[Rune Son of Bjarne]

I must join the chorus of people who are not genre readers, and therefore cannot say anything about the patterns of development withing fantasy.

It seems clear that Tolkien is the most influential fantasy writer there is, and some argue that he is the father of the modern genre.

One has to remember, that even though Tolkien him self did not invent his concepts, he altered many of them, and any subsequent fantasy seems to be based on his depictions. The way elves are depicted, is probably the best example of how Tolkien significantly altered an existing concept, and how it caught on.

I have read some modern fantasy, that had clear elements of copy-paste when it came to story-line. Still, I am convinced that the popular fantasy authors can mostly be placed within the confines of "inspired by".