They are naughty and nice.

Before Santa’s helpers, Elf on a Shelf and Will Ferrell, there were woodland creatures real and imagined. Many cultures have a version of helpful or hurtful beings whose activities increased mostly at night and during the solstice season.

American versions of Christmas elves that assist in toy-making, taking care of the reindeer, and checking up on the behavior of children evolved in the 19th century, a modern invention.

The famous work, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas (also known as A Visit From St. Nicholas) first described St. Nick in 1823 as a “jolly old elf.” Louisa May Alcott ostensibly wrote a book, Christmas Elves, that detailed helpful holiday assistants, but this tome was never published and its existence seems to have been lost to history. 

Harper’s Weekly included an 1857 poem that describe elves “all working with all their might/ To make a million of pretty things/ Cakes, sugar-plums, and toys/ To fill the stockings, hung up you know/ By the little girls and boys.”

And the rest of the holiday tradition of small, green-decked creatures serving as Santa’s sidekicks are, as they say, history.

The traditions of elves, however, go back much further and are rooted in the wild. Extra-worldly individuals hearken to European folklore and further back to ancient cultures. The Brothers Grimm told a story of a shoemaker who couldn’t finish his work and was saved by nighttime visiting elves that completed his shoe cobblery while he slept. Elsewhere, these spirits would do whatever chores needed completion in house or stable, especially at the harried time of holidays.

Elves could also create chaos. Instead of cleanup, you might wake up to disarray or messes made by these roving tricksters. Shakespeare’s character Puck, arguably an elf of sorts, reveled in his trickery. Other less famous sprites were reputed to sit on the chests of sleeping humans, causing them nightmares and sleep paralysis. In the barn, a horse with inexplicably tangled locks might be explained by nighttime elves trying unsuccessfully to braid their mane.

Many names and stories were associated with elves. They may be called gnomes, fairies, nymphs, goblins, dryads and leprechauns, and all have distinct personalities and lore associated with their activities. Scandinavians had nisse, nixie, tomte, tonttu and tomlinesse, all household sprites. Nisse loosely translates to dear little relative and nixie describes a water spirit. Don’t forget brownie, hobgoblin, gruagach and goblins, whose activities also varied between helpful, humorous, hurtful and harmful.

Norse mythology mentions álfar and huldufólk (hidden folk) that lived between worlds. And occasionally their activities went beyond chicanery and veered into the downright dangerous. Some of these creatures had weapons know as elf bolts, elf arrows and elf shot to injure livestock or others that got in the way of their activities or even just for fun.

Do you believe? Some still do. A 2017 report in National Geographic noted that approximately 54 per cent of Icelanders believe that the existence of elves is possible. Roads have even been diverted to protect known elf areas. One can learn more at Reykjavik’s Elfschool, where students “gain and learn...a big and summarized part of Iceland’s history, as well as everything that is known about elves and hidden people, and hear some of these beautiful stories of true friendship between Icelanders and the elves and the Hidden people.”

In this special time, like Icelanders, I will choose to believe in the mystery and magic of the wild, including elves and in their (and our) potential for goodness.

Suzan Bellincampi is director of the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Edgartown, and author of Martha’s Vineyard: A Field Guide to Island Nature and The Nature of Martha’s Vineyard.