Tolkienesque Worlds or Non-Tolkienesque Worlds?

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by shawnhcorey

How would you define a Tolkien knock-off? I usually have elves and dwarves and goblins in my fantasy but most of my sources is pre-Tolkien. So, is it a Tolkien knock-off or not?

Consciously or not, most people making that claim are wrong, in that Tolkien's conceptualizations of them as separate species/subspecies have become the standard. He blended the Gaelic Sidhe, especially the Tuatha de Danin, with the Norse Álfr, and then made them distinctly corporeal, unlike the Álfr; the Sidhe were magical, and corporeal at times...
The German late-medieval and later elves are traditionally diminutive - Gnome sized and smaller; they don't fit with Tolkien's except that he's used the name.

The Tolkienian dwarf is mixing sources even more disparate. They're not the Nors Dwergaz - aka Svartalfr - those weren't of need short statured, and may even be animate corpses, depending where one draws the line; they're non-glowing Álfr, sometimes even animate corpses of men. The Tuatha were man-sized to giant, but other Sidhe were in other forms; many malevolent thanks to being displaced by the sons of Mil from the Surface. Many of the Welsh/Cornish legends have corporeals, but they don't fit with Elves...

Gnomes are a type of spirit or a type of Elemental, depending upon culture. One that can take corporeal form.

Goblin goes back a ways... but not in the sense used in most games, and certainly not as a term for something like an Orc... see https://blog.oup.com/2013/06/goblin-...y-word-origin/ for some musings on that... Kobold is the same critter in a different language.

Orc being a type of monster, rather than simply "monster" is pure Tolkien. Well, in Latin, Orcus was a specific demonic being.

Our modern meanings for Elf, Faerie, Dwarf, Goblin, and Troll are codified by Tolkien. Orc is his alone.

Even most modern alternates are reactions to Tolkien, rather than actually being grounded in older sources.

Not saying yours aren't, but it is awful hard to have Elves, Dwarves and Goblins that aren't Tolkien influenced.