Autistic fairy tale series: The legend of the great elf rebellion

Once upon a time there was an enchantment of elves (for that is the collective noun for a gathering of these creatures).

They worked tirelessly for Santa, until they didn’t. For this was an incredibly unusual year. It was the legendary year when they broke out of the Elfin workhouse. But let me first go back a little bit and tell you how this came about. This was all because one of them discovered something quite special – a book. One of the elves who was an even more curious elf than all the others found himself in the deepest darkest corner of the workhouse attic one day. He had got a bit fed up of being productive and had followed his nose into that corner, and came upon this:

Goodness me he thought, what is that thing covered in dust and smelling so old and musty. He was not prepared for what happened when he opened it, because immediately his heart opened up like a sparkle of light and he was enthralled.

“Circus comes from the Latin word for a ring, or a circle…”

“A wave in the sea, like a sound wave in the air, is a vibration”.

“Anglo-Saxons used to call October ‘the Yellow Month’.”

Illustration from October, the ‘yellow month’. From the elfin-discovered book, 365 Things To know, puslixhed by Hamlyn

His little legs shook with excitement as he read more and more and his little heart began to beat in a different sort of way, an odd thing considering how hearts shouldn’t really beat differently at all. But there you go. He became more and more pulled into the energy of the book. He knew at that moment he had found something magical. (That moment was a bit like the discovery of the book, “The You You Are: A Spiritual Biography of You,” by Mark in Severance – if you’ve seen it you know what I mean. Apologies for breaking the fourth wall here, but I just wanted to say that bit).

So off he went, back into the workhouse, and he whispered excitedly to the first elf he came across.

“Look, look at this inside my green felt jacket!”

“What is THAT?!!”

“Shh, shh…”

Not long after this first encounter, word got round the whole Elf enchantment, and all of the elves hearts were moved in quite the same way. And as a result of this, they could do nothing else but break out of the workhouse. It isn’t known in the legend how they broke out or what Santa thought about the whole thing, but anyway, they all put down their tools – they stopped making and made their way to the cave.

Älvalek, “Elf Play” by August Malmström (1866)

You might be wondering what this is all about – how come the elves were so moved in this way. Let us take a moment to really channel being elfish, in the elfish way. The elves had started out their little careers in making toys that were open-hearted toys, like a ball, or a very good stick, but later, as time passed over a number of years their making had moved into the narrower realm of one-dimensional toys – toys that tell you what to do with them, toys that do not light up the imagination and curiosity. And so with it, the elves’ energetic heart energy also had dwindled. So it is no surprise that this book was felt to be a sort of elixir in their little elf lives. While they had been making toys over the years, a quiet little rebellion had been growing, and this book was the final match that lit a flame in their hearts.

The elves ran off with their little green legs and their wooden clogs all the way to the magic cave. This was no ordinary cave though. It was an old, old dragon cave – said, in another legend to have once been inhabited by the much loved dragon of a princess.

Illustration of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Arthur Rackham

The elves gathered around while the cave walls, all sparkly and glittery looked on and listened in silent but excited anticipation. And as they came closer, they huddled together and turned over the pages of the book with pure reverence. They had discovered gold, pure gold. Not the promised rainbow-crock gold at the end of the rainbow curve – they had already been on that journey and ended up quite disappointed. No, this gold was simply exquisite and enjoyable enjoyment – the richness of curiosity and learning for its own sake. One of them would read a fact about woodpeckers, do a little dance and talk with his neighbour all about it. Another would talk about why spiders don’t get stuck in their own webs while doing a little clap with glee. This sort of sharing bubbled over and out of the cave like piano keys playing the highest and most beautiful notes.

Each little fact was a little gem – and they had heated discussions about what they should do about this discovery. They even talked about whether they should call the ‘facts’ in the book gems, because the cave wall seemed a bit unsure about this, considering the fact that it itself was a cave made of sparkles. So the elves convened and came up with a new name for these wonderful curiosity-facts – this beautiful information that wanted to be shared. They called it pebbling, after the behaviour they had observed in the penguin colony that lived nearby.

Gentoo penguins know a good pebble when they see one. Scooping them up in their beaks, they carry them to their partner; a gift that acknowledges the relationship between the two penguins and helps grow the nest for their budding family.Source - BBC Earth (a little fact I offer to you now, dear reader x)

And so it was. The little elves each took their favourite pebble-piece-of-curious-content, and shared it with the bigger elf community. And those pebbles scattered far and wide, not just locally in the little elf kingdom, (which I think might be in the Antarctic because that is where the Gentoos live) but across the world to the other side, right to where the polar bears, the caribou, the snowy owls, the Arctic hares, the foxes, the narwhal, the walrus, the musk ox and the beluga Whales live. These magical animals gathered regularly to have deep conversations about the facts that had travelled their way.

Magical excerpt from the Elfin book of reverence: 365 Things to Know published by Hamlyn

And so how does this tale end? Well, the elves never went back to the workhouse. They’re still out there, pebbling away. And they sneak an invitation into every toy that leaves their workshop now - an invitation to you. It is an invitation to play differently, to approach the world differently, to allow yourself to be as curious as you can be. And ultimately, to encourage you to find your pebbles and share them far and wide. Because when you offer someone a pebble - a little fact, a wonder, a piece of joy - you are opening your heart. And if you are given a pebble, listen closely. You are being invited to open your heart too, so that it might sparkle alongside theirs.

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A pebble about pebbling (quoted from Helen @ Autistic Realms)”As far as I know, the concept of Penguin Pebbling was first introduced by Amythest Schaber and is one of the Five Neurodivergent Love Locutions that Stimpunks have also written about. For many in the neurodivergent community, especially Autistic people, communicating and socialising in different ways like penguin pebbling and body doubling is a meaningful way we can show we care, it can help build connections and friendships in our own unique ways.friendships in our own unique ways.”