With which Middle Earth Race do you most identify?

[littlemanpoet]

Posts are of course welcome to explain or describe.

What traits of the race do you identify with?

[Lhunardawen]

I answered Elf. I had thought at first that my answer would be "human," no doubt, and saying "Elf" would be nothing more than wishful thinking. But I realised that I'm too attached to life despite its fleeting nature, but through not much effort of my own, unlike the Numenoreans who grasped at anything to hold on to their lives in realisation of their mortality. For me, it just seems to be that way. (Maybe that's because as a Biology major, I study life. )

I could be wrong, but somehow I can more easily associate my melancholic disposition with Elves than Men. I tend to think too much - of the future, of the past, to the point of being overwhelmed and wondering why some things have to be.

[littlemanpoet]

I voted human. I'm certainly intrigued by the others, but I'm inescapably human. I agree with your sense about Elves, but I have "beyond the walls of the world" so much in my mind that I cannot be Elf nor Dwarf; I have not the patience of Ents and I have not the lightheartedness of Hobbits. I have the melancholy associated with Elves, but not their wisdom or craftiness. But it's the 'beyond Arda' thing that tips the scales for me.

[Lhunardawen]

Hah, I knew I missed something about humans. But then it seems, if it didn't get to me the first time, the "beyond the walls of the world" feeling isn't too strong for me. I feel there's too much to do in life to give the "beyond Arda" thing more than light consideration and acceptance of its eventuality.

[mormegil]

I think personality wise I'm most like the dwarf of M-e. They tend to be rather serious but can be of good humor. They tend to be a bit snappy at time, so do I. Plus they are so rugged and handsome...well so am I!

[smeagollives]

May be with hobbits (but i think not with the normals ones... may be with the a little bit less typical ones like Bilbo).

Also with dwarves. I like handicrafts just as they do.

another reason why i identify with hobbits and dwarves is that i am not really big. I like books with small heroes.





I was never able to identify with the men in middle earth. Don't know why.

[The Sixth Wizard]

Ent. When I hear of the gross environmental mistakes made in the world, and I hear all the fluff about how it will affect jobs and how it will affect the economy and how in the long run the forest/resource/species wasn't needed or interesting, I think to myself well, why not save it just because it lives and is part of the world? Plus my family are all massive greenies and I'm slower and more reclusive than many people I know. Oh and I love history.

[Aganzir]

I've never actually considered myself anything else than a dwarf. I behave like a dwarf (whatever that means) and look like a dwarf (even though for some reason I'm unable to grow a beard). I've also heard more than once that my sense of humour is just so dwarvish.

When I was a child, I hated elves passionately for a year or so. I guess it was rather due to that everybody else seemed to think elves were oh just so perfect and wonderful than that I'd actually have hated them. The movies had just come out and the word 'elf' meant people like Orlando Bloom (who isn't elvish at all!). And in the movies dwarves were treated, well, very disrespectfully - Gimli was nothing but a joke, his main function was to make the viewers sneer and laugh at both him and the noble race of dwarves. I was terribly angry with this and I doubt I would've felt as I did towards elves had I never seen the movies.
Childish? Maybe, but it wasn't funny at all to see how Peter Jackson treated dwarves.

When I started roleplaying at the age of 12, my first rpg character was a dwarf. I remember how it upset my GM and fellow players (who wanted to play young and pretty women)- "You really want to play a dwarf!? And a male dwarf? You must be crazy!". But I'm quite sure I wouldn't have enjoyed roleplaying as much as I did (and still do) hadn't I decided to have a dwarf character.

I can't understand people who think dwarves are somehow worse persons because they're short, bearded, sullen, greedy or whatever. Not everybody need be "perfect". That someone doesn't understand why a certain person (be it dwarf or something else) has done what he did doesn't mean that what he did was wrong. I once argued with a friend for a whole two-hour bus ride about whether Mîm was evil or not. Some weeks later I heard my friend had been arguing about the same thing with her cousin who was reading The Silmarillion back then - and this time my friend had shared my opinion about Mîm. It was funny to listen to her complain about her cousin who had said Mîm is evil "without understanding his motives to do what he did". Yeah, didn't we have the same discussion a while ago?

