Delusions of Grandeur

[Error: unknown template qotd]Umm... how about Tolkien's Lord of the Rings? Most of fantasy's mainstays originated with him: cheery and down-home halflings, twisted, light-hating monsters in their ravening hordes, and most of all, the Elves. What fantasy novel has Elves as anything else than tall, inhumanly fair, usually blonde (although silver or "dark" is also common), living in trees (usually organized into enchanted groves), immortal, loving and revering nature and animals, extremely skilled in magic, having their own special (and usually magical) language, inscrutiable, declining, fabled warriors, and having pointed ears? It takes a long time to get their dander up, but when you do, watch out!

And then there's other stereotypes, such as the dwarves (short, gem-coveting, elf-disliking, clannish axe-wielders) and humans (greatest potential to swing back and forth between good and evil) that are so ingrained in the genre that they cease to be stereotypes and just are.