To Keeper:
But the very ideas you depict as necessary for fantasy, are very
indo-european, or even narrower, European ideas (or archetypes, as some prefer to put it
)
But for Tolkien (and overflowing stream of his followers), they would presumably remain European folk lore. Now, what we have throughout the world, they are becoming universal ideas. And universal as Tolkien gave them - elves tall, star-eyed noble people, and fair number of other cliches too. If you look through the list of our members, you'll find that a lot of them is from Malaysia, Indonesia or elsewhere which do not have the background you seem to look at so obvious adn natural. Not to go very far, I for myself may be quite a good exapmle. Georgian mythos in no way has bearded dwarves or star-eyed elves, yet I'm affected to the extent that concept of bearded short guy under the mountain is
my own already. I recognize archetypes which would have been blank for my grandfather thanks to Tolkien, and him mostly.
(BTW, That is why it is so hard to translate Tolkien into non European languages, for Germans, Dutch and Norwegians take some conventions for granted which would look just very strange for Japanese (assuming he/she never heard of Tolkien, or read it in his adulthood with no previous hint as of European mythos)
And even with his enormous popularity, Tolkien is often giving way to newly born American urban mythos, which is, may I say so, mightily exported from USA along with the general culture export taking place this last fifty years (ah, Hollywood) - with lot of 'man' suffixed epic heroes (i.e Spiderman, Superman etc)
But for Tolkien (not position arguable, but merely strong feeling on my part nevertheless), those would become universal ideas instead, and for all their value, for me it would be a sad thing