Álfar, Dísir and Landvaettir (Norse)

In Norse Heathenry, while the Gods are essential and important aspect, Norse belief also features another different beings that make up a considerable part of Norse religious life. Live in the harsh cold of the North, relied on nature and one's own community to survive, establish a healthy connection to the land, to the patrons and protective departed ancestor was a significant practice.

Álfar
The Álfar, or Elves, are acciociated with fertility, magic, healing and prosperity. They are magical spirits, dwell in locations such as a certain area in forest, a rock, a burial mound or a hill. If properly treat them with respect and generosity, your next crop will be bountiful and abundant, good luck will flock to your home. There were also mentions of them being asked for aid during state of woulded, childbirth and illness. Their main events of the year, the Álfablót, was held every autumn, which is also the harvest season, and likely to be a household practice or a communal practice. But another offering and worshipping could be done in anytime of the year.

Base on their role, they are closely related to the Vanir, especially Freyr - the Gods of peace and welfare who according to the myth is ruler of Álfheimr. Moreover, certain theories indicate the Vanir and álfar are, in fact, two interchange terms, giving the overlap between them and rarity of the mention of the word "Vanir" in the Old Norse (outside of Gylfaginning and Ynglinga saga), as opposed to the word "álfar". Another point is that "aesir" and "álfar" often come up with together many times, as if "álfar" is taking the role as the word "Vanir". (I don't believe in this)

While many sources portray them as some sort of minor gods: They were described as beautiful, handsome and miraculous, even being compared to the Sun. However, another sources gives us a more grey picture of them: bringer of wealth and healer, but also seductress and cause of misery. They may make your next year to be warm and full, or heal your wounds; but they may also make up a sorceress's magical deadly army, or wreck curses, misfortune and illness over humans and their livestock.

"May trolls, álfar and Norns, burial mound-dwellers, giants, burn your halls, frost-þursar despise you, horses bugger you, the straws sting you, and gales drive you mad, and woe befall you, unless you do my will." -(The spell of Busla - Bósa saga ok Herrauðs)

"If you were shot in the skin, or were shot in the body or were shot in the bone or were shot in the blood, or were shot in a limb, never would your life be harmed; if it were shot of evil spirits, or if it were shot of elves, or if it were shot of a witch, I will help you now." -(English healing charm)

It is also possible that some of them give us nightmares - haunt our dream when we are sleep. "Mara" (or Mare) - which is the name of nightmare bringer - could be a subgroup of álfar.

An another popular explaination of the álfar is they are chthonic spirits, such as ghost of those who were lost in woods and died, of those who die young, or - one of the most common ones - male ancestors (Dísir represent female ancestor). On the "male" part, there were certain literary evidences taken from the sagas (the seductress and half-elven queen Skuld in Hrólfs saga kraka), mention of álfr petty Norns in the myth (It should be note that a male Norn is a totally weird and unlikely concept to me). And while álfr can be used to indicate the male ones, we also have the words "álfkona" that probably be used to point to their female counterpart. Finally it is hiw broad the term "Dísir" - which is supposed to be used for female ancestors - is (we will get to that part later).

It does, however, make sense to think about them as spirit of the dead. And many of the álfar respond to worshipping toward them.

In Ynglinga saga, description of Freyr - lord of the Álfar in the other myth - could be resemble what is an Álfr in reality world:

"Frey fell into a sickness; and as his illness took the upper hand, his men took the plan of letting few approach him. In the meantime they raised a great mound, in which they placed a door with three holes in it. Now when Frey died they bore him secretly into the mound, but told the Swedes he was alive; and they kept watch over him for three years. They brought all the taxes into the mound, and through the one hole they put in the gold, through the other the silver, and through the third the copper money that was paid. Peace and good seasons continued. When it became known to the Swedes that Frey was dead [...], they afterwards offered continually blood-sacrifices to him, principally for peace and good seasons"

Olaf Gudrodsson - a Christian Norwagian ruler, when dying because of disease, forbade his people worshipping him after his own death. However, when famines come people still make sacrifice to him.

"This fear of the king was justified, for when the next famine came ‘they resorted to the plan of sacrificing to King Olaf for plenty, and they called him Geirstaðaálfr’."

However, approach and behave to them with consideration. While there are good reasons to believe that among them your familial ancestors, or your dead lover, or your fellow villagers live, many others simply have no direct relation with you. They may demand certain level of respect (I think it depends on individual elves) and you don't want to annoy them.

Reference
The Road to Hel - Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson

Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions - Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson

Elves in Anglo-Saxon England - Alaric Hall

https://larhusfyrnsida.com/fundamentals/wihta/ylfe-elves/

Encyclopedia of Norse and Germanic Folklore, Mythology, and Magic - Claude Lecouteux

Landvaettir
The álfar has close relation to an another group of weights, called Landvaettir, or "land-weight". It seems hard for me to believe that there is a black-and-white distinction between the Álfar and the landvaettir: There is huge overlaps in their characteristics /álfar are landvaettir in their own right. As their name suggests, landvaettir are spirit of the land, and may possess great capabilities. Thus, there are often seeked out for the plentifulness of argiculture, daily-life advice, positive influence in the upbringing of children and good luck during gathering of natural resources (fishing, hunting, foraging, etc.)

Establish your relation with them and afterward move on to an alliance by could prove to be extremely beneficial. The landvaettir gives you protection, wealth and their vision, provide you give them your respect and regular offering. In the Book of Settlement, there is a story about a family was forced to move their farm because of an lava flow. The lava destroyed a large part of their herd. One night a member of the family, named Björn, had a dream that a rock-dweller came to him and offered an partnership. Bjorn agreed and afterward his herds increased at a great rate. It was said that people with second vision could see the land-spirits following Björn to the Thing and accompanying his brothers whenever they went to hunt of fish.

Whenever settlers arrived at new land and start to build a colony, they might want to get acquainted and form a partnership with the local land spirit. The aid of the local land spirit would be advantageous for a new comer.

In the other hand, offending the landvaettir are undesirable. One of the things that may offend them are large-scale violence. Whenever a ship about to arrive at pagan Iceland, it was required that the animal head be removed from the prow so that the land-spirits did not fell to be threatened (or challenged). And for a longtime afterward no one would settle at an area in the southern Iceland because an early settler there named Hjörleif were killed by his thralls and it pissed up the land-weights. I imagine that shaking or pushing their stone-houses will anger them, and children were told not to play in space surrounding their dwelling.

The landvaettir are, in fact, not a type of creature but a class of creatures that shared certain traits:

- The landvaettir are animistic natural spirits, and may live densely even in place where human inhabitation is low. This is why the landvaettir are not necessarily spirit of dead people. Yes there is no reason to say that an álfr can't be a landvaettir. But the origin of land weights is more varied - dead animals or living energy of the land.

- They seems to be a hierarchy of them: when the mystery sorcerer of king Harald the Danes shapeshifted into a whale and went scouting Iceland to find a weak point, he saw numberous amount of land-spirits on mountains and hillocks, "small and great". Types of land weight varied from the giant who live inside Snaefellsjukull mountain who was worshipped as a local (but powerful) gods (in Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss) to the small little weights live in standing stones who farmers nearby often gave offering to.

- Having a very close connection to the land they inhabit: the land-weights stay even if a family move away. And whenever a family settles in a new place, they approach the native land-weights who are already live there.