[the phantom]

I'm not understanding what part of the whole hunting business you are having trouble with, Kuru.

There are Elves living in the wild. At night these little grotesque creatures attack the Elves and run away. The only sounds they make are throaty growls and grunts. They never made any effort to say "hello" or even make the Elves aware of them. They simply attacked and killed by surprise- something that evil creatures (orcs) or animals would do.

And when the Elves caught one alive it just growled and grunted at them and tried to bite. What reason would they have to believe that the thing was at all akin to them and somehow capable (or deserving) of reasoning and conversing with?

Also remember that the elves of the wild had an extremely limited perspective compared to you and I. We know all about Men, Dwarves, Elves, Ents, and Hobbits- but they didn't. Given the circumstances I don't really think I can find much fault in their actions.

There are always those silly idealists that love to sit where they are with their information and hindsight and judge events such as these. They lack the ability to put themselves into the situation and view it as the participants viewed it, and ignore the current information/hindsight they have access to. Don't be one of those people, Kuru. Strip down your brain and think simply from the perspective of an early Elf.

Here are the basic thoughts of an average Elf regarding Petty Dwarves.

Animals and evil creatures sometimes try to kill us.
When that happens we kill them in order to survive.
These new ugly little creatures attacked us one night. They killed my brother and daughter.
We fought back and killed some of them.
They continued attacking us at night or whenever one of us was alone.
So we started tracking them down and killing them.

Honestly, Kuru, can you find any fault with those thoughts? Can you blame that Elf?