Re: Elves and Ill Bethisad

Jan van Steenbergen scripsit:

> One perhaps stupid question (I have been away for a while, so forgive me):
> I understood these Elves are entirely human; so what makes them "Elvish"?
It was they, or their ancestors, who gave the Germanic speakers the idea of
Elves in the first place, with their tall and thin bodies, their forest-dwelling
habits, and their comparatively (to barbarians) high technology.
Apparently they were once more widely spread.  When the Anglo-Saxons came
to Britain and met the remnant population, they promptly identified them,
essentially correctly, with the _ylve_ of their folk traditions.
They are of course the survivors of the pre-Celtic population.

IB-JRRT was part Elvish on his mother's side, and decided to write a big book
fictionalizing the traditions of his ancestors, after spending many years
studying (and somewhat conlangifying) their language after IB-Joseph Wright
advised him to "go in for Elvish, lad -- there's money in it."
(He made the same comment *here*, but about Celtic.)

--
Where the wombat has walked,            John Cowan <jcowan@...>
it will inevitably walk again.          http://www.ccil.org/~cowan