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

One thing, elempi. Shouldn't you have discerned Men and Dúnedain? Just a thought.

For me... well. Using an elimination method, I would say who I don't identify with: the Hobbits and the Dwarves (sorry Agan... but it's not for the reasons you mention). The immediate thing, and I believe many of my friends would think so, is an Elf. Though personally, I am not so sure. I would say Elf because I like them, why not, and I have certain Elvish traits no doubt - the sort of a melancholic, fantasy-view and dream-weaving, but there are other things that restrain me from it. I am not probably that much tra-la-ley and not that im-mortal(meaning: not that distant from mortal things). My no to the Elves is totally opposite to that of elempi's: I cannot be Elf because I am too tied to the reality of the world, here is my place and I have to be here.

Now I know some would like to see me confess to being an Ent, but in fact, when someone asks me about races in ME, I would think about Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves and Men (and Dúnedain), but not Ents, so... I don't know. And I don't think, given the question, that I have most Entish traits either.

So, it looks like Man for me. Had there been that Dúnadan option, I wouldn't have taken it either: I feel myself more amidst the "common folk". All these Easterlings in Beleriand (the good ones), Breelanders and Dunlendings, people of Nurn, men from the White Mountains... I like Northerners but I am probably not one of them. Only that...

...there is one race still. I don't know how it may sound: funny, nontypical, maybe it could seem arrogant from certain point of view. But I feel that maybe this is the race where I'd feel most at home, whose traits are the closest to me. Again, please, do not interpretate it the way that I am arrogant or something like that. That "race" is the Wizards.

But it will be on everyone to judge if that's plausible

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

One thing, elempi. Shouldn't you have discerned Men and Dúnedain? Just a thought.

Ha! I'm not the only one.

I voted human. With a very strong Numenorean slant. So yeah... Human, trying and failing to be more Elven. But still better than the average human.

[Nerwen]

Yet another Elf.

I think I'm possibly one of the annoying tra-la-la-lally kind, though.

I always have identified with Tolkien's Elves, even as a child. I'm not quite sure why. Maybe it's just because I'm tall and thin. Or maybe it's because I'm an artist and think Profound Thoughts (I do! Really, I do!) but can act silly...

[Lindale]

I voted Elf, though I look like a cross between a Dwarf and a Hobbit. I like their sense of art and longing, and it seems to me that they are the most philosophical of all, unless maybe the Dunedain? Not the tra-la-ly elves also, but the artists and philosophers (but Tolkien never actually used the word philosopher, wonder why?), the sadness that is not emo especially is very inviting to me. Ah well. The girl who identifies herself as an Elf but actually looks like a misshapen Hobbit with unruly black hair.

[TheGreatElvenWarrior]

I couldn't be a normal hobbit though, I would be a Took, because sometimes they go on adventures and also there is something not quite hobbitlike about them!

I think I am a very good hobbit, not just because I am not very tall at the moment (i am still growing), but also I have a passion for food. Although I'm loud and noisy most of the time, I do like some sort of peace (that is why I lock myself up in my room away from the rest of the family and read for hours and hours on end, or not talk to anybody and go on the 'downs), and I hate change. Although I am not old enough to drink alcohol, I still like very good root beer and will party like theres no tomorrow. I will also let all of my problems go for a while and have fun! I also like bright colours, such as yellow and some greens, just like hobbits. ... Oh yes and I HATE heights with a passion.

Oh and I also like Samwise and Peregrin enormously!

Of course, my mom says I would be a great elf, because of my long and slender body shape and my silky (when I brushed it) long hair. Also because I think a lot.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Hmmm. Now I don't know whether I should not vote Elf after all. Oh my, the famous choice is upon me. Well done, elempi, you managed to get me to an in-book situation. Heck, I don't know, really. Could not someone choose instead of me? It would be easier Hmm, which reminds me of...

Then Eärendil said to Elwing: "Choose thou, for now I am weary of the world."

I can say I understand Eärendil. So probably, that's where I am now: still in the pre-choice state.

[Lhunardawen]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

Hmmm. Now I don't know whether I should not vote Elf after all. Oh my, the famous choice is upon me. Well done, elempi, you managed to get me to an in-book situation. Heck, I don't know, really. Could not someone choose instead of me? It would be easier Hmm, which reminds me of...

