elle-folk en · NOUN
Etymology
From Danish ellefolk.
Meanings
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(plural, plural-only) elle-people
Still the Elle-folk are often mentioned in the legends he proceeds to give as inhabiting houes, notwithstanding an explicit opening statement that they ‘dwell in the Elle-mosses,’ and notwithstanding the fact also that the so-called Elle-kone of the houes seems evidently to want the hollow back.
1865 November, J[ohn] C[hristopher] Atkinson, “Comparative Danish and Northumbrian Folk Lore. […] Chapter VII. Elle Folk.”, in The Monthly Packet of Evening Readings for Younger Members of the English Church, volume XXX, part 179, London: John and Charles Mozley, […]; and J[ohn] H[enry] Parker, […], footnote, page 476:The ellefolk live in mosses, banks and mounds, under alder-trees and in alder-thickets.
1896, William Alexander Craigie, Scandinavian Folk-lore, London: Alexander Gardner, page 175:"We're none of the elle-folk who dance in the hills and weave fates, ye mun go to them for that."
1860, Harriet Elizabeth Prescott, Sir Rohan's Ghost: A Romance, Boston: J.E. Tilton and Co., page 293: