Elfshot

Background

I am a designer who specialises in screen-based design. My work is mostly designing standards compliant web sites and application interfaces. In terms of visual style, I lean more toward subtlety and a minimal colour palette.

When studying multimedia in the late 90s, I took a particular interest in usability and began applying this to my taste for clean, intuitive design. Later I specialised in accessibility and interactive multimedia, searching for ways to blend these disciplines that historically had little regard for each other.

I take on freelance work when time permits. My time is limited so I tend toward smaller jobs via word of mouth. This site is not so much a lure for business but a source of background information for those who are already interested in pursuing my services. If however, you have happened here some other way, I welcome your contact.

What is 'Elfshot'?

Being impartial to dark forests and the mysteries of what may lurk there, I was drawn a long time ago to a documented novel titled The Way of Wyrd  by Brian Bates. The book is based on a manuscript that currently resides in the British museum. It tells the journey of a Christian scribe who was sent to Southern England to gain knowlegde of the pagans so that the brotherhood might better assuage their beliefs. He witnesses a healing event and is introduced to the term elfshot.

Indigenous European healers, known as Shamans, would use a mixture of medicine and ritual to cure illness in people and livestock. The Shamans would sometimes refer to a patient as being elfshot, reporting that hundreds of tiny invisible Elves had shot holes through the Shield Skin¹ of the patient, thereby allowing Life Force² to leak slowly out of the body (causing eventual death). The Shaman would concoct a salve using a collection of specially selected herbs and plants, then utter incantations to invoke the healing powers of the plants.

Brian remarks in his book that these methods of indigenous healing have remarkable parallels to ours today. For example, when we are ill we see a doctor who may inform us that hundreds of bacteria have permeated our skin and caused infection. The doctor prescribes a drug or substance (usually with a Latin name that is alien to us) and instructs us to ingest this medicine at specific times of the day.

1. Shield Skin

It was believed that each person was comprised of three forces; life-force, soul and shield-skin. The soul gave essence to everything. It enveloped vitality into a recognisable shape, thereby defining what kind of creature we are.

2. Life Force

The tribespeople believed that Life Force coursed through everything in nature. In humans, Life Force flowed from the head down and was inextricably linked to self-expression and vitality.

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