Elfes through the history - A very rough guide

Christmas is getting nearer. And for absurd but proffesional reasons I've had the pleasure of getting close up and personal with elves.
Elves is off course closely linked to the name of this blog, Volvur. "I didn't know that" you might say in pure and honest surprise, and few will claim that your lack of knowledge is something to be mournful about for more than a brief moment. Just a bit shorter than the time Thor will use to raise his hammer. But before Thor gets too confused of the analogy let's get back to business. Elfes.
Thing is, there is a US retail chain, Office Max, that for the last 3 years have done a so called viral marketing campaign with tremendous success called Elf Yourself. And since marketing is my profession it was easy to find arguments to delve into this phenomenon that has made more noise in America than Thors famous hammer.
The result will be revealed later in this comment. Again let me try getting back to the elves.
Here goes, a rough guide to the history of elves. For many young and poorly educated soul in the northern hemisphere, elves comes from Midgard/Middle Earth (Tolkien, Lord of the Rings or Hringadrottins Saga in Icelandic or Ringenes Herre in Norwegian). This is off course incorrect. Tolkien, was in many aspects inspired by norse mythology. As with the name of this blog. Volvur also stems from norse mythololgy and is the name of the seers (volves in english?), the women who spin threads from the world tree Yggdrasil and tells us about the past, present and future. Hmm, people spinning threads from the world tree like a web of knowledge you might ponder, kind of like a ancient world wide web? Indeed so.
Yggdrasil has it's roots in three of the norse worlds nine homes. Alfheim, or the home of elfes is not one of them. But it is the first historic reference of elfes. Not the Middle earth of Tolkien or the green silly anglosaxon modern christmas version.
But my ramblings stems from the modern version. So with this thin thread of historic elf trip, here is my anglosaxon happy christmas video to all friends and family.



With hopes of this being a merry inspiration to keep smiling through all the hectic pre-christmas activities that steals all the positive thunder from eating birds, pigs, figs and other findings in mother nature. A slightly early, happy christmas from the family at Sagene, Oslo, Norway, temporary home of silly elfes.
And by the way. I have no idea of how the americans clearly succeded in ruining yet another wonderful myth by making them into silly xmas ornaments.

PS For those who understands the norse inspired language norwegian. More marketing info on the campaign Elf Yourself can be found on my marketingblog.