Elves in fiction Norse-style elves. However, the elves found in the works of the 20th-century philologist and fantasy writer J. R. R. Tolkien have formed the view of elves in modern fantasy like no other singular source. The first appearance of modern fantasy elves occurred in "The King of Elfland's Daughter", a 1924 novel by Lord Dunsany. The next modern work featuring elves was "The Hobbit", a 1937 novel by J. R. R. Tolkien. Elves played a major role in many of Tolkien's later works, notably "The Lord of the Rings". Tolkien's elves were followed by grim Norse-style elves of human size in
Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien The philologist and author J. R. R. Tolkien created a number of constructed languages, including languages devised for fictional settings. Inventing languages (called "glossopoeia" by Tolkien, from Greek γλῶσσα glôssa, "language, tongue" and ποιῶ poiô, "to make" paralleling his idea of "mythopoeia" or myth-making) was a lifelong occupation for Tolkien, starting in his teens. An early project of Tolkien was the reconstruction of an unrecorded early Germanic language which might have been spoken by the people of "Beowulf" in the Germanic heroic age. The most-developed project of Tolkien was his Elvish languages. He