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
The Etymologies (Tolkien) The Etymologies (Tolkien) The Etymologies is an etymological dictionary of the constructed Elvish languages, written during the 1930s by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was edited by Christopher Tolkien and published as the third part of "The Lost Road and Other Writings", the fifth volume of the History of Middle-earth. Christopher Tolkien described it as "a remarkable document." It is a list of roots of the Proto-Elvish language, from which J. R. R. Tolkien built his many Elvish languages, especially Quenya, Noldorin and Ilkorin. "The Etymologies" are not a unified whole, but incorporate layer upon layer of changes. It was