抄一段托老的话: (RotK, Appendix F)
"Elves has been used to translate both Quendi, 'the speakers', the High-elven name of all their kind, and Eldar, the name of the Three Kindreds that sought for the Undying Realm and came there at the beginning of Days (save the Sindar only). This old word was indeed the only one avaliable, and was once fitted to apply to such memories of this people as Men preserved, or to the making of Men's minds not wholly dissimilar. But it has been diminished, and to many it may now suggest fancies either pretty or silly, as unlike to the Quendi of old as are butterflies to the swift falcon---not that any of the Quendi ever possessed wings of the body, as unnatural to them as to Men. They were a race high and beautiful, the older Children of the world, and among them the Eldar were as kings, who now are gone: the People of the Great Journey, the People of the Stars."
根据托老的这种说法, 欧洲神话里的精灵, 其实就是人类对Quendi一族朦胧的回忆. 人类现在的传说里, 把他们说成是矮小可爱的淘气生物, 才是一种错误的印象, 是一种diminishment. 拿神话里所谓的精灵与真正的Quendi相比, 就象把蝴蝶比作雄鹰. 的确, 在"哈比人历险记"里的精灵更接近晚期欧洲神话中的精灵一点, 但是也不能算作"小精灵"吧?
另外再抬一下杠: 托老最早开始写作的是The Silmarillion(1917年), 那可的确是当作"伟大的神话"来创造的 (虽然它在托老生前一直没有出版), 而其中的精灵也可绝对不是什么"小精灵"...:cool: