A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

In “The Elves and the Envious Neighbour,” a traveller shelters for the night inside a hollow tree in the mountains. A large company of beings, called elves in Mitford’s English, gathers nearby to drink, sing and dance. Initially terrified, he eventually joins their festivities. Before dawn they ask him to return and remove a large wen from his forehead, keeping it as security for his promise. The man goes home delighted at the unintended cure rather than distressed by the loss of their pledge.

A neighbour with a similar swelling hears the account and attempts to repeat the good fortune. He finds the same tree, waits for the revellers and joins their dancing. Mistaking him for the earlier guest, they praise his return and restore the pledged lump, attaching it above the one already on his forehead. He returns home with two. The beings do not explicitly recognize and punish envy; their mistaken recognition produces the outcome that the narrator turns into a moral against coveting another person’s luck.

Mitford identifies this story’s source as the Kotowazagusa, a work of etymology and proverbial lore, distinguishing it from the illustrated children’s pamphlets behind the other fairy tales in his collection. He gives the company no individual names or physical description and supplies no Japanese equivalent for his word elves in the narrative. Their bodily magic and mountain gathering are documented, but pointed ears, horns, diminutive stature and an automatic identification with a named yōkai category are not.

Night gatheringDancing and drinkingRemoval and attachment of a wenMistaken identity
01

Origins & earliest records

Mitford’s retelling explicitly attributed to the Kotowazagusa; Japanese original not independently collated.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete named account, ending, relevant footnotes and collection preface read.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Tales of Old Japan — The Elves and the Envious Neighbour

    A. B. Mitford (Lord Redesdale) · 1871; hosted1910 edition

    Completep.160 and FairyTales source framingpp.133–134.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Primary records and illustrations

Complete primary literary retelling read

Tales of Old Japan

Hosted1910title; initialcollection1871. p.160; source framingpp.133–134

Full ending: elves mistake secondman forfirst andreturnpledge, no consciouspunishmentasserted. Kotowazagusa explicit; noJapaneseoriginalcollation. Cache mitford-elves.txt and mitford-fairy-intro.txt.

Inspect the digitized plate · Source collection manifest

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical English retelling of a named Japanese printed sourceMitford, complete Elves and Envious NeighbourResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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