Author: Abbey Perreault / Source: Atlas Obscura
In Scotland, a sick cow was a sign that something supernatural was afoot. Whether weak, milk-less, or just a little bloated, an unhealthy heifer in the Anglo-Saxon world was a big problem—and a fantastical one at that.
According to many interpretations of medieval and modern-era Anglo-Saxon folklore, sick livestock were likely victims of hard-to-see, sharp-shooting elves. Their condition, referenced for nearly a millennium in charm books, folklore, and documentation of witchcraft, was known as, simply, “elf-shot.”Throughout the early and medieval Anglo-Saxon world, elves occupied a shifting but ever-important role in the natural, supernatural, and mortal worlds. Early Anglo-Saxon conceptions of elves envisioned the other-worldly beings to be more similar to humans or gods than monsters or dwarves. Though distinct from demons and beasts, elves still had a slightly sinister side. A witch’s orders, indignation at an unknowing step into elf territory, or a mere whim might prompt an elf to shoot dagger-like arrows at the unsuspecting cow.
The first mention of “elf-shot” appears in Anglo-Saxon Leechbooks, or healing books, as early as the mid-10th century, according to Jennifer Culver, professor of English at Texas University. Arrow-pierced cows showed symptoms ranging from loss of appetite to labored breathing. Often, they were reported to have grown thin and lost their ability to produce milk. In Ireland, one man wrote, “the animal’s hair stands up on her back, her ears lifeless and hanging.
”Perhaps because the symptoms were so varied, cures, too, ran the gamut. Most surefire antidotes included a charm or incantation, to be uttered alongside a slightly more physical ritual. According to one 20th-century text, a farmer in Selkirkshire might “take a blue bonnet that had been worn by the oldest member of the family, and with it ‘rub the cow all over, and the wound will make its appearance or the place will be seen where the wound has been.’” No bonnet? Another regional cure enlisted a local wise woman to jab the afflicted cow with a needle, fan it with a leaf from the bible, and mutter incantations. In Shetland, one might fold “a sewing-needle in leaf taken from a particular part of a psalm book” and secure it “in the hair of the cow.” In northern England, “elf-shotten” calves were given a particularly unsavory treatment in which farmers would rub their “mouths, lips, and nose with their own dung.”
According to Dr. Culver, one common cure came from the ocean….
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