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The Elves. Light, Dark, even Black, the Elves are a species of androgynous, magical beings depicted as varying in size from so tiny that they live inside rose blossoms, to having an appearance like an adolescent. Male Elves have no beard growth and so they appear as boys throughout their lives; the females too retain childlike beauty. Elves are said to live as long as 1000 years and in rare instances they can breed with humans. The Light Elf is nature-loving and appreciative of the arts and music. The Black Elf is selfish and destructive, deadly if encountered. The Dark Elves are intermediary (think on, the giant benevolent warrior beings in the film "Avatar"). Deriving from Germanic and Nordic myth, stories about Elves vary from culture to culture. Writers as diverse as Shakespeare, Grimm, Tolkien, HC Anderson, etc. have expounded on and given flavor to the tales of the Elves. Ballads of yore, too, include male Elves. Closer to home, we have Santa’s magic Elves, and those mischevious Elves in the game D&D, or video games with all sorts of Elves… One surviving legend about Elves promises that if you sprinkle buckthorn in a circle under a full moon and dance, an Elf will appear to grant one wish.