elf-shot

1. not comparableAnglo-Saxon and UK mythology and folkloreMaliciously wounded or sickened as a result of having been shot by an elf.

   The malicious elves did not confine their attacks to human beings; references to elf-shot cattle are numerous.

   1922, Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, The Old English Herbals, page 16

   2 more examples

   Without visible mark or sign she was elf-shot; and the proof of this appeared from her going off her milk, dwining away, and dying before her calves could be counted on the hooves of one foot.

   1897 August 5, The Morning Bulletin, Rockhampton, Qld, page 4, column 5

   Frequently this practitioner would keep a stock of elf-shot from which one would be produced by sleight of hand from the ailing animal's flank as evidence that it had indeed been elf-shot.

   1976, Ulster Folklife

2. not comparableOf a missile, fired by an elf.

   Ley whatever elf-shot darts, whatever flying venoms, be concentrated among those already ill.

   2018, Lauren B. Davis, Against A Darkening Sky, Canelo + ORM

   2 more examples

   There, ev'ry herd, by sad experience, knows How, wing'd with Fate, their elf-shot arrows fly, When the sick ewe her summer food foregoes, Or, stretch'd on earth, the heart-smit heifers lie.

   1789, William Collins, An Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland, London: J. Bell, page 11

   Following Singer, Bonser relates the word gescot (shot) to the elf-shot arrows believed to cause illness in both animals and humans.

   2021, Marie Nelson, Structures of Opposition in Old English Poems, Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi, page 52

plural elf-shots

1. countableuncountableAn elf arrow; elf arrows.

   Frequently this practitioner would keep a stock of elf-shot from which one would be produced by sleight of hand from the ailing animal's flank as evidence that it had indeed been elf-shot.

   1976, Ulster Folklife

   2 more examples

   In Scotland the flint arrow heads are denominated ‘elf shots,’ from a belief among the people that they are of rib human formation, but the shot with which the elves or fairies assail cattle, and there are many superstitions in connection with them.

   1906 August 7, The Clarence River Advocate, NSW, page 4, column 5

   Likewise, Mesolithic and Neolithic arrowheads were popularly known as “elf shot” or “elf missiles” and believed to harbor magical properties and thus sometimes made into jewelry and worn as protective charms.

   2021, Justin Mullis, “Fear, Faries, and Fossils: The Legacy of Arthur Machen's "Little People" Stories”, in Antonio Sanna, editor, Arthur Machen: Critical Essays, Lanham: Lexington Books, page 118