Hello All,

I was scouting bit west of Whiterun, and a single High Elf jumped out of the bushes and attacked.

He was not labeled as a bandit or anything else.

Any idea why this would happen?

Thanks,
R

There are a bunch of unnamed NPCs just called "Dark Elf", Orc, "High Elf" "Red Guard", etc who you meet on the road. Sometimes they attack you automatically and sometimes they just try to pick a fight. It's another random encounter, that's all.