Where do House Elves come from?

[bdclark0423]

> Kemper now:

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

bdclark0423 perplexed:

I'm not really sure what prompted this, but it's been a bit of a
fancy of mine to speculate.  It's just a bit of a leisurely way of
enjoying time fantasizing, and who knows, I may write a book, or I may
just end up entertaining my nieces and nephews with an interesting story
next Christmas.

  I completely forgot about the Cobbler or Shoemaker, and this concept of
the house elf seems to fit into this role quite nicely.

But
.

> Magpie says:

>

> If you're trying to tie them to Tolkien's races...I'm not sure how
> you do that, because obviously they have nothing to do with each
> other. Nor do Tolkien's elves have anything to do with them. And you
> couldn't write an original work about taking one person's created
> race and turning them into another.


Bdclark0423 questions:

What happens if I do take one person's ideas in tandem with
another's and make my own concept?  Isn't this part of our
ability to form the basis for unique thought?  Isn't that what makes
me separate from you?  This is really what I'd like to accomplish,
to create a point of view that makes people start to think just a little
bit more.   Sure we have the Elves in Shannara, or Solace, or Keebler
Treehouse, or Middle-Earth, or Du Weldenvarden
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du_Weldenvarden> , Finlorian Isles,
Hogwarts, etc.

But they're all labeled elves.  They have pointy ears, live longer
than humans do, are known to possess magic, are considered more grounded
or logical (have tasty cookies or lembas bread)
.

I'm curious how our notions of elves came about, and why do we
continue to use them in so many of our fictions involving fantasy
(including Science Fiction
my own personal theory is that Vulcans
came from the concept of elves in Star Trek)

Okay, one could easily argue it's only the human persona taking a
different form, but in essence, what would make the House Elve content
with his or her own existence?

But, Magpie, when I read this, I immediately cracked up (cuz, at first I
though this was a question I needed to be asking about myself):

> Magpie then questions:

>
> Or are you just saying you want to write a story about your own race
> that eventually becomes a slave race?

bdclark0423 reflectively ponders:

hmmmm..  maybe I am subconsciously trying to give myself value?
.am
I allowing myself to succumb to other's will, or is this to give myself
a worthy story?
am I trying to find a way I can free myself, or give
myself a safe place to be?

am I really a slave, do I have my own
race?

anyway, keep the ideas flowing, and the imangination running....

Cheers!

Bdclark0423





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