"Elves' is a translation, not perhaps now very suitable, but originally good enough, of Quendi. They are represented as a race similar in appearance (and more so the further back) to Men, and in former days of the same stature. I will not here go into their differences from Men ! But I suppose that the Quendi are in fact in these histories very little akin to the Elves and Fairies of Europe; and if I were pressed to rationalize, I should say that they represent really Men with greatly enhanced aesthetic and creative faculties, greater beauty and longer life, and nobility" (Letter 144, italics mine)
"But to those creatures which in English I call misleadingly Elves* are assigned two related languages more nearly completed [...] *Intending the word to be understood in its ancient meanings, which continued as late as Spenser — a murrain on Will Shakespeare and his damned cobwebs." (Letter 131, italics mine)
Those ancient meanings of the word elf can be defined solely within the realm of philological origin, without taking any languages or mythologies other than the Teutonic into account:
"The name of a class of supernatural beings, in early Teutonic belief supposed to possess formidable magical powers, exercised variously for the benefit or the injury of mankind. [...] The Teutonic belief in elves is probably the main source of the mediæval superstition respecting fairies, which, however, includes elements not of Teutonic origin;" (OED² on CD-Rom, lemma elf n1)
The two important things are that Tolkien did not equate his Quendi with the 'ancient' elves, he merely used the existing word in its ancient meaning as a translation.
The second point would be that the similiarites which naturally exist simply derive from apparent "pressure to rationalize". There is nothing about "Men with greatly enhanced aesthetic and creative faculties, greater beauty and longer life, and nobility" (Letter 144) which would need to be inspired by any secondary source, and there is nothing about it which would allow one to draw parallels between otherwise totally different phenomenons.
The one case where the latter would be possible is only if properly differentiated - the elves one would be able to compare the Quendi to would have to fit the definition of Tolkien's Quendi and at the same time must not contradict anything beyond their rationalized description.
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