: Weeeell... that's not /entirely/ true. Before Tolkien,
: the most accepted kind of Elf was the Shakespearean
: Midsummer Night's Dream flavour (which Tolkien
: criticised as being too small). Tolkien was going back
: to the Alfs and the Shee for inspiration, who were
: much more sinister (notice the way that /everyone/ who
: isn't an Elf speaks of Lothlorien with dread in
: LOTR...)
: Similarly, while Goblins already existed, Tolkien did a
: lot to flesh out what had, till then, been largely a
: race of malicious tricksters, and was the first to use
: the word "Orc".
: As for Hobbits, well, there were no Hobbits before
: Tolkien.
I guess I went too far with "identical guises". All I intended was to address what some people thought was simple plagarism. Thanks for the background info, anyway.
