Faery by John T Kruse - 2020; the elves of folklore compared with those of Tolkien

I have been reading some of the work of John T Kruse on the subject of fairies; especially  - especially his Faery: a guide to the lore, magic and world of the Good Folk (2020) - which is, by far, the single most informative and readable work on the subject I have encountered. 

Elf is the usual name for such people among Anglo-Saxons and ancient Scandinavians, and this survived into the Middle Ages and beyond in the Scottish Borders - where they form the subject of numerous ballads. 

The word "Fairy" is a more recent, French-derived import - spreading from the metropolis. 

I also read his annotated collection Fairy Ballads and Rhymes (2020) - which features and discusses the fairy-referencing Ballads (mostly originating from the Marches of Northumberland and Cumberland and the southernmost counties of Scotland). 

Some of my particular favourite examples of these include Thomas the Rhymer, and Tam Lin - to which I would add (although it is not included here) Willy O' Winsbury. 

Another perhaps fairy is the protagonist of Long Lankin (or, in Northumbrian Lang Lonkin) - the site of whose exploits we recently encountered during a walk. In his novel about the return of the elves, Lords and Ladies; Terry Pratchett names the Fairy Queen's (especially cruel) lieutenant Lankin - and this certainly fits some versions of the ballad (although this is not the usual explanation).  

Once you have tuned-into fairy references in literature and song, which are often implied rather than explicit; then you can see they may be present at a pretty high frequency. For example in the Arthurian stories - where Wendy Berg and Gareth Knight have both argued that nearly-all of the women, including Guinevere, are probably fairies. 

What has this to do with the elves of JRR Tolkien? Not very much! 

Tolkien's elves - as depicted in The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings - have little relationship to folklore and are mostly his own creation. 

Indeed the high elves of Middle Earth (who are the focus of the stories) were called Gnomes until a pretty advanced stage of publication - although the Gnome name was chosen for its etymological link to knowledge (as in gnosis), rather than from its previous usage in folklore, magic etc. 

(Only after garden gnomes - which are more like mini-caricature-dwarves - became popular between the wars, did Tolkien drop the name.)  

If you want Ballad or folklore elves, you can find them (more or less) in Alan Garner's first two novels, Terry Pratchett, and Susanna Clarke's stories - and many other places, including the more authentic fairy stories, such as those of the Grimm brothers.  

Within Tolkien's oeuvre the closest are the Mirkwood elves, in The Hobbit

The feasting people were Wood-elves, of course. These are not wicked folk. If they have a fault it is distrust of strangers. Though their magic was strong, even in those days they were wary. They differed from the High Elves of the West, and were more dangerous and less wise. For most of them (together with their scattered relations in the hills and mountains) were descended from the ancient tribes that never went to Faerie in the West... In the Wide World the Wood-elves lingered in the twilight of our Sun and Moon, but loved best the stars; and they wandered in the great forests that grew tall in lands that are now lost. They dwelt most often by the edges of the woods, from which they could escape at times to hunt, or to ride and run over the open lands by moonlight or starlight; and after the coming of Men they took ever more and more to the gloaming and the dusk. Still elves they were and remain, and that is Good People. 

Tolkien's emphasis on elves as Good People is un-ironic, and is a symptom of the fact that his understanding of faery folk originally derived from literary sources; rather than folklore - where the appellation "good" is apparently fear-motivated and propitiatory.  

However, in the writings of Morgoth's Ring (volume ten of The History of Middle Earth) Tolkien made provision for the transformation of his genuinely good elves, into the much more ambiguous elves of folklore; when he described the fate and nature of the "lingerers" - those elves who refused to migrate to the undying lands when their time was ended: 

It would seem that in these after-days more and more of the Elves, be they of the Eldalie in origin or be they of other kinds, who linger in Middle-earth now refuse the summons of Mandos, and wander houseless in the world, unwilling to leave it and unable to inhabit it, haunting trees or springs or hidden places that once they knew. 

Not all of these are kindly or unstained by the Shadow. Indeed the refusal of the summons is in itself a sign of taint....

The Unbodied, wandering in the world, are those who at the least have refused the door of life and remain in regret and self-pity. Some are filled with bitterness, grievance, and envy. Some were enslaved by the Dark Lord and do his work still, though he himself is gone. They will not speak truth or wisdom. 

To call on them is folly. To attempt to master them and to make them servants of one own's will is wickedness. Such practices are of Morgoth; and the necromancers are of the host of Sauron his servant.

This is all much closer to the folklore and ballad descriptions detailed by John T Kruse in his Faery compilations. 

The passage indicates that Tolkien saw value in explaining how the nature and reputation of elves had undergone such a transformation from the era of his Legendarium down into recorded history. 

We can also note how thoroughly Tolkien had left-behind his early "Victorian" attitude to fairies* as tiny, pretty creatures who were harmless when not benign - but never scary or wicked. 

  

*Most notoriously evident in his very early, and quite popular anthology, poem Goblin Feet; which Tolkien later detested - but which, at the time of its composition in 1915, was typical of his fairy writings.