I can say I understand Eärendil. So probably, that's where I am now: still in the pre-choice state.

Too bad you don't have an Elwing to help you decide (and practically decide for you).

[Bêthberry]

I must congratulate elempi for the wisdom of this poll. He omitted orc and troll, therbye limiting any potential problems caused by the likes of spammers, trolls (hey, there's a real identification ), monkeys, hacks, and just your plain garden-variety jokers. Sometimes, you just have to ruin some people's fun.

I must ponder the inclusion of ent, though. Not because ents aren't a race in Middle-earth, but because I wonder whether ent includes entwives. I notice that elempi carefully sidestepped this issue of gender inclusiveness by using human rather than the term Tolkien himself used, man, or men. But since entwives are differentiated from ents, does that not suggest that ent refers only to the male form of the species? (Assuming that trees have male and female gender and not some other biological expression of reproduction).

After all, we don't have elfwives or dwarfwives. (Do we even have female dwarves?) What does this naming suggest about the race of ents? Does the poll need a separate choice of entwife?

I notice also another omission, one probably due to the enigmatic difficulty of categorizing his race. And that of his wife. I speak, obviously, of the omission of Tom Bombadil and Goldberry from this list. Are they a race unto themselves or do they belong with the Ainur?

[Meriadoc1961]

I am human, but I identify mostly with the Hobbits. My two favorite characters in the books are Merry and Faramir.

Merry

[The Might]

I took Hobbit, becaue like Hobbits I greatly enjoy the finer things in life, a good beer, nice food and the comfort of a nice evening together with my friends. The only thing about them that I can't identify with at all is their lack of interest for the outside world and lack of adventure (with some exceptions).

[littlemanpoet]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

I must congratulate elempi for the wisdom of this poll. He omitted orc and troll, therbye limiting any potential problems caused by the likes of spammers, trolls (hey, there's a real identification ), monkeys, hacks, and just your plain garden-variety jokers. Sometimes, you just have to ruin some people's fun.

I actually did consider their inclusion, but discluded them ultimately on the ground that they are, in Tolkien's mythos, degradations of the originals.

I must ponder the inclusion of ent, though. Not because ents aren't a race in Middle-earth, but because I wonder whether ent includes entwives. I notice that elempi carefully sidestepped this issue of gender inclusiveness by using human rather than the term Tolkien himself used, man, or men. But since entwives are differentiated from ents, does that not suggest that ent refers only to the male form of the species? (Assuming that trees have male and female gender and not some other biological expression of reproduction).

Entwives are, of course, Ents. Just because females of our own species are called WO-man does not mean we fail to include them in the race of Men. Of course, in this era we always say Human, but Tolkien didn't.

I notice also another omission, one probably due to the enigmatic difficulty of categorizing his race. And that of his wife. I speak, obviously, of the omission of Tom Bombadil and Goldberry from this list. Are they a race unto themselves or do they belong with the Ainur?

I am no authority other than that based on my creation of this poll, but for the purposes of this thread, Tom and Goldberry are excluded on account of them being (in my opinion) among the Ainur.

Originally Posted by Selmo

The only thing missing is the hairy feet.

Give it a few years....

Eomer, how soon will your choice of Ent make your significant other an Entwife?

[Lhunardawen]

But would she really identify most with an Entwife?

[Cailín]

Nah, she wouldn't. As a matter of fact, she absolutely despises gardening.

[Elmo]

I didn't vote as you couldn't vote for orc.

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

Elmo the orc? Hmm....

I admit that when I first joined the Downs I was nothing other than a Human with a mix of Entish, Hobbit and Elvish sympathies, but now from all appearances I am a thorough hobbit. This is has been lately verified by my daughter, who when describing her parents to classmates got the response, "Oh, your parents are hobbits!" Of course, she probably said something along the lines of "short", "plump", and "food is very high on the list of priorities". Thankfully, she was raised to observe decorum and doubtless did not make mention of the hairy feet.

[Elmo]

i think it has a ring to it anyway

[Galadriel]

While I'd love to say an Elf, the truth is a Hobbit Quirky, a little more than odd, food-loving (I