brown cloak. She has a fair complexion; her hair is long and fair, almost white; and she is always barefoot. As a female Gelfling, Kira has segmented fairy or butterfly -like wings that unfold from her shoulders on command: a physical feature not shared by male Gelflings. Although not shown in flight, she

7875-401: The Podlings into aged and mindless slaves who submit to the Skeksis' commands. At the end of the film, the enslaved Podlings are restored to their original selves. The unnamed Podlings in the film are performed by Dave Goelz, Jim Henson, and Frank Oz and voiced by Barry Dennen , Patrick Monckton, and Sue Weatherby. The creature and costume designs for the Podlings were done by Brian Froud and

8000-632: The Rhymer , where a man meets a female elf; Tam Lin , The Elfin Knight , and Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight , in which an Elf-Knight rapes, seduces, or abducts a woman; and The Queen of Elfland's Nourice , a woman is abducted to be a wet-nurse to the elf queen's baby, but promised that she might return home once the child is weaned. In Scandinavian folklore , many humanlike supernatural beings are attested, which might be thought of as elves and partly originate in medieval Scandinavian beliefs. However,

8125-458: The Scottish border, beliefs in elves remained prominent into the nineteenth century. James VI of Scotland and Robert Kirk discussed elves seriously; elf beliefs are prominently attested in the Scottish witchcraft trials, particularly the trial of Issobel Gowdie ; and related stories also appear in folktales, There is a significant corpus of ballads narrating stories about elves, such as Thomas

8250-469: The Skeksis and the urRu/Mystics. Helping Aughra search for the lost shard, fruitlessly gathering similar shards, Raunip learned the Skeksis have enlisted the Gelflings to repel the invading Makrak horde in his absence. Raunip attempted to convince the Gelfling elder Carn of not trusting the Skeksis, only to be rebuffed and accused of abandoning the Gelflings in their time of need. Raunip left Carn's village with her daughter Thall, who shared his suspicion over

8375-407: The Skeksis heal skekMal. When urVa jumps to his death, skekMal dies and Aughra is reconstituted. Her designer was Brian Froud and her design and fabrication supervisor was Lyle Conway. The fabrication team for Aughra included: David Barclay , Jeremy Hunt, Paul Jiggins, Graeme Galvin, and Steve Court. The Skeksis are the central antagonists of The Dark Crystal franchise: the ten dark versions of

8500-487: The Skeksis learned of this, they attempted using fabrications to deter the Gelfling before resorting to genocide with the newly created Garthim. By time of the events of the first film, only Jen and Kira had survived one such massacre as the former seeks to fulfill the prophecy. At the end of the first film, the two are entrusted with the Crystal by the urSkeks. In the original film, it required four puppeteers to operate

8625-460: The Skeksis' motives. Taken to Valley of the urRu by urGoh where he is reunited with Kotha, Raunip tried convincing the urRu to stop the Skeksis from taking the Gelfling to war. When the Makraks reached the Valley the following day, Kotha's translation of their language allows Raunip to understand that Makraks were forced from their underground home with the destruction they caused motivated by fear of

8750-517: The Skeksis, the urRu aged differently from their counterparts as they began using walking sticks to move around while gradually losing their memories. During the course of the film, after urSu allowed himself to die to place the remaining nine Skeksis into disarray, urZah leads the urRu towards the Castle to fulfill the prophecy and merge with their Skeksis counterparts back into the urSkeks. The urRu have four arms, elongated heads, white hair, and tails, in

8875-555: The Skeksis. The Garthim are crustacean -like creatures that skekTek animated with the Dark Crystal to serve the Skeksis as their enforcers following the Gelfings' war declaration, each pieced together from the corpses of the spider -like Arathim and the humanoid Gruenaks in a form resembling sea creatures native to the urSkeks' world. The creation of the Garthim, as depicted in the first-season finale of Age of Resistance , led to

9000-642: The Suns. Once Lore accomplishes his mission, Lore is deactivated by skekGra and remains in the Circle of the Suns for the duration of the first season. The Arathim are a spider -like race that appear in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance , all connected by a hivemind known as the Ascendency. The Arathim initially lived in the Caves of Grot until the Skeksis drove them into the wilds for refusing to submit and fought

