You missed what I said (ironically). Practically all FRPG elves have Tolkien as their ancestor. He established a 'look' which was human-sized or taller, slender and with pointed ears, being more advanced and long-lived than most of the other races.
Faerun elves are certainly a variation on this. They are not, for example, small and mischievous like English folklore traditionally portrays them, or sinister creatures of shadow as shown in such tales as Beowulf. Nor are they the álfar of Norse mythology, or spirit creatures like in German folklore. They are not Celtic nature spirits or brownies, pucks or any of the other variants of 'elf' that history and folklore portrays. They are not even the odd creatures of Harry Potter.
Tolkien took elements of elves from various folklore sources (mainly Scandanavian) and established how 'his' elves looked, behaved and their place in Middle Earth and the wider world. Tolkien's influence on AD&D is unmistakable and deeply-ingrained; the ranger class, halflings (and halflings being good burglars), ents, balrogs, elves, the list goes on. This was established back in the 1970s, and subsequent AD&D/D&D gameworlds and editions have built upon those origins.
Yes, Faerun elves have Tolkien elves as their ancestors.
Exactly I completely agree with you. I think the problem is that some DnD fans are too involved with the franchise where they want to separate the Tolkien influence from DnD's original work. Unfortunately I keep finding elves that remind me of Tolkien's elves. Here's an image of a Ranger Guard Elf from Pinterest that someone drew based on the current DnD 5E handbook.
