Fairy and Elves in Tolkien and Traditional Literature (J.R.R. Tolkien) (Essay‪)‬

Introduction MANY OF THE MARVELS OF TOLKIEN'S SECONDARY WORLD ARE, as expected in a legendarium sprung from his longing for a body of legends dedicated to England, motifs drawn from English traditional fairy-tales, often reinterpreted under his particular vision of how they "should be." Thus there are, among many other wonderful things, magical bewildering woods, dragons like those of ancient legends, stout Dwarves (unlike the classical dwarfs!), (1) and specially Elves, the central characters of the mythological ages.