Re: Elliott's peoples

Quoting Joe <joe@...>:


> > Sally Caves wrote:
> > >How do elves get associated with pointy-ears, for instance?  In
> some
> letter
> > >of his, IIRC, Tolkien inveighs indignantly against such
> interpretations
> of
> > >his elves, and insists that they have no such deformities in body
> or
> limb.
> > >And I think it was about things like pointy-ears, not the
> diminished
> size.
> >
> > But in the Etymologies, didn't Tolkien himself comment upon the
> > similarities of the roots for "leaf" and "ear" (both LAS-, IIRC),
> saying
> > that the Quendi's ears were "leaf-like"? Thus, "pointy"?
> >
> > Dan
>
> You can get round leaves.  Not very common, though.  He could have
> meant
> that they are thin.
Could be. But it's clear his conception of the Elves evolved - in some of the
earliest stuff (which can be found in the earlier volumes of the History of
Middle-Earth series) there are pretty clear indications that he indeed
originally thought of the Elves as physically small and, well, faeriesque - just
the kind of ideas he'd eventually come to dislike.

                                                         Andreas