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
J. R. R. Tolkien, A Descriptive Bibliography J. R. R. Tolkien, A Descriptive Bibliography J.R.R. Tolkien, A Descriptive Biography is a work by Douglas A. Anderson and Wayne G. Hammond that is a complete bibliography of the publications of J. R. R. Tolkien. It has a foreword by Rayner Unwin. The book subdivides the works of Tolkien into the following sections: The book has been in two editions, a first printing published in 1993 by St. Paul's Bibliographies, and a second printing in 2002 by Oak Knoll Press. A review for the Bibliographical Society of America by Barbara A. Brannon calls it "an essential guide" for scholarship.