9125-753: The Vapra Clan, the Grottan Clan, the Drenchen Clan, the Sifa Clan, and the Dousan Clan. Each of the Gelfling Clans is led by a leader called a "Maudra" and the ruler of all the clans is named "All-Maudra". Eventually, the Gelfling learned that one among them was destined to find the Shard and restore the Crystal to its natural state alongside the urSkeks during an upcoming Great Conjunction. When

9250-433: The added weight of a second Gelfling holding onto them. The Marvel Comics adaptation of the film states that in the past, females could fly, but the wings have become vestigial. Gelfling also possess an ability called " dreamfasting" that allows them to psychically share thoughts, memories, and emotions through touch. The name "Gelfling" is a transliteration of Ghel-lflainnk , which means "those who live without knowledge of

9375-516: The aftermath of the Garthim War, Aughra keeps the Shard safe in her observatory until Jen arrived to obtain it, but the Garthim destroy Aughra's home while attempting to capture Jen, bringing her to the Castle where she rebukes the Skeksis before being locked away in skekTek's Chamber of Life until she is freed and witnesses the urSkeks' restoration. Aughra makes a return appearance in the comic book sequel to The Dark Crystal , titled The Power of

9500-519: The ancestor-language of the attested Germanic languages ; the Proto-Germanic forms are reconstructed as * ɑlβi-z and * ɑlβɑ-z . Germanic *ɑlβi-z~*ɑlβɑ-z is generally agreed to be a cognate with Latin albus ('(matt) white'), Old Irish ailbhín ('flock'), Ancient Greek ἀλφός ( alphós ; 'whiteness, white leprosy';), and Albanian elb ('barley'); and the Germanic word for 'swan' reconstructed as *albit- (compare Modern Icelandic álpt )

9625-403: The arcane practice of alchemy . In one or two Old English medical texts, elves might be envisaged as inflicting illnesses with projectiles. In the twentieth century, scholars often labelled the illnesses elves caused as " elf-shot ", but work from the 1990s onwards showed that the medieval evidence for elves' being thought to cause illnesses in this way is slender; debate about its significance

9750-473: The attempt failed and resulted in the Crystal of Truth becoming the Dark Crystal and splintered the urSkeks into the urRu and the Skeksis, each member being spiritually linked to his counterpart. If any member of either species is wounded or killed, an equivalent suffers the same in the other. By the events of the film, the others having died of various causes, only eight of the urSkeks are reformed before they depart Thra soon after. In between TokyoPop's Legends of

9875-601: The belief that elves might afflict humans and livestock with illnesses: apparently mostly sharp, internal pains and mental disorders. The most famous of the medical texts is the metrical charm Wið færstice ("against a stabbing pain"), from the tenth-century compilation Lacnunga , but most of the attestations are in the tenth-century Bald's Leechbook and Leechbook III . This tradition continues into later English-language traditions too: elves continue to appear in Middle English medical texts. Belief in elves as

10000-466: The characteristics and names of these beings have varied widely across time and space, and they cannot be neatly categorised. These beings are sometimes known by words descended directly from the Old Norse álfr . However, in modern languages, traditional terms related to álfr have tended to be replaced with other terms. Things are further complicated because when referring to the elves of Old Norse mythology, scholars have adopted new forms based directly on

10125-527: The design and fabrication supervisor was Sherry Amont. The design and fabrication team for the Podlings consisted of Bob Payne , Amy Van Gilder, Mike Quinn , Cheryl Henson , Marianne Harms, Nick Forder, Sarah Monzani, Peter Saunders, and Debbie Coda. Polly Smith, Barbara Davis, and Ellis Duncan were associate costume designers. There have been some named Podlings: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance also features some unnamed Podling servants (performed by Warrick Brownlow-Pike and Louise Gold ) that work for

10250-550: The early Gelflings before the first Great Conjunction. While intersexed, Aughra is mostly female as her masculine side was burned along with her right eye as the result of directly witnessing the Great Conjunction up close. But she was saved from death by the urSkeks with their member TekTih teaching her of the inner workings of the universe while creating her observatory home on top of a mountain known as High Hill, Aughra providing information on Thra in return. Present at

