Re: Non-stereotypical elves was Re: Quick Intro

Wesley Parish wrote:
>On Saturday 22 February 2003 02:25 am, you wrote:
> > Wesley Parish wrote:
> > >At last, someone who's put some thought into "Elves".
> > >
> > >I remind myself of the times I was warned in Papua New Guinea about
> > > masalai -
> > >forest spirits - who'd eat me if they caught me; and Tolkien's Quenyar
>are
> > >essentially forest spirits with a touch of the Christian Church's
>Angels
> > >about them.
> >
> > Apart from that Tolkien's elves are called "Quendi", I find that
> > characterization extremely odd. Certainly, some of them were more than a
> > bit fond of forests, but "forest spirits"? That sounds alot more like
>the
> > Ents.
>
>Sorry about that Quendi/Quenyar mix-up.
>
>"Forest spirits"?  If you go into Western folktales and folklore and
>suchlike,
>you'll find that "elves" are spirits who live in the woodlands. <
>Related are
>the sea-spirits (Selkies) in (mostly) Scottish folk-lore - or at least,
>they
>are the ones that spring to mind at the moment.  And Tolkien can hardly be
>accused of being as ignorant of that as some of the more contemporary
>"Fantasy" authors appear to be - "Sword of Shannara" springs to mind.
>
>Of course, he mixed it in with a lot of potent myth, including his own
>Christianity, and as a result, the Elves became so much more.
I'll happily concede that Tolkien's Elves owe alot to folkloristic elves of
the "nature-spirit" kind, including forest-related ones. But, as you say,
they became so much more. The Quendi, as portraited in The Lord of the Rings
and in The Silmarillion, can hardly be called "forest spirits", or even
"essentially forest spirits".

                                                       Andreas

_________________________________________________________________
Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*.
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail

Reply