Quote:
Originally Posted by Inziladun
That exposes a good deal of double-standard, if not outright hypocrisy, of the part of the Green-elves of Ossiriand. Consider their complaints about the arrival of Men in Beleriand to Finrod:
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So for the Noldor and Teleri, hunting was tolerated, but Men were reviled for it. Very telling...
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Not necessarily. Granted, nothing in this quote suggests that the Green-elves did any hunting at all, it would be easy for them to distinguish between the presumably more humane approach of the Noldor and Sindar on the one hand and the "wholesale slaughter" (to exaggerate slightly) of Men on the other--just as it's possible for modern vegetarians to distinguish between pre-Columbus Native American hunting practices and the kind of hunting and animal-raising that Europeans brought to the scene.
None of which is to suggest in any way that the Edain were anywhere as bad as the slaughter wreaked on the Great Plains bison, for example, but the Green-elves were certainly capable of distinguishing between the actions of their estranged kin and that of the Aftercomers. And, in any case, there is ample evidence that the Green-elves were not particularly close with the Noldor or Sindar--"tolerate" seems an appropriate term for their relationship, provided it still has some of the sense of "put up with."