Fantasy Counterpart Culture

[Inziladun]

Did Elven society have any real world correlation?

I think Tolkien may have discussed this a bit in Letters, but it seems to me that mostly Elves represent his idealized views of the best parts of Mankind.

They don't appear to generally possess negative traits; the one I see repeated is a feeling of superiority over other races. I think that's an unavoidable consequence of having immortal beings in cohabitation with those who quickly grew old and died.

To the Elves' credit though, we don't see them taking that superiority to the point of conquering and enslaving.