Where do House Elves come from?

[kempermentor]

> bdclark:
> Where do House Elves come from?
> 
> For quite some time, I've been thinking of composing my own work of
> fantasy, and I believe I may have truly found an original topic:  
> Where do House Elves come from?
> 
> As an avid reader of fantasy novels such as authors that include elves
> in their stories:  Tolkien, Wiess/Hickman, Terry Brooks, Eldon Thompson,
> Christopher Paolini; I have found quite a few similarities describing
> this mystical race.

Kemper now:
Who you are missing are the Grimms.  Their story, 'Die Wichtelmanner',
also called the Elves is also known as The Elves and the Shoemaker.
The elves (brownies) are more similar to House Elves than are
Tolkien's (or Paolini's which is like saying Tolkien's).

Grimms' elves are naked and desire to help out and when they're given
clothes... iirc.
JKR's twist is that wizards took advantage of this, enslaving them.


> bdclark:
>  
> So throughout history, how does the `Elf' become the `House
> Elf?'
> 
> ... snipping thoughts on LoR and stuff...

Kemper now:
Please clarify the question.
I didn't get what you were saying in the last part about LoR elves...
were you trying to make up a fanfic?

Kemper