In Irish folklore, stone arrowheads believed to be fairy tools are called elfshot.
Elfshot, also written elf-shot, originally referred to a mysterious illness or sudden stabbing pain attributed to invisible arrows fired by elves. The idea appears in the Old English medical text Wið færstice, where supernatural projectiles were associated with sharp, localized pain in people or animals. Cattle were especially frequent victims in later folklore.
Over time, the word developed another related meaning. Prehistoric flint arrowheads and other worked stones were sometimes found in fields long after their makers had disappeared. Folklore interpreted these objects as “elf arrows” or tools of fairies and witches. People could treat them as dangerous objects that caused illness, or as protective amulets capable of warding off harm.
The term is not perfectly uniform across sources. Some traditions blame elves, others witches, and some use elfshot primarily for the illness rather than the stone itself. Modern readers should also avoid assuming that prehistoric people actually made these objects for fairies: the fairy-tool explanation is a later folkloric interpretation of ancient artifacts. The quiz’s wording points to that artifact-related sense of elfshot.