In J. R. R. Tolkien's writings, Elves are the first fictional race to appear in Middle-earth. Unlike Men and Dwarves, Elves do not die of disease or old age. Should they die in battle or of grief, the
Victorian era Fairy painting: Edwin Landseer, Scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Titania and Bottom, 1851
Beowulf's eotenas [ond] ylfe [ond] orcneas, "ogres [and] elves [and] devil-corpses", inspiring Tolkien to create orcs, elves, and other races
Elf-shot, associated with "elf arrows", Neolithic flint arrowheads sometimes used as amulets, was one of the hints Tolkien used to create his Elves.
Wood elves as portrayed in the 1977 Rankin-Bass version of The Hobbit look nothing like those in any other adaptation.
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the sundering of the Elves is the complex process in which the immortal Elves successively break up into many groups with multiple causes of dissent between them. Th
Elves in Middle-earth
…more one sees "how easy it was for him to feel that a consistency and a sense lay beneath the chaotic ruin of the old poetry of the North". Tolkien's Sundering of the Elves allowed him to explain the existence of Norse mythology's Light Elves, who live in Alfheim ("Elfhome") and correspond to his Calaquendi, and Dark Elves…
Elves were associated with light and darkness in Norse mythology. 1866 painting Elfplay by August Malmström