From: alderson@cisco.com (Rich Alderson)
Subject: Re: Elven Anatomy
Originator: alderson@leland.Stanford.EDU
Reply-To: alderson@cisco.com (Rich Alderson)
Organization: Cisco Systems (MIS)
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 93 01:52:27 GMT

In article <92366.102452IO10407@MAINE.MAINE.EDU>, ROB <IO10407@MAINE writes:
>  This past weekend a friend and I had an argument over whether or not
>Tolkien's Eldar had pointed ears or not.  He took the position that
>Elves have traditionally had slightly pointed ears and thus appear that
>way in a wide range of literature. I stood by the fact that Tolkien
>never did actually state that his Elves did have such ears and referenced
>"The Silmarillion" (Ch 12, page 104, Of Men):
>     In those days Elves and Men were of like stature and
>     strength of body...
>     ...and in those days they were more like the bodies of Men...
>
>Our argument was never resolved.
>
>  After doing some reading in "The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien", I came across
>the following passages:
>
>	Also I now deeply regret having used Elves, though this
>	is a word in ancestry and original meaning suitable
>	enough. But the disastrous debasement of this word, in
>	which Shakespeare played an unforgivable part, has really
>	overloaded it with regrettable tones, which are too much
>	to over come. (page 185)
>
>  Is this to reflect an older tradition of Elves being pointy eared pixies
>that prance in the woods (and build toys at the North Pole), and are but
>knee hight?

I'm a little confused:  Which "this" are you asking about?  And older than what
tradition?

>  A letter dated earlier that same year, 1954, had this to say:
>
>	They represented a race similar in appearance
>	(and more so the further back) to Men, and in former
>	days of the same stature. I will not here go into
>	The differences from Men! But I suppose that the
>	Quendi and in fact in these histories very little
>	akin to the Elves and Fairies of Europe; and if I
>	were pressed to rationalize, i should sat that they
>	represent really Men with greatly enhanced aesthetic
>	and creative faculties, greater beauty and longer
>	life, and nobility...(page 176)
>
>  Aiya! Here we have something to build upon. Again there is the reference to
>Elves being "similar in appearance..to Men" and they are "little akin to the
>Elves and Fairies of Europe". I think it is plain here that Tolkien was
>establishing the physical stature of the Quendi, as we have come to know
>them, and also resolving the state of their ears. "Little akin" must refer
>to the European Elf/Faerie size and anatomy, small and pointy eared. It's a
>thought, if only a weak one....

It's *always* been clear that the Elves were similar to Men--Tolkien even calls
them "Man before the Fall" in at least one place.  This pointy-eared nonsense
arose because the brothers Hildebrandt and their ilk watched too many episodes
of _Star Trek_ and decided that "better than human" must mean "pointy-eared."
-- 
Rich Alderson   'I wish life was not so short,' he thought.  'Languages take
                such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about.'
                                                        --J. R. R. Tolkien,
alderson@leland.stanford.edu                              _The Lost Road_