I’m curious about the evolution of elves in western folklore. They seem to be a fixture of Germanic mythology, popping up in all sorts of fairy tails.
Mythologically speaking, how are elves (if at all) distinguished from gnomes, fairies, and other diminutive creatures?
Whence came the tradition of portraying elves and other mythological humanoids as having pointy ears? Is there a specific reason for this peculiar trait or is it merely a standard bit of iconography (such as the goatlike devil or winged angels)?
And was Tolkien reinventing elves out of whole cloth when he portrayed them as human sized paragons of ethereal beauty, or was he drawing on established mythological elements?
Actually, a part of Spock’s popularity came from his inadvertently tapping into that ready-made archetype. Girls in the 60s were as hung up on Leonard Nimoy and his character as those of today are regarding Orlando Bloom and his.
But to address the OP, there were three incommensurate strands of tradition regarding elves, fairies, and related phenomena in Medieval culture. C.S. Lewis goes into great detail on this in Chapter VI “The Longaevi” in his study of Medieval “cultural literacy” The Discarded Image. One, often referred to as “the High Fairies,” gave rise to the fairy damsels who seduce Sir Launfal, Thomas the Rimer, etc., and to Sir Bercilak the Green Knight. Merlin and Morgan le Fay are “halfelven” members of this group. This was the strand tapped by Tolkien for his Elves. Another strand resulted in the fear-causing and pranksterish image, as of leprechauns and a wide assortment of other legendary sort-of-human creatures. The third strand suggests them as being smaller than mankind, though how much smaller is left very much up in the air, even within the same work. (Lewis cites Drayton, within 50 lines of each other in the same poem, making Oberon able to catch a wasp in his arms and to ride an ant – visualize the different sizes of the two insects to picture this difference.)
A genetic condition called “Williams Syndrome” has been suggest many times of late as the origin of certain characteristics of Elves: Interest in music/rhyme, pointed ears, etc. Lot’s of pop-sci press, a PBS show (SA Frontiers?) about it a few years ago. Go Google on the term.
(Or watch “Coupling” on BBC America next week and see a performance of the “Susan the Happy Trotting Elf” routine.)