And every toast with ready will
His elfin hand consents to fill.
Heavens! what a wondrous draught he drew
Whene’er they toasted bold B-- --h.
Monsieur Mallet, the learned author of the ingenious work on Northren
Antiquities, seems to consider Fairies and Elves as synonymous terms. In
his remarks on the ninth fable of the Edda, we find him thus expressing
himself.--“ALFHEIM signifies, in Gothic, the abode of the Genii, that
is, the Fairies of the male-sex.” To prove the Gothic origin of our Elf,
we need only appeal to the devotion he shews to the bottle. His conduct
at the Dunse Festival is truly northern, and the mighty Thor himself,
the great champion of Scandinavian revelry, could not have displayed
greater zeal in emptying the enchanted horn.--But of this the reader may
judge by perusing the Gothic fable.--