Where do House Elves come from?

[sistermagpie]

> 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.

Magpie:
Sure, but I was asking exactly what you meant by doing that. You 
could write a story where elves inspired by Tolkien's type of elf 
(which were inspired from past ideas as well) become house elves, or 
Tolkien's hobbits become house elves. But if you were writing a 
fantasy for publication you wouldn't want somebody to say "This 
person ripped off hobbits and house-elves, and Tolkien and JKR." 

For instance, I believe when D&D first started "hobbits" was a race 
and they got in trouble for some sort of copyright issue, which is 
why in D&D they have a race called halflings that are kind of 
obviously hobbits but only use that name.:-)

Writing about notions of elves of course is something you could do, 
or make up your own elves based on all the ideas you've gotten from 
other authors. I just didn't quite understand what you were asking.

> > 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?

Magpie:
Things to ponder, definitely!

-m