Quote:
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Originally Posted by Esty
No, that would be Maiar who can choose their appearance, not Elves.
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I thought that sounded odd, but I am not a lore person, and so I never make judgments.
Ah, so they did eat meat in
The Hobbit! Thanks for the quote,
Estelyn.
And you are quite right,
Lal, that came out as a generalization. I just happen to know a couple people who are vegetarians for health purposes. But...duh, I forgot...carbohydrates are the things that are supposed to be evil. *rolls eyes*
I think the point about not succumbing to desires is what I first thought of as why the Elves might always be perfectly slender. But it's not just overeating and fast food that causes excess weight in people. The Elves are likely free of disease and insanely slow metabolisms, though, eh? They have it good, don't they?
But the Elves are far from perfect. They are many examples of Elves being "tempted" to go down darker paths, and so I found it difficult to believe that they could and would resist all minor temptations, too.
Perhaps it was simpler, and Tolkien could not have risked having an overweight Elf, or Sam might not have nearly as much awe for them, as he might consider them simply tall hobbits with a little less hair.
The Elves are often considered beautiful by non-Elves (and slender is considered beautiful?), and really that's pretty unfair! Was Tolkien as trapped in the material world as all of pop culture?!
Except, when you look at the other non-human races: Those Hobbits were often fairly portly, and couldn't that be attractive to them? And what about Dwarves? Their concepts of beauty are definitely quite different, I imagine.
Personally, I think there had to be at least one Elf who wanted a little (or a lot of) extra meat on his bones.