10375-417: The edge makes them ecologically closer to woodland than forest. North American forests vary widely in their ecology and are greatly dependent on abiotic factors such as climate and elevation. Much of the old-growth deciduous and pine-dominated forests of the eastern United States was harvested for lumber, paper pulp, telephone poles, creosote, pitch, and tar. In Australia, a woodland is defined as an area with

10500-482: The elf dance is a common motif transferred from older Scandinavian ballads. Elves were not exclusively young and beautiful. In the Swedish folktale Little Rosa and Long Leda , an elvish woman ( älvakvinna ) arrives in the end and saves the heroine, Little Rose, on the condition that the king's cattle no longer graze on her hill. She is described as a beautiful old woman and by her aspect people saw that she belonged to

10625-571: The elf of Geirstaðir'), and a demonic elf at the beginning of Norna-Gests þáttr . The legendary sagas tend to focus on elves as legendary ancestors or on heroes' sexual relations with elf-women. Mention of the land of Álfheimr is found in Heimskringla while Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar recounts a line of local kings who ruled over Álfheim , who since they had elven blood were said to be more beautiful than most men. According to Hrólfs saga kraka , Hrolfr Kraki 's half-sister Skuld

10750-508: The elves by offering a treat (preferably butter) placed into an elven mill. In order to protect themselves and their livestock against malevolent elves, Scandinavians could use a so-called Elf cross ( Alfkors , Älvkors or Ellakors ), which was carved into buildings or other objects. It existed in two shapes, one was a pentagram , and it was still frequently used in early 20th-century Sweden as painted or carved onto doors, walls, and household utensils to protect against elves. The second form

10875-543: The everyday person is a man and the elf a woman, as also in Elvehøj (much the same story as Elveskud, but with a happy ending), Herr Magnus og Bjærgtrolden , Herr Tønne af Alsø , Herr Bøsmer i elvehjem , or the Northern British Thomas the Rhymer . Sometimes the everyday person is a woman, and the elf is a man, as in the northern British Tam Lin , The Elfin Knight , and Lady Isabel and

11000-444: The film, having been raised by the urRu Master urSu from infancy when his family was slaughtered by the Garthim. His upbringing by the lax urRu made him both deliberate and impatient. Jen wears a pale, cream-colored tunic. His skin has a brown complexion and his hair is dark with fair (almost silver) streaks, and grows to shoulder-length. He carries a flute around his neck, which he is shown playing at intervals, and an urRu token known as

11125-452: The first Garthim (performed by Daniel Dewhirst) following the fight at Stone-in-the-Wood. The conceptual designer for the Garthim was Brian Froud, who claimed to have had a fascination with lobsters , and Fred Nihda as the design and fabrication supervisor. As the suits were so heavy and prone to overheating, special harnesses were constructed to lift the performers in the Garthim suits and give them time to recover in between takes. Known as

11250-716: The form elf during the Middle English period. During the Old English period, separate forms were used for female elves (such as ælfen , putatively from Proto-Germanic * ɑlβ(i)innjō ), but during the Middle English period the word elf routinely came to include female beings. The Old English forms are cognates – having a common origin – with medieval Germanic terms such as Old Norse alfr ('elf'; plural alfar ), Old High German alp ('evil spirit'; pl. alpî , elpî ; feminine elbe ), Burgundian * alfs ('elf'), and Middle Low German alf ('evil spirit'). These words must come from Proto-Germanic ,

11375-551: The form of amulets, where elves are viewed as a possible cause of illness. Most of them have Low German connections. Sometimes elves are, like dwarves , associated with craftsmanship. Wayland the Smith embodies this feature. He is known under many names, depending on the language in which the stories were distributed. The names include Völund in Old Norse, Wēland in Anglo-Saxon and Wieland in German. The story of Wayland

11500-430: The future". This is due to their innocence and naïvety. The Gelfling once had a flourishing civilization with a writing system similar to hieroglyphics, having relied on Aughra during the Age of Innocence before the urSkeks' arrival, which hastened their development while they venerated the aliens for their advancement. Initially, the Gelfling coexisted with the Skeksis before learning of their malevolent actions in using

