CHAT: Tolkien (was Re: fantasy)

At 2:46 AM -0500 11/23/99, Grandsire, C.A. wrote:
 There
>was also a small article in this booklet that went against the belief
>that the Elves of Tolkien had pointed ears (by the way, do anyone knows
>what they are doing for the movie? Will the elves have pointed ears?). A
>small article but a lot of fun (with though a serious background on folk
>fairy tales and such).
I've never understood the pointy-ear obsession. There's no textual support
for the presence on pointy ears on Hobbits or Elves or any of the Races of
middle-earth, and there are also long physical descriptions that would
include such a detail if it were in fact intended.

Furthermore, in "On Fairy-Stories" he expresses distaste for the concept of
the diminutive Victorian fairies most frequently associated with pointy
ears. In fact, I believe that in some of Tolkien's pictures of Bilbo, you
can even see that his ears are round. I'd have to check to be sure, though.

  -- David
_________________________________________
David Durand              dgd@cs.bu.edu  \  david@dynamicDiagrams.com
http://www.cs.bu.edu/students/grads/dgd/  \  Director of Development
    Graduate Student no more!              \  Dynamic Diagrams
--------------------------------------------\  http://www.dynamicDiagrams.com/
MAPA: mapping for the WWW                    \__________________________