Why weren’t elves called fairies?
Those those unaware (I only just found out myself now), Tolkien regretted calling his elves ‘elves’ due to their usage in Shakespearean works depicting them as small creatures with wings. I think because of his works he has changed the cultural station of elves (except for the Christmas ones) to be those of tall, ancient, wise, and immortal beings of light.
What I did wonder though is why he didn’t call them fairies? I realise that I have basically answered my own question in the paragraph above, but I can’t shake the feeling that there’s more to it.
One of the prevailing themes of his work is the degradation of the world across time, history being the long defeat. The elves leave for the undying lands, the dwarves seal themselves inside their mountains, and the hobbits hide themselves from all human contact. Would it not be in keeping with this theme to depict elves as going from beings who could 1v1 a balrog to small critters who dwell in the bottom of the garden? (Writing this I realise that he wrote the hobbit with them named as elves probably before he fully developed his narrative themes).
The other reason I’m curious is that my wife is someone who reads a lot of YA fantasy romance crap about women who fall in love with vampires and angels and the like. In many of these series’ the “elven” races are called fae (as in faery). In all seriousness, do they call them by this shortened version because they fear that fairy/faery is too gay and that fae has a more regal tone to it? Is it because they are trying to distance themselves from Tolkien by naming the race something different, despite representing the same ideas?
Just a thought I’ve been having, I’d like to know what people think.