[Kalimac]

Very interesting - I hadn't really thought before about all the ways in which Elves were potentially vulnerable (basically, I'd been under the impression previously that it was Heartbreak, the Sword, or nothing. Obviously need to crack open my dusty copy of the Silmarillion again). But - dare I suggest it - could it be that Tolkien was being a little inconsistent on the poisons issue? After all, there are a number of poisons - strong ones - which essentially work by either giving you a disease or a disease-consistent cause of death (sorry, hope that isn't too confusing). Like the foxglove example I gave earlier; it would be poison, but it would also be legitimate heart failure. And for another odd example, what about something like uranium poisoning? I realize this is very out of period, but what uranium poisoning does is give you a very medically real case of cancer. Would this mean that Elves are only vulnerable to poisons which don't relate somehow to natural illness? Because that's a pretty short list.