Help with Anglo Saxon Mythology?

[Autumn Scarletwolfe]

Hi! I'm working on a project for English, and I'm trying to find out information on the following monsters of Anglo-Saxon times.

Drauqr
Ketta
Trolls
Giants
Elves of Norse Mythology
Ogres
Dragons
Goblins

These would probably be either Norse or Celtic. Google isn't really helping much and there were so many people familiar with those sorts of subjects here I thought perhaps I would ask if anyone had any good links to informational sites or simply had learned of these things before!!
Thanks a bunch!
Blessings,
Autumn

[Kern]

Hi! I'm working on a project for English, and I'm trying to find out information on the following monsters of Anglo-Saxon times.

Drauqr
Ketta
Trolls
Giants
Elves of Norse Mythology
Ogres
Dragons
Goblins

These would probably be either Norse or Celtic. Google isn't really helping much and there were so many people familiar with those sorts of subjects here I thought perhaps I would ask if anyone had any good links to informational sites or simply had learned of these things before!!
Thanks a bunch!
Blessings,
Autumn
Hers a good link and good luck:
http://www.pantheon.org/areas/mythology/europe/norse/articles.html

[Seren_]

I'm not sure if the things you're referring to would actually be Anglo-Saxon. The things your describing came to Britain via the Norse, which was after the Anglo-Saxons...Is there a specific time period you're looking at?

As well as pantheon.org, you could also try http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/index.htm which has a section on faeries and such. But the texts are antiquarian, and so not necessarily reliable...but it's a start I guess.

[mucgwyrt]

I'm not sure if the things you're referring to would actually be Anglo-Saxon. The things your describing came to Britain via the Norse, which was after the Anglo-Saxons...Is there a specific time period you're looking at?

As well as pantheon.org, you could also try http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/index.htm which has a section on faeries and such. But the texts are antiquarian, and so not necessarily reliable...but it's a start I guess.
I haven't really looked into this much yet, but the ones which do ring a bell (elves, trolls...) WERE brought the britain by the anglo-saxons. For one, the anglo-saxons believed that elves caused illnesses and deaths by shooting people (and animals) with arrows. :)

I always thought though, that dragons were more welsh/celtic though :huh:

[Seren_]

I haven't really looked into this much yet, but the ones which do ring a bell (elves, trolls...) WERE brought the britain by the anglo-saxons. For one, the anglo-saxons believed that elves caused illnesses and deaths by shooting people (and animals) with arrows. :)

I always thought though, that dragons were more welsh/celtic though :huh:


Ooooops. Yeah. Now you mention it, I think Bill Griffiths (Aspects of Anglo-Saxon Magic) goes into elves, doesn't he? :doh2: Rifling through my book...Apparently, elves could also heal, and were associated with the dead as well...They seem to have been fused with demons by the Christian Anglo-Saxons, and were said to cause nightmares as well as disease. They were probably originally neither good nor bad, or perhaps a bit of both.


"Giants were perhaps associated with the Vanir group of gods abd occur in myths of creation and origin, as if underlining their ancient role. Thurs, in both the Icelandic and Norwegian Rune Poems is associated with "women's anguish" and "women's illness" - as some sort of incubus?...
A quasi historical account of giants supplanted by the more acceptable (if pagan) gods is given by Saxo in Bk 1 ch 5. The giants are remarkable only for their size, the gods for their skill in divination and their general sharpness of mind. The contest between these two lasted a great time, but the gods eventually won supremacy and came to rule the world.
The giants accordingly retracted their sphere....They sem to play no part in Anglo-Saxon medicine or charms."

The Beowulf poem claims that ogres, elves and goblins,as well as giants were the product of Cain (ie the one in the Bible, who fought his brother Abel), who "strove against God". Grendel is a giant mentioned in Beowulf...try here (http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~beowulf/main.html)

[mucgwyrt]

Ooooops. Yeah. Now you mention it, I think Bill Griffiths (Aspects of Anglo-Saxon Magic) goes into elves, doesn't he? :doh2: Rifling through my book...Apparently, elves could also heal, and were associated with the dead as well...They seem to have been fused with demons by the Christian Anglo-Saxons, and were said to cause nightmares as well as disease. They were probably originally neither good nor bad, or perhaps a bit of both.



The Beowulf poem claims that ogres, elves and goblins,as well as giants were the product of Cain (ie the one in the Bible, who fought his brother Abel), who "strove against God". Grendel is a giant mentioned in Beowulf...try here (http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~beowulf/main.html)
Well the norse have light elves and dark elves, so like you say - all elves were probably lumped together with the coming of the church. But I'm just guessing on that one :)

[Autumn Scarletwolfe]

Oh wow! Thank you so much! You have no idea how much this information helps!! *hugglz all of you*

[Wodening]

Try http://www.ealdriht.org

[mucgwyrt]

Oh yeah, I was going to say the other day - there is evidence of belief in good/light elves in anglo-saxon britain - names. Aelfred, for example, means "friend of elves".