In German Alp can refer to an Elf or a mountain. An antiquated term, Alp for Elf drops out of common vocabulary in the Middle Ages and Elb takes its place. Sayings such as "Die Elben betrügen mich" or "the elves trick me" may be heard in German-speaking lands.
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"Die Elfen täuschen mich" or the Elves deceive me is another folk saying. The term Elf is the same in German and English. The older term Elb almost drifts out the door to obsoletion, resurrected by JRR Tolkien in 1972.
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Although Elben means "elves" in German, the name of the River Elbe just means river, as in River River. In the past Elves are thought do spread disease or curses, cause accidents, trick people, put victims into a trance or bring on bouts of madness.
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The term Alp lives in bad dreams. Nightmares are thought caused by Elves, and called Alptraum (pl. Albträume) or Alpdruck (Albendrück), meaning Elf Dreams or Elfin Pressure.
These Aufhocker-type creatures cause feelings of heaviness, attacks of breathlessness and anxiety. Another nightmare bringer is the Drude or Trute, also a sex demon. During the witch hunting craze, "Drude" becomes equated with "witch" and revels with the devil.
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Alp is the same in German and English. Alp (Elf) of lore is not linguistically connected to the Alps, a mountain range famous in Europe, formed by intense upheaval of tectonic plates. Still, plenty of Elf magic and mythical creatures such as Wolpertinger exist in the Alps.
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Alps are also found in Honshu, Japan, born from compressive stress of oceanic plates in the Quaternary Period over 2.5 million years ago. Alpine mountains are created by folding of the Earth's crust. These young mountains are tall and craggy.
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Another range of Alps, the Rocky Mountains of North America also form due to immense tectonic pressure pushing up the Earth's crust. In geological perspective, Alps are fairly young.
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Alps can be made of volcanic rock upthrust. At 40 - 50 million years old, the alpine Himalayas are the youngest mountains in the world. The Makhonjwa Mountains of South Africa are 3.5 billion years old, the oldest mountains in the world.
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The mountain word Alp initially comes from Swiss/German (Indo-European) plural: Alpen, meaning mountain pastures. The Italian and Romansh (Swiss) word alpina is used to describe a pine forest.
In today's English alpine describes high craggy mountains with pastureland and coniferous forests. Scandinavian Alps are formed the same way, by pressure and folding. The mountain range runs through the Scandinavian Peninsula.
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West sides of the mountains drop precipitously into the North and Norwegian Seas, forming the fjords of Norway. To the northeast they curve toward Finland.
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High in the Scandinavian Alps lives a Dwarf King called Alberich. In France, he's described as an Elf, while in England he's a fairy, and not just any fairy but Oberon, King of the Fairies. His story is featured in the Lora Ley series novel, Nibelung.
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Volcanoes occur along some alpine ranges including Japanese Alps, Taurus mountains and the Caucasus. At one time the Alps are at the bottom of a sea. It's marked in the name Seebodenalp (Lake Bottom Alp) in Lucerne, Switzerland, central to the Lucerne Wild Hunt.
Today the creature called Alp is an early variant of German Elb, which in turn is an early variant of German Elf (capital E), which means the same thing in English. Just to spice it up, the word "eleven" in English is "elf" (small e) in German, but it comes from the English.
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In today's lore the elfin Alp has no specific niche. For example Mare and Schrat, also types of elves, are specifically associated with nightmares and dream states. Mare and the demonic Drude (Trute) terrorize livestock or ride horses to exhaustion all night.
Druden can be sex demons, and the Mare is known for its potential incubus qualities. Schrat is a nasty little devil-elf who brings nightmares, pulls hair, slams doors and breaks machinery.
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The Alp has an abundance of powers, suggesting a convergence of other entities, which also describes the Elf. Indeed, the words Elf and Alp come to broadly mean any power perceived to be supernatural, especially with evil intent.
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Elves including the Alp in mythology and superstition are thought to cause:
nightmares or night terrors
breathlessness, panic and anxiety
insomnia
exhaustion of people and horses
delusions or hallucinations
confusion
mental health issues such as depression
sickness of any kind
especially epilepsy
widespread plague
tree parasites or blight
cows giving no milk
hens giving no eggs
sick livestock
dead livestock
bad luck
serious accidents
crop failure
fires
localized inclement weather
... and more.
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A late medieval prayer from Munich speaks to elves,
Elf, little Elf,
you shall remain no longer
Elf's sister and father,
you shall go out over the gate;
Elf's mother, Trute and Mare,
you shall go out to the roof-ridge!
Let the Mare not oppress me,
let the Trute not pinch me
let the Mare not ride me,
let the Mare not mount me!
Elf with your crooked nose,
I forbid you to blow on folk.
It's once thought the breath of an elf can bring disease.
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The Alp may wear a Tarnkappe, a hat or cape of invisiblity. The Tarnkappe features in the story of Germanic Siegfried of Xanten. Siegfried steals it from a mountain dwarf named Alberich.
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In art, Swiss painter Henri Fuseli's "Nachtmare" shows the Mare on the chest of the restless sleeping woman. Interpretation of his painting is difficult for English speakers who equate Mare / Mahr with a female horse. In German a female horse is die Stute.
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The German title Nachtmare refers to night (Nacht) and the creature of evil on the woman's chest, the Mare. Sticking words together to make other words or meanings is a common feature of the German language.
"Fuseli's painting has been considered representative of sublimated sexual instincts. Related interpretations of the painting view the incubus as a dream symbol of male libido, with the sexual act represented by the horse's intrusion through the curtain."
Chu, Petra Ten-Doesschate (2006). Nineteenth Century European Art
The Mare may ride a Stute to exhaustion at night. The Mare rides horses of any gender and also pine trees, twisting them out of shape. These trees are called Albtraumkiefern or "nightmare pines".
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To deter a Mare or Drude from attacking a horse, a red ribbon braided into the horse's mane is apt protection. A Drudenfuss or pentagram is also an anti-evil symbol across Europe.
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