It is the authors perspective that there is some truth to every legend. The case being presented is that Mythology has its origin in Biblical History, not that Mythology itself is History, and we will find that there are many cases of art imitating life.
Why is it that Elves are so often depicted as Environmentalist Vegetarians, and why do Elves supposedly come from a time of Giants?
To understand this issue we have to understand that there was once a Golden Age.
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.” -Genesis 1:27-30
There was also a fall from fellowship with God.
“And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” -Genesis 3:17-19
” And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand; When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.” -Genesis 4:3-15
The Bible indicates that the mark given to Cain distinguished him from the rest of Mankind.
I do not believe that dark skin has anything to do with the mark of Cain. I believe that Cain alone received an actual distinguishing mark, (perhaps a six-pointed “star of life” on his forehead).
Skin variations resulted from recessive genetic adaptability which God originally built into mankind so that mankind would survive regardless of radiation which was present in the postflood world due to the removal of the protective firmament of water which had originally surrounded the earth.
I do however believe that due to the curse, placed upon Cain, (having to sustain themselves by some other means than working the ground), that his descendants probably did develop some strange new racial characteristics. One characteristic that might have resulted was the inability to grow facial hair, (not to say that any person or people group today are descended from Cain, they are not).
Like their father, the Cainites were probably conservationist, not wanting to hurt the earth or the creatures, and yet God had made it impossible for them to be sustained by that which came of the ground, (as the descendants of Seth were), because He wanted them to be constantly reminded of the spiritual separation and ultimately death, that had come upon Mankind as a result of the sin of Adam.
My conclusion is that Cain’s descendants became a race of what we would refer to today as Elves and/or Vampires.
This could very likely have been a means by which God could allegorize the Gospel for the descendants of Cain, even as He had done for Adam when He made coats of skin for him and his wife, (Genesis 3:21).
“Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.” -John 6:53-56
Therefore I believe that Elves could be saved through faith even as men.
Elves are refereed to in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien and other Norse mythologies as “The Firstborn”. Cain was the firstborn son of Adam, so his sons could very likely be refered to as “The Firstborn”.
Elves are often thought of as Immortal. It is possible that in the preflood world, (without diseases and bacteria), that the consuming of animal blood would render one a much longer lifespan, and as none of Cain’s descendents are listed as having died, it could be that it was infighting, the Nephilim, and finally the Flood that destroyed them, rather than natural death like the descendants of Seth. It should also be remembered that Noah’s younger brothers and sisters all died either before or in the flood, (Genesis 5:30).
There are also texts like Beowulf that back up the idea that Cain’s descendants were Elves.
“In the land of the giants, when the Lord and Creator Had banned him and branded. For that bitter murder,
The killing of Abel, all-ruling Father The kindred of Cain crushed with His vengeance; In the feud He rejoiced not, but far away drove him From kindred and kind, that crime to atone for, Meter of Justice. Thence ill-favored creatures, Elves and giants, monsters of ocean, Came into being, and the giants that longtime Grappled with God; He gave them requital.”
-Beowulf act 2 verses 53-62
“… To the age-hoary man then,
The gray-haired chieftain, the gold-fashioned sword-hilt, Old-work of giants, was thereupon given;
Since the fall of the fiends, it fell to the keeping Of the wielder of Danemen, the wonder-smith’s labor, And the bad-mooded being abandoned this world then, Opponent of God, victim of murder, And also his mother; it went to the keeping Of the best of the world-kings, where waters encircle,
Who the scot divided in Scylding dominion. Hrothgar discoursed, the hilt he regarded, The ancient heirloom where an old-time contention’s Beginning was graven: the gurgling currents, The flood slew thereafter the race of the giants, They had proved themselves daring: that people was loth to The Lord everlasting, through lash of the billows The Father gave them final requital. So in letters of rune on the clasp of the handle Gleaming and golden, ’twas graven exactly, Set forth and said, whom that sword had been made for, Finest of irons, who first it was wrought for,
Wreathed at its handle and gleaming with serpents.”
-Beowulf act 25 verses 26-47
It could well be that many of the descendants of Cain fought along side the descendants of Seth in battle against the Nephilim/Giants, and some probably died in faith in the Promised Seed of the woman, as preached to them by Enoch, (the seventh from Adam Jude 14), Methuselah his son, (Jasher 5:6-10), and Noah, (Methuselah’s grandson 2 Peter 2:5), prior to the coming of the flood.
In general the descendants of Cain probably did not drink the blood of men, (until perhaps after Lamech’s wicked boast in Genesis 4:23-24, when he murdered a young man for accidentally wounding him), rather, like the Sarmatian Knights who drank the blood of their horses and the Massi warriors of Africa who drink the blood of their cattle, they likely drank animal blood.
After the flood, God told the descendants of Noah that it is now alright to eat animal meat, though He did command that mankind not consume it with the blood.
“Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.” -Genesis 9:3-6
The drinking of blood is not the unpardonable sin however, (as some mistakenly believe), rather it is a sin of confusion, in the present state of this fallen world. This is a cleanliness law because of living in a fallen world of disease and bacteria. The picture being given is that we are not to live by the blood (life) of bulls and of goats but by the Life (flesh and blood) of the Son of God.
It is interesting to note that if we count the genealogies we find that as Lamech, (the fifth from Cain), declared a “seventy and sevenfold” judgment upon the head of the one who killed him, and he likely died in the Flood, the judgment falls on the 77th generation, who is God, Jesus Christ.
To the Freemasons Tubalcain, (the sixth from Cain), is Vulcan, the forger of the magical weapons of Lucifer.
The secret societies of today have claimed that they are “the sons of Cain”. 33rd degree Freemason, Manly P. Hall said that, “There are two parts or divisions, of humanity whose history is closely related to that of the Wisdom Teachings. They embody the doctrines of fire and water, the two opposites of nature. Those who follow the path of faith (or the heart) use water and are known as the Sons of Seth, while those who follow the path of the mind and action are the Sons of Cain, who was the son of SAMAEL, the Spirit of Fire. Today, we find the latter among the alchemists, the Hermetic philosophers, the Rosicrucians and the Freemasons.” (Initiates of the Flame, p. 20.)
(This is not to endorse Freemasonry. It is the author’s perspective that Freemasonry is the grandfather of the New Age Movement. I just thought that this was an interesting point).
A combined understanding of the Bible, the Historical works of Josephus and the Historical Book of Enoch indicate that Tubalcain received his knowledge of metallurgy, weapon craft and martial arts from a fallen angel named Azazel.
According to some legends Tubalcain is the forger of the Blade of Destiny. A giant’s sword made of meteorite metal that was gifted to Enoch the first son of Cain. According to one legend, the sword was broken in the Flood.
To the Norse and Germanics, Elves were known as the A’lfar.
In the Poetic Edda the metal smith hero Völund is known as the “Ruler of Elves” (vísi álfa).
The Freemasons revere Tubal-Cain, (the sixth from Cain), as the Roman Vulcan, the forger of magical weapons by the “seething energies of Lucifer”, and the founder of the first secret society.
“When the Mason learns that the key to the warrior on the block is the proper application of the dynamo of living power, he learned the mastery of the Craft. The seething energies of Lucifer are in his hands and before he may step onward and upward, he must prove his ability to properly apply energy. He must follow in the footsteps of his forefather, Tubal-Cain …” -33rd degree Mason, Manly P. Hall, The Lost Keys of Freemasonry, p.48.
In the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien, Elrond, the half-elven Elf Lord, reforges the mighty sword Anduril from the shards of Narsil, and it is used to call up an undead army.
J. R. R. Tolkien also depicted the Elves of Mirkwood as eaters of wild game meats.
In Star Trek, Vulcans are an elven alien race. They even supposedly ate meat at one time out of necessity though they supposedly turned vegetarian.
It is also a legend that the Blade, made by Tubal Cain, (son of Lamech, and the 6th from Cain), for Enoch, (the son of Cain), which was broken in the flood and made into a spear by Nimrod, was carried by Joshua.
“And the LORD said unto Joshua, Stretch out the spear that is in thy hand toward Ai; for I will give it into thine hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city.” -Joshua 8:18
“Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.” -Joshua 10:12-14
Legend continues to tell how the Sword was taken from Goliath, by David and used to cut off the giant’s head, (1 Samuel 17:51), which he might have buried at Moriah, (1 Samuel 17:54), likely near the place where the lamb had been slain in the place of Issac, (Golgotha?).
The Sword was later carried by David, (1 Samuel 21:9).
The Spear was supposedly carried often by King Saul and might have been cast at David while he played his harp before King Saul, (1 Samuel 18:10-11).
Finally the legend, (not scripture), says that the same Spear was carried by the High Priest and was used by a roman soldier to pierce the side of Jesus/God after He died on the cross on Golgotha, (John 19:34).
According to the archeological research of Ron Wyatt, in the earthquake that followed, some of the Blood of Jesus likely ran down a great crack and landed on the Ark of the Covenant below. In the same chamber with the Ark, a massive Sword, possibly Goliath’s, was also seen.
The point being made is not that these inanimate objects are significant in any way in and of themselves, but rather that they are part of the much bigger His-story. And whether they be vessels of honor or dishonor they bring glory to God’s story.
“Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?” -Romans 9:21-24
We to are called to be part of His-story.
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” -Romans 8:28-30
Even the serpent/Satan’s evil conquest against God / the “seed of the woman” brought about his greatest defeat when, Jesus descended into Hell and preached to the captives and brought them up, and rose from the dead, and ascended up into Heaven.
“Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” -1 Corinthians 2:8
“Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.” -Isaiah 26:19
“(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)” -Ephesians 4:9-10
