Re: CHAT: Tolkien (was Re: fantasy)

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.

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.

Ed



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                       edheil@postmark.net
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Lars Henrik Mathiesen wrote:

> > Date:         Wed, 24 Nov 1999 09:35:20 +0100
> > From: "Grandsire, C.A." <grandsir@...>
>
> >         I think that everything was furry in the Hobbits (maybe even the
palm
> > of their hands? No, it's another book I read).
>
> IIRC, it was different between the three 'subethnicities' --- the
> Stoors, the Tooks, and I forget. But most hobbits certainly had very
> hairy feet.
>
> I don't think it's not made perfectly clear in the book, but I always
> assumed that these three groups had some admixture of elven, human and
> dwarven blood, respectively.
>
> Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT
marked)