Du Vrangr Gata (The Wandering Path) Forum Different Definitions of Elves

The Brothers Grimm: extremely small, mischievous creautures who are helpful at times, but not always.

J.R.R. Tolkien's: elegant, strong, and very intelligent people who are very powerful, and speak an Elven language.

Christopher Paolini's: graceful, beautiful, and very strong people who speak the ancient language, and are talented magic users. 

Isn't that interesting? I tend to treat the elves in my story "Korvantunturi, Mountain of Elves" more like humans who had been separated off from normal society, married within their little culture until distinct looks and ways started to dominate. It's lots of fun to play with the "little magiks" and characteristics that I'm going to give them.

Personally, I think I like the Grimm brother's elves. How about the rest of you? 

I like J.R.R. Tolkien's the best because they seem most like humans in that aspect. I wouldn't want weird little creatures like the Grimm Brothers describe because to me they'd be too much like gremlins.

I have just a few things to add;

Elves originated from Norse Mythology, where there were two distinct types; the light-elves (more like J.R.R. Tolkien's elves) and the dark-elves, who were basically dwarfs. Dwarves. Whatever.

In the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett (one of my favorite authors) the elves are basically inhuman monsters. They're always trying to conquer the world, in other words. They cannot procreate among themselves so they have to reproduce with humans, creating 'humans with elfin characteristics who tend to giggle and burn easily in the sun'. This is based more on the old English version of elves than the Norse one.

Personally I think elves are better the more different they are from the stereotype.