<P> Traditional Victorian dancing fairies and elves appear in much of Tolkien's early poetry, and have influence upon his later works in part due to the influence of a production of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan in Birmingham in 1910 and his familiarity with the work of Catholic mystic poet, Francis Thompson which Tolkien had acquired in 1914 . </P> <P> O! I hear the tiny horns Of enchanted leprechauns And the padded feet of many gnomes a-coming! </P> <P> As a philologist, Tolkien's interest in languages led him to invent several languages of his own as a pastime . In considering the nature of who might speak these languages, and what stories they might tell, Tolkien again turned to the concept of elves . </P> <P> In his The Book of Lost Tales, Tolkien develops a theme that the diminutive fairy - like race of Elves had once been a great and mighty people, and that as Men took over the world, these Elves had "diminished" themselves . This theme was influenced especially by the god - like and human - sized Ljósálfar of Norse mythology, and medieval works such as Sir Orfeo, the Welsh Mabinogion, Arthurian romances and the legends of the Tuatha Dé Danann . Some of the stories Tolkien wrote as elven history have been seen to be directly influenced by Celtic mythology . For example, "Flight of The Noldoli" is based on the Tuatha Dé Danann and Lebor Gabála Érenn, and their migratory nature comes from early Irish / Celtic history . John Garth also sees that with the underground enslavement of the Noldoli to Melkor, Tolkien was essentially rewriting Irish myth regarding the Tuatha Dé Danann into a Christian eschatology . </P>

Where did the elves come from in lord of the rings