Honestly Terry Pratchett just went back to the roots with his elves, elves and fae are basically a collection of minor spirits to gods in their own right on a mythological level they also run the mortality spectrum from the being downright nice like the green knight/green man to actively hostile to all humans. Similarly dwarves were seen as mountain gods/spirits, frankly pre-christian Europe and even post Christian Europe was so steeped in animism which is why you get so many things under such weirdly broad umbrellas.
All these supernatural things had varying beliefs attached to them in different times and places… So there’s really a lot of choice as to what to attribute them in fiction.
Norse dwarves weren’t necessarily small, elves sometimes were, both were often magical in some way - the words used were interchangeable in some ways.
Honestly Terry Pratchett just went back to the roots with his elves, elves and fae are basically a collection of minor spirits to gods in their own right on a mythological level they also run the mortality spectrum from the being downright nice like the green knight/green man to actively hostile to all humans. Similarly dwarves were seen as mountain gods/spirits, frankly pre-christian Europe and even post Christian Europe was so steeped in animism which is why you get so many things under such weirdly broad umbrellas.
All these supernatural things had varying beliefs attached to them in different times and places… So there’s really a lot of choice as to what to attribute them in fiction.
Norse dwarves weren’t necessarily small, elves sometimes were, both were often magical in some way - the words used were interchangeable in some ways.
*morality
Well the green knight/ green man is famous for having his head chopped off. But also I hate autocorrect.