Re: CHAT: fantasy (was: Re: history of conlanging)

Christophe Grandsire a ecrit:

>        Funny, Didier Willis (a fellow conlanger, some may remember him, who
>has no time to see us on the list) gave me once a booklet with a few
>articles about LotR where one of them says exactly the thing you say. It
>says most of all that the title of Gandalf "the Wizard" should be taken
>etymologically ("the wiseman") more than as its modern meaning ("the
>sorcerer") and complained that the magic of LotR which was more a kind
>of poetry (like it was said about the Elves) had become so utilitarian
>in other fantasy stories and in roleplaying games (it didn't say that
>such kind of magic was wrong, it just complained that people made a
>connection between it and the one in LotR, where there was none). 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).
Pointed ears for Elves?  Sacrilege!  Tolkien himself says in no uncertain
terms that the Elves were completely human in form and biology - that
in fact the only essential differences between Elves and Men are (a) Elves
are immortal, (b) Elves lack what a theologian might call 'original sin' (i.e.
Elves are inherently good), and (c) the fate of Elves at the End of the
World may be different from that of Men.  Also, Elves are on average
more beautiful than Men, and apparently don't have to sleep.  But that's
about it.  I think that at one point Tolkien remarks that Elves are like
"Men before the Fall".

If they stick pointy ears on 'em in the movie, I will be very upset!

Matt.