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<blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 8090747" data-attributes="member: 59082">An interesting thing about Tolkien's elves is that they were, in some sense, subversive of Shakespeare. He felt that the Bard's depiction of Fairie represented a degradation of the &quot;true&quot; mythic sources. The cute and mischievous pixies and such of Shakespeare are a far cry from the Irish Tuatha de Danaan, who are probably the primary source for Tolkien's elves.Tolkien didn't primarily world-build in order to write novels. That came as a result of the world-building, not the other way around - as is the case with the vast majority of authors. He wanted to create a cohesive mythology or &quot;mythic cycle&quot; for his British homeland, drawing upon mythology and folklore from throughout (mostly) Northern Europe. And of course it is well known that his &quot;hook&quot; into world-building was through creating languages. The world was formed around and from the languages he made, with resulting myths and stories.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mercurius, post: 8090747, member: 59082"] An interesting thing about Tolkien's elves is that they were, in some sense, subversive of Shakespeare. He felt that the Bard's depiction of Fairie represented a degradation of the "true" mythic sources. The cute and mischievous pixies and such of Shakespeare are a far cry from the Irish Tuatha de Danaan, who are probably the primary source for Tolkien's elves. Tolkien didn't primarily world-build in order to write novels. That came as a result of the world-building, not the other way around - as is the case with the vast majority of authors. He wanted to create a cohesive mythology or "mythic cycle" for his British homeland, drawing upon mythology and folklore from throughout (mostly) Northern Europe. And of course it is well known that his "hook" into world-building was through creating languages. The world was formed around and from the languages he made, with resulting myths and stories. [/QUOTE]

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