Most scientists accept that neanderthals and modern man are separate species, and that neanderthals died out about 40,000 years ago (give or take). Is it likely that legends of elves, trolls, orcs, nephilim, etc. may be derived from encounters between modern humans and neanderthals? Could oral traditions and stories of legendary humanoid creatures have survived so long, and have been originally referring to neanderthals? Just an interesting thought...

interesting thought, yes - however, from a scientific point of view there's so little meat on the bones of that hypothesis that i can't think how you would go about testing it

 

any ideas ?