11625-467: The future, forebodings, ghosts and elves than other nations". Whether significant numbers of Icelandic people do believe in elves or not, elves are certainly prominent in national discourses. They occur most often in oral narratives and news reporting in which they disrupt house- and road-building. In the analysis of Valdimar Tr. Hafstein , "narratives about the insurrections of elves demonstrate supernatural sanction against development and urbanization; that

11750-717: The god Freyr was associated with elves. In particular, Álfheimr (literally "elf-world") is mentioned as being given to Freyr in Grímnismál . Snorri Sturluson identified Freyr as one of the Vanir . However, the term Vanir is rare in Eddaic verse, very rare in Skaldic verse, and is not generally thought to appear in other Germanic languages. Given the link between Freyr and the elves, it has therefore long been suspected that álfar and Vanir are, more or less, different words for

11875-427: The grass had been flattened like a floor. Elves had danced there. By Lake Tisnaren , I have seen one of those. It could be dangerous, and one could become ill if one had trodden over such a place or if one destroyed anything there. If a human watched the dance of the elves, he would discover that even though only a few hours seemed to have passed, many years had passed in the real world. Humans being invited or lured to

12000-475: The heart-smit heifers lie. Because of elves' association with illness, in the twentieth century, most scholars imagined that elves in the Anglo-Saxon tradition were small, invisible, demonic beings, causing illnesses with arrows. This was encouraged by the idea that "elf-shot" is depicted in the Eadwine Psalter , in an image which became well known in this connection. However, this is now thought to be

12125-450: The idea of a Fairy Queen . A propensity to seduce or rape people becomes increasingly prominent in the source material. Around the fifteenth century, evidence starts to appear for the belief that elves might steal human babies and replace them with changelings . By the end of the medieval period, elf was increasingly being supplanted by the French loan-word fairy . An example is Geoffrey Chaucer 's satirical tale Sir Thopas , where

12250-508: The infected. Lore (performed by Damian Farrell) is a sentient rock construct created by skekGra and urGoh. Debuting in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance , skekGra and urGoh placed him in a chamber beneath the Vapra Clan's throne room to await the Gefling that would revive him. Lore is awakened by Brea in "The First Thing I Remember is Fire," playing skekGra's recording to explain himself as her guide and protector in her journey to Circle of

12375-517: The known members are: The Drenchen Clan are an amphibious Gelfling Clan that live in the Swamps of Sog. They appear in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance where their town of Great Smerth is named after the enormous tree that is in the center. The Drenchen Clan have gills that enable them to survive underwater and the females use their wings like fish fins to swim. They are also powerful in combat and take pride in it. The Skeksis could not keep track of

12500-509: The known members are: The Grottan Clan, named after the Caves of Grot, are a secretive Gelfling clan that reside in the Cave of Obscurity, their tribe long thought to be extinct due to their isolation from most of Thra. The Grottan Clan have large ears and big eyes to help them move around in the dark, but are sensitive to sunlight causing them to wear special blindfolds to filter the light. They appear in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance . Among

12625-537: The known members are: The Stonewood clan are a Gelfling clan that reside in the village of Stone-in-the-Wood within the Dark Wood and appear in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance . They are strong and proud and most of them are employed as Crystal Guards at the Castle of the Crystal. The Stonewood Clan are also expert cobblers and farmers. Originally they were called the Woodland Clan or Woodland Folk. Among

12750-485: The many words for supernatural beings in Germanic languages, the only ones regularly used in personal names are elf and words denoting pagan gods, suggesting that elves were considered to be similar to gods. In later Old Icelandic, alfr ("elf") and the personal name which in Common Germanic had been * Aþa(l)wulfaz both coincidentally became álfr~Álfr . Elves appear in some place names, though it

12875-418: The massacre of the Gelflings in the event referred to as the Garthim War. In the film, some are sent to capture Jen and end up bringing Aughra instead. The Garthim are instantly destroyed when Jen restored the Crystal, causing them to crumble along with the Skeksis architecture covering the Castle. In The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance , their origins are shown at the end of the first season as skekTek reveals

