elf-bolt

English

Etymology

From the folk belief that they were used by elves.

Noun

elf-bolt (plural elf-bolts)

  1. A belemnite
    • 1775, Samuel Johnson, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, volume I, Dublin: A. Leathley et al., page 141:
      A proof much ſtronger of the diſtance at which the firſt poſſeſſors of this iſland lived from the preſent time, is afforded by the ſtone heads of arrows which are very frequently picked up. The people call them Elf-bolts, and believe that the fairies ſhoot them at the cattle.
  2. (folklore, fantasy) A magical bolt used by elves as a weapon.
    • 1828, Croker, Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South or Ireland, volume III, London: John Murray, page 130:
      [A] bow, in order that they may discharge little arrows at men, and tease them, as they otherwise do with small pebbles; for the dangerous Elf-bolt of the Scotch tradition hath doubtless its counterpart in one that is harmless.
    • 1851, Daniel Wilson, The Archæology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, Edinburgh: Sutherland and Knox, page 125:
      The Elf-bolt is associated with many rustic fancies not yet altogether eradicated from the popular mind. It occupied no unimportant part among the paraphernalia of Scottish witches of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and the occurrence of any sudden disease amongst cattle was ascribed until a comparatively recent period, to their having been shot by the fairies with Elfin arrows.
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