[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

the name 'Alfred' means 'elf-friend'

Actually Ælfred means 'Elf-counsel' (i.e. counselled by elves). The name you're thinking of is Ælfwine.

I think that it's possible to go too far in trying to tie in the Elves of The Hobbit with those of the Silmarillion and LotR. Had Tolkien realised that he would come to write a more serious and adult sequel, and had he realised that he would use the more Germanic elves of his Silmarillion legends in the later story, he would probably have written more serious-minded Elves for The Hobbit. However, in so doing he would probably have been compelled to write different parts for the Elves of Mirkwood, dropping the drunken gaoler, then possibly the barrel escape and the arrival at Lake-town. Although it can be disappointing to do so, sometimes we have to accept that this is a fictional story which has been cleverly but imperfectly grafted onto an older set of legends of which it was never fully intended to be a part. I am sure that Tolkien did regret later some of the less congruous touches, particularly once he realised the directions in which his sequel was developing. Nevertheless he did write them, and they reflect his early ideas concerning the proper content of children's stories. His total rejection of this thinking once The Hobbit had come out is one of the reasons why we have such a marked division between the nature of elves in his earlier and later published works. One of the reasons, since his interest in the developing legends of Middle-earth had clearly grown to such an extent by the time he sat down to write a sequel that he was unable to maintain a distinction between the Shire stories and the legends of Beleriand, and came to combine the two. This was unfortunate for The Hobbit since it transforms it from a charming and well-conceived children's story into an episode of the Matter of Arda, in which niche it does not sit at all comfortably.

I'm not sure that there's any significance in the difference between the perceptions of Elrond and Galadriel among the mortals of LotR. Elrond has clearly taken more of an interest in human affairs, particularly in his relations with the Northern Dúnedain, who are his main mortal contacts. The attitudes we see in LotR towards Galdriel are expressed by Rohirrim, who are separated from Rivendell by the Misty Mountains. If word had ever come to them of Imaldris, it would have seemed a myth after passing through so many mouths (after all it had become a legend in Gondor, where written records were kept that went back to Isildur's time). Also, being hidden in the wilderness, Elrond's people are less accessible to prying eyes and minds, and less likely to be the stuff of dark local legend; but Lórien is close enough to Rohan to be feared. Perhaps Celeborn and Galdriel were just unlucky to acquire such excitable neighbours.