@Tamerlane Tolkien only adapted the Norse myths. The division of elves into light elves, dark elves, high elves, and wood elves came from Norse mythology, but to them elves were either demigods or outright divinities. In many ways Norse elves are basically the same in concept as the Japanese kami. They even map almost perfectly. The light elves are heavenly divinities of the second order (below the Vanir) much like the Amatsugami are second-order heavenly divinities after the true gods of creation. The high elves are demigods descended from the light elves who live in both Alfheim and Midgard, like the Kunigami and the children of the Amatsugami who conquered them. The wood elves are faerie or spirits of the forest like the Morigami. Finally dark elves are denizens of the underworld like the children of Izanami. The image of elves as a humanoid race in fantasy came from later fantasy writers who had to downgrade them from their semi-divine state in Tolkien's work to make them fit their human-dominated fantasy worlds, but the initial divisions are historical. In Tolkien's original works he had a soft transition from the semi-divine state of elves to the mortal humans over successively less immortal generations (like the Dunedain), similar to the Japanese imperial myth of descent from Amaterasu's grandson Ninigi-no-Mikoto.
The image of monstrous elves was a Christian invention combining Greco-Roman daemons with the folklore of the Germanic peoples. However, even in this case they're monstrous morally. Physically they're quite beautiful, which is how they can get hapless youths to have sex with them. We got the sexy elves from them, though, so not much to complain about here.
None of this has any bearing whatsoever to the forest-destroying macho elves in this manga, sadly.
The image of monstrous elves was a Christian invention combining Greco-Roman daemons with the folklore of the Germanic peoples. However, even in this case they're monstrous morally. Physically they're quite beautiful, which is how they can get hapless youths to have sex with them. We got the sexy elves from them, though, so not much to complain about here.
None of this has any bearing whatsoever to the forest-destroying macho elves in this manga, sadly.
