Meaning of elf-dance | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A dance performed by elves.
2. Synonym of fairy ring (“a ring of fungi; a place where fairies dance”).

Examples

“Just then, in the far distance, swept along a whirlwind which had caught up the dust of the plains into columns — two, three, four, all at once dancing some wild elf-dance, like weird spirits doomed to do penance for ever upon, those arid tracks.”

“Many village musicians have been known, who have learned from him to play this elf-dance, and have sometimes played the first parts of it at Christmas parties and elsewhere.”

“The Elves are extremely fond of dancing in the meadows, where they form those circles of a livelier green which from them are called Elf-dance (Elfdans).”

“This notion as to the cause of the rings being the dancing of the fairies was held by Drayton [...] In Wales, too, the same notion is prevalent, and it is to be found also in Sweden and Belgium, where they call these rings "elf-dances."”

CEFR level