The Queen of the Elves in Front of the Elven Palace : The Kingdom of Istyald

Like Merlin, elves are ambivalent creatures in the Middle Ages. They can be benign or wicked, depending on the story. But in modern fantasy novels, written at a time of nature being threatened by industry and pollution, they become almost exclusively — with rare exceptions — positive creatures, especially since the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, who has them living mostly in forests and in dwellings perfectly integrated into the landscape. Today this imagery is widespread, to the point that the elf in this illustration is dressed in clothes made of leaves and plants