I normally define high vs low fantasy as a setting, differing by the level of magical infusion to the fictional universe -- a world where magic is thoroughly em

I normally define high vs low fantasy as a setting, differing by the level of magical infusion to the fictional universe -- a world where magic is thoroughly embedded into its structure is high fantasy (eg magic is not simply a power source of wizards, but a system that influences all things, and magical creatures/objects are the norm, not the exception). The closer you get to reality -- the more magic becomes a tool, rather than a rule ala gravity, the "lower" your fantasy gets; the lowest essentially being the one guy who stumbles into magical powers, but no one else has anything close, or a portal dimension opens and thrusts magical creatures upon our universe for a bit. tolkienesque would be more specifically the tropes of LOTR, as you've described. But essentially any modern high fantasy film/tv/game (I don't read much fantasy, so I can't comment on books) either mimics tolkien's systems and races (elves are slender long-lived creatures of the forests, dwarves are short hole-digging mountain-men, glowing weapons and runes scattered throughout the lands, wizards as wise-men etc), or it is best described as a reaction to tolkien -- deliberately trying to be NOT-tolkien. In my mind, the failure to detach wholesale from tolkien, but still exist as "high-fantasy", is because few attempt a more holistic attempt at it -- to craft the rules of the universe, run the (mental) simulation, to set the stage for whatever plotline. Instead the world is crafted in the void, but because the rules are never clearly defined, it naturally defaults to similar rules as tolkien (randomly broken to fit the story, because they were never defined well-enough to review). However, there are stories more derived from gods & myths that would fit my given definition of high fantasy, though I'm not sure I'd put them under the same umbrella as tolkien