Re: OT: elves and jinn (was Re: [...] THE WORLD OF THE JINN)

I've put a lot of thought into the matter, and Tolkien had also done so
apparently, because in the material published by his son Christopher, in the
book "People of Middle-Earth", if I remember correctly, he refers to them
becoming invisible, immaterial beings - there's also something in the
Silmarillion about them being consumed by the fire of their spirits over the
years, but I can't recall the precise point.

So, technically, the elves as we meet them in the Hobbit and the Lord of the
Rings are nature spirits, except for some interesting points that jump
through - like Glorfindel, for example, as Frodo saw him, and the Wandering
Company they met in The Shire, shining with their own muted light, like the
moon below the horizon.  The Silmarillion brings out the fire spirit aspect
with Feanor having no burial because his spirit was so fiery it burnt his
body to ash even as he died.  And the original Glorfindel having the power to
destroy a renegade fire spirit and technically his superior, the
Valaraukar/Balrog, while they were escaping from the sack of Gondolin.

Certainly jinn are a conlang opportunity, and present an interesting challenge
- how would they communicate with humans without destroying them?  Etc.

Wesley Parish

On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 08:53, you wrote:
> On Wed, 15 Oct 2003 22:16:56 +1300,
>
> Wesley Parish <wes.parish@...> wrote:
> > I had read it through the points about the Jinn as fire spirits and
> > thought, that since elves are often referred to on this list  (Elves who
> > in Tolkien's world shared a good many features of fire spirits, with the
> > greatest of the Noldor craftsmen, Feanaro, being named thus for his fiery
> > spirit),  people _might_ be interested in reading about such fire spirits
> > from a different religious and cultural viewpoint.
>
> Well, Tolkien's Elves are not invisible, immaterial spirits made from
> some sort of "smokeless fire", but beings of flesh and blood;
> but then, there are about as many answers to the question "What are
> elves?"
> as there are people you ask, and surely, jinn or similar beings are
> indeed
> a conlang opportunity, and if I am not mistaken, Danny Wier's Techians
> (who are also "mistakenly" referred to as "Elves") are incarnate jinn.
>
> The Elves who speak Nur-ellen, however, are humans, nothing else.
>
> Jörg.
--
Mau e ki, "He aha te mea nui?"
You ask, "What is the most important thing?"
Maku e ki, "He tangata, he tangata, he tangata."
I reply, "It is people, it is people, it is people."