Re: CHAT: Tolkien (was Re: fantasy)

Ed Heil:
> Having just done some reading up on Tolkien FAQs about all this, let
> me tell you what I found out:
>
> 1.  Tolkien doesn't say anything one way or another about pointed
> Elvish ears, but that's certainly a reasonable reading of the fact
> that the words for "ear" and "leaf" are identical or nearly so in all
> the Elvish languages.
Aren't even human ears sufficiently like leaves for the one to be
described as the other?

And then there's "ear of corn". And knowing Tolkien's etymological
games, it wouldn't be surprising if he was playing some sort of
game based on the moderately well-known (to linguists) fact that
auricular "ear" and corn "ear" come from different etyma. I
myself do not have the subtlety of thought or the depth of
knowledge to suggest what the joke might be, but quite possibly
he was just emulating the situation in English, as if to indicate
that the convergence in form is natural rather than accidental.

> 2.  In a letter giving instructions for the illustration of "The
> Hobbit," he says that Bilbo's ears are not quite as pointed as Elvish
> ears.  While he is probably talking about stereotypical rather than
> Quendi elves at this point, this seems to suggest that Hobbit ears are
> a bit pointed, and if Hobbits' are, why not Elves?
>
> So I'd say that pointy elven ears are not exactly demanded by the
> text, but they're hardly an atrocity (as making the elves tiny and
> clothed in flower-petals would have been).
>
> 3.  In several places Tolkien makes it very clear that Hobbits are
> supposed to be a variety of human rather than a separate entity
> altogether as are the elves and the dwarves.
Are elves a separate entity. I don't have my Silmarillion with me,
but I thought hobbits are a variety of Men, and Men and elves are
of the same "species", while Dwarves were independently created,
and Orks are bred from elves.

--And.