# Elf-shot

*Elf-arrows; fairy darts*

**Known today as.** Prehistoric flint arrowheads turned up in the fields.

Kind: Amulet

## What was it used for?

Believed to be the arrows that fairies or elves shot at cattle; set in silver or gold and worn as charms, and used to cure a stricken beast, which was touched with one or given water in which one had been dipped.

## What does modern science say?

Archaeologists date such arrowheads to prehistory: one set in a post-medieval silver-gilt pendant found in Moray is a flint of the Early Bronze Age.

## What lore surrounds it?

An Old English charm “For a sudden stitch,” in Cockayne’s translation, offers help whether the pain were the shot of the sir, of the elves, or of witches. In Scotland such arrowheads were set as charms from the late seventeenth century, and the fashion revived in the Victorian era.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Pliny.** Pliny describes among the stones the ceraunia, which Sotacus says “resemble axes in shape. Those which are black and round, he says, are looked upon as sacred, and by their assistance cities and fleets are attacked and taken: the name given to them is ‘bætyli,’ those of an elongated form being known as ‘cerauniæ.’” Another kind is “much in request for the practices of magic, it never being found in any place but one that has been struck by lightning.” The Catholic Encyclopedia files such things under the amulets “worn as a remedy or preservative against evils or mischief, such as diseases or witchcraft.”

## Sources

- Pliny the Elder, *Natural History* 37.51, trans. J. Bostock & H. T. Riley (1855), Perseus Digital Library.
- *The Catholic Encyclopedia* (New York, 1907–1914), “Superstition.” newadvent.org/cathen/14339a.htm
- Treasure Trove Unit, National Museums Scotland (n.d.). Magical elf and safety. Treasure Trove Scotland blog.
- Cockayne, O. (ed. and trans.) (1866). *Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England*, vol. III. London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer.

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*Elf-shot.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-03. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/elf-shot

Historical description, not medical advice.