I was conversing with a friend today about modern literature, and we discussed the classic fantasy books (LotR, HP, Narnia Chronicles etc) and we began to wonder who created the first prominent novel in this genre. He thinks the first real classic may be LotR, hence the dwarves and elves question, and I concurred. Can anyone shed some light on this situation, or point me to a thread that does (I currently cannot find one). Thank you very much!
Could you specify what you mean with the adventure fantasy genre? Fantastical tales of adventures are probably as old as humanity itself. See the Epic of Gilgamesh, for example. But I don't think that's quite what you mean.
Edit: In the mean time, I found this thread https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/9of58v/what_was_fantasy_literature_like_before_tolkien/?utm_source=reddit-android in which /u/AncientHistory talks about which works of fantasy inspired Tolkien, with further links to the topic of the origins of elves and dwarves.