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Originally Posted by drigel
It's hard to conjecture, so far after the fact. If the authors underlying intention was to create (among other ideas) a study of death and immortality, then altering the traditional view of faerie would be understood as appropriate. Undoubtedly the change from traditional fairie to a being who was a higher form of man, or man in his unfallen state was the authors choice in fitting elves into that underlying theme. But, was that an original thought, or an old idea brought to light in a later age?
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But what of Fairies/Elves as beings in their own right? Tolkien (in On Fairy Stories & the Smith essay) repeatedly refers to Faerie & its inhabitants as having an 'objective' existence:
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It is plainly shown that Faery is a vast world in its own right, that does not depend for its existence upon Men, and which is not primarily nor indeed principally concerned with Men.
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Yet it seems that he was willing to ignore that 'objective' existence when it suited him & make use of them as 'symbols' or 'metaphors' (or even as 'allegories') of something else - Art, Death, etc.