We all know that Tolkien's works have had a profound influence upon later fantasy works...or at least its often presumed so...
However, the other day I was reading
this (admittedly a tremendously fantastic work of literature there...can't I read something just for kicks and giggles too...
) and it suddenly occurred to me that for all of Tolkien's presumed influence over the milieu of later fantasy world creation, a lot of the stereotypes widely associated with dwarves and elves, as an example, do not really derive from Tolkien at all.
Take dwarves for example...where in the world did the stereotype that the dwarves are a bunch of pickled alcoholics come from? It must have come from somewhere but I don't find anything in Tolkien's work to point to as the genesis of this notion.
For elves, they are commonly pictured as being arrogant and aloof to the point of utter superciliousness, but to my reading Tolkien's elves are not like that, although I suppose this may be the way they read to other people.
I'm specifically curious about everyone's opinions about Tolkien's influence over the later conceptualization of elves and dwarves, but I'm also interested if people can think of other things related to this too.