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<blockquote data-quote="Turjan" data-source="post: 1295707" data-attributes="member: 3477">Creativity is a complex phenomenon. Sure, Tolkien did not invent dwarves, elves, and gnomes. But, nevertheless, you can see their development in his work. If you look at &quot;The Hobbit&quot;, you find dwarves that might have been taken directly out of fairy tales like &quot;Snow White and the Seven Dwarves&quot;, and the elves dancing under the trees and vanishing upon approach, or the elven &quot;King under the Mountain&quot; with all his cruelty are direct outtakes from Irish fairy tales. This means that he used concepts that were hundreds of years older without changing them much, right.Later on, he developed these role models further. In LotR, dwarves got a more norse, barbaric approach. The magic of smithing is a norse concept, too. Okay, here I agree that dwarves became very similar to Scandinavian dark elves, but, on the other hand, they became more human in concept, qualifiying them for RPG's and player's races in D&amp;D. This also means they had to grow. And I guess that's why gnomes had to grow, too.Tolkiens LotR elves are a mix of above-mentioned Irish elves with a bit more of the &quot;vanishing folk&quot; aspect, a bit of norse light elves and, again, a large chunk of human. Therefore, I'd say that Tolkiens &quot;creation&quot; consists of making those fey creatures from myths and fairy tales of old much more human-like. Without this process, none of these races would have found its way into D&amp;D. Who the heck wants to play a 3 inch high gnome with nothing but silly ideas in his head?Of course, it's up to you to go to the roots in your campaign. My elves use gnome stats (more or less those from the PHB), don't like to go around in bright sunshine, and have their homesteads underground, either in forests or within mountains. In a certain sense, they now resemble Tolkien's elves from &quot;The Hobbit&quot;. But with this, they more resemble dwarves/elves/gnomes from the myths now, too.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Turjan, post: 1295707, member: 3477"] Creativity is a complex phenomenon. Sure, Tolkien did not invent dwarves, elves, and gnomes. But, nevertheless, you can see their development in his work. If you look at "The Hobbit", you find dwarves that might have been taken directly out of fairy tales like "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves", and the elves dancing under the trees and vanishing upon approach, or the elven "King under the Mountain" with all his cruelty are direct outtakes from Irish fairy tales. This means that he used concepts that were hundreds of years older without changing them much, right. Later on, he developed these role models further. In LotR, dwarves got a more norse, barbaric approach. The magic of smithing is a norse concept, too. Okay, here I agree that dwarves became very similar to Scandinavian dark elves, but, on the other hand, they became more human in concept, qualifiying them for RPG's and player's races in D&D. This also means they had to grow. And I guess that's why gnomes had to grow, too. Tolkiens LotR elves are a mix of above-mentioned Irish elves with a bit more of the "vanishing folk" aspect, a bit of norse light elves and, again, a large chunk of human. Therefore, I'd say that Tolkiens "creation" consists of making those fey creatures from myths and fairy tales of old much more human-like. Without this process, none of these races would have found its way into D&D. Who the heck wants to play a 3 inch high gnome with nothing but silly ideas in his head? Of course, it's up to you to go to the roots in your campaign. My elves use gnome stats (more or less those from the PHB), don't like to go around in bright sunshine, and have their homesteads underground, either in forests or within mountains. In a certain sense, they now resemble Tolkien's elves from "The Hobbit". But with this, they more resemble dwarves/elves/gnomes from the myths now, too. [/QUOTE]

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