13000-505: The only major character represented in the film by a puppet with immobile eyes. The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance featured a named Fizzgig. Aughra , Keeper of Secrets and revered by the Gelflings as Mother Aughra, is an oracle who is actually an emanation of the planet Thra created long ago with the task of observing for the planet until she is reabsorbed back into it, having the ability to command plants and remove her eyes for an extended view of her surroundings. Aughra served in guiding

13125-469: The past through flame. Thurma was a female Fireling who lived during the Age of Power. She was the heir of one of Mithra's Ember Queens and the first Fireling to leave her homeland since the race's creation, heading to Thra's surface world in a misguided quest to retrieve a shard from the Crystal in order to stop the Great Dim. Her efforts resulted in a brief return of the Skeksis and Mystics while learning her race's true origins through her relationship with

13250-413: The poem is to rape Böðvildr , the poem associates elves with being a sexual threat to maidens. The same idea is present in two post-classical Eddaic poems, which are also influenced by chivalric romance or Breton lais , Kötludraumur and Gullkársljóð . The idea also occurs in later traditions in Scandinavia and beyond, so it may be an early attestation of a prominent tradition. Elves also appear in

13375-699: The presence of elves in everyday beliefs in medieval Scandinavia. They include a fleeting mention of elves seen out riding in 1168 (in Sturlunga saga ); mention of an álfablót ("elves' sacrifice") in Kormáks saga ; and the existence of the euphemism ganga álfrek ('go to drive away the elves') for "going to the toilet" in Eyrbyggja saga . The Kings' sagas include a rather elliptical but widely studied account of an early Swedish king being worshipped after his death and being called Ólafr Geirstaðaálfr ('Ólafr

13500-495: The same group of beings. However, this is not uniformly accepted. A kenning (poetic metaphor) for the sun, álfröðull (literally "elf disc"), is of uncertain meaning but is to some suggestive of a close link between elves and the sun. Although the relevant words are of slightly uncertain meaning, it seems fairly clear that Völundr is described as one of the elves in Völundarkviða . As his most prominent deed in

13625-472: The sands of the Crystal Sea by riding Crystal Skimmers, gather at an oasis in the Crystal Sea called the Wellspring, and hold ancient rituals that involve music. Dousan shamans are known to eat hallucinogenic berries in order to glimpse into the future and talk to Thra. Among the known members are: The Spriton Clan are a war-like Gelfling clan that appear in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance . They are

13750-422: The second Great Conjunction that splintered the urSkeks, Aughra attempted to calm down the nascent Skeksis before they cracked the Crystal of Truth and tricked her into entering a deep slumber to see the universe before she reawakens during the events of Age of Resistance . Upon learning what the Skeksis have done, Aughra regrets leaving Thra to them as she allies herself with the Gelflings during their rebellion. In

13875-441: The seductive side apparent in English and Scandinavian material: most famously, the early thirteenth-century Heinrich von Morungen 's fifth Minnesang begins "Von den elben wirt entsehen vil manic man / Sô bin ich von grôzer liebe entsên" ("full many a man is bewitched by elves / thus I too am bewitched by great love"). Elbe was also used in this period to translate words for nymphs. In later medieval prayers, Elves appear as

14000-552: The surface world. While the urRu convinced the Skeksis to not exterminate the Makraks, Raunip participated in the peace talks and suggested their relocation to the region known as the Field of Fire. Raunip offered himself to guide the Makraks, knowing that he would never return or survive the journey despite receiving protective clothing and amulets from Thall. After bidding farewell to Aughra, who wept silently after he left, Raunip succeeds in his mission despite half of his face burnt and on

14125-400: The ten "good" urRu/Mystics (see below). The word "Skeksis" serves as both singular and plural form for this species, with the singular pronounced / ˈ s k ɛ k s ɪ s / and the plural / ˈ s k ɛ k s iː z / . They are described by concept artist Brian Froud as "part reptile , part vulture , part dragon ". Like their urRu counterparts, they have four arms; but in the Skeksis

14250-594: The title character sets out in a quest for the "elf-queen", who dwells in the "countree of the Faerie". Evidence for elf beliefs in medieval Scandinavia outside Iceland is sparse, but the Icelandic evidence is uniquely rich. For a long time, views about elves in Old Norse mythology were defined by Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda , which talks about svartálfar , dökkálfar and ljósálfar ("black elves", "dark elves", and "light elves"). For example, Snorri recounts how

14375-479: The two lower arms have become weak and atrophied, and are rarely seen. The Skeksis have kept themselves from dying of old age by draining the vitality from other beings. In the film, the Skeksis are represented by full-bodied puppets engineered under the direction of Jim Henson. Henson has said that in the development of the Skeksis, the creators drew inspiration from the Seven deadly sins , in that each Skeksis represents

14500-565: The urRu and the Skeksis are derived, depicted as tall, luminescent beings of vaguely Gelfling -like shape. They sported large craniums and slim bodies. As revealed in The World of the Dark Crystal , their people considering both their moral imperfections and attempt of manipulating their homeworld's Crystal intolerable, the eighteen urSkeks were banished to Thra through the Crystal of Truth until they have learned to master their dark aspects. Once on Thra, presenting themselves as "light bringers",

14625-482: The urSkeks spend the next thousand years hastening the development of the planet's people while exploiting Aughra's interest in the universe to acquire the Crystal of Truth from her. By the time of the second Great Conjunction, the urSkeks created a mirror network around the Great Crystal to trap the light of the next Great Conjunction for their use in returning to their world while purging their imperfections. But

14750-471: The verge of death. He was last seen with a Fizzgig whom he recounting his tale to, resolving to live as long as he can while hoping to be remembered by those he left behind. The Firelings , also known as the U-Mun , are an offshoot of the Gelfling race that reside in the underground region of Mithra where they are ruled by a council of three Ember Queens. Descended from Gelfling exiles that came to Mithra during

14875-463: The wake of J. R. R. Tolkien 's works; these re-popularised the idea of elves as human-sized and humanlike beings. Elves remain a prominent feature of fantasy media today. The English word elf is from the Old English word most often attested as ælf (whose plural would have been * ælfe ). Although this word took a variety of forms in different Old English dialects, these converged on

15000-584: The woodlands of Northwest Indiana have been preserved as part of the Indiana Dunes . Woodland is used in British woodland management to mean tree-covered areas which arose naturally and which are then managed. At the same time, forest is usually used in the British Isles to describe plantations , usually more extensive, or hunting Forests , which are a land use with a legal definition and may not be wooded at all. The term ancient woodland

15125-404: The word ælfscȳne , which meant "elf-beautiful" and is attested describing the seductively beautiful Biblical heroines Sarah and Judith . Likewise, in Middle English and early modern Scottish evidence, while still appearing as causes of harm and danger, elves appear clearly as humanlike beings. They became associated with medieval chivalric romance traditions of fairies and particularly with

15250-468: Was an ordinary cross carved onto a round or oblong silver plate. This second kind of elf cross was worn as a pendant in a necklace, and to have sufficient magic, it had to be forged during three evenings with silver, from nine different sources of inherited silver. In some locations it also had to be on the altar of a church for three consecutive Sundays. In Iceland, expressing belief in the huldufólk ("hidden people"), elves that dwell in rock formations,

15375-457: Was taught this skill by her adoptive mother Ydra. With The World of the Dark Crystal revealing that many were initially lured to the Castle, the Podlings were abducted from their homes by the Garthim so that skekTek can extract their vital essence for a youth serum reserved for the Emperor. While the serum's effects are temporary compared to the essence extracted from Gelflings, the process turns

15500-614: Was the half-elven child of King Helgi and an elf-woman ( álfkona ). Skuld was skilled in witchcraft ( seiðr ). Accounts of Skuld in earlier sources, however, do not include this material. The Þiðreks saga version of the Nibelungen (Niflungar) describes Högni as the son of a human queen and an elf, but no such lineage is reported in the Eddas, Völsunga saga , or the Nibelungenlied . The relatively few mentions of elves in

15625-400: Was various irritating skin rashes , which were called älvablåst (elven puff) and could be cured by a forceful counter-blow (a handy pair of bellows was most useful for this purpose). Skålgropar , a particular kind of petroglyph (pictogram on a rock) found in Scandinavia, were known in older times as älvkvarnar (elven mills), because it was believed elves had used them. One could appease

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