Where do House Elves come from?

[Carol]

<bdclark wrote:
 
> 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?
<snip>
> 
> It seems Tolkien has set the precedent on the mysticism of the
modern elf:  designated as an official habitant/protector of Earth,
for lack of a better term `Immortal:' living forever unless killed, a
race which prefers to be apart/reclusive from the humans, possessing
the ancient magical arts of the faerie, having a specific synergy with
nature/mother earth.
 
> JK Rowling has completely omitted any existence of the evles, but
> rightfully so. <snip>
> However, she introduces us a class of elves known as the House Elf.
  <snip>
> a House Elf's principal desire is to serve the owner of the house, a
House Elf is servant of that house until a gift of clothing has been
offered <snip>
> 
> I'd really like to try and make some sort of tie between certain
races/characters Tolkien has created. But I have a big problem with
Hobbits subjecting themselves as tools of the wizarding world.  There
has to be an event in which the original form of the House Elf feels
the need they actually live to serve their masters.
> 
><snip>
> 
> o        Sméagol's actual race became part of Sauron's regime while
he spent all those years under the mountain, but with Gollum's action,
he becomes a martyr for his race and they feel they can only serve
Wizards in order to honor his memory
> 
> o        One of the Hobbits (Pip, Merry, or one of their
grandchildren, great-grandchildren) pairs with an elf, and after
circumstances, puts their entire off-spring into the situation that
makes things happen <snip>

Carol responds:

As others have noted, there's no connection between JKR's House-Elves,
which are derived from folklore (see the Great House-Elf debate, a
mercifully abandoned topic on the main list). I speculate that naked
Brownies first became House-Elves when a Wizard offered them a tea
towel rather than actual clothes, and they came to think of clothes,
not as a route to freedom (what would a free Brownie do? Take off his
clothes and serve some other human? That, after all, is what they like
to do) but as a form of dismissal and disgrace. Also, of course, the
human involved would have to be a Wizard and not a poor Muggle like
the Shoemaker. (JKR probably didn't think out their origins. She just
wanted to adapt the concept for her own purposes, first the poor
abused Dobby who adores Harry Potter and then the seemingly
treacherous Kreacher, with his contrasting relationships with the
Black brothers.) At any rate, however much Dobby and Kreacher
sometimes sound like Gollum (who, of course, is not an Elf of any
sort), there's no connection between JKR's Elves and Tolkien's.

Tolkien's Elves, as you may know, are derived from Scandinavian
mythology. There are hints of the realm of Faerie, as well. (I would
start with Tolkien's essay "On Fairy Stories" if you haven't yet read
it, along with the Appendices to LOTR.) If you're really a fan of
Tolkien's world, the series of books edited by his son, Christopher,
will tell you more than you ever wanted to know. And, much as I hate
to recommend Wikipedia, the article on Elves (actually, "Elf") is
helpful as well:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elf

Meanwhile, I stumbled onto this article, which is accompanied with a
picture of Harry Potter from the Scholastic edition of HP but is
primarily about the history of Elves and Tolkien's alteration of the
concept:

http://www.elvesweb.com/

Carol, who wants to address Steve's response to this message but will
do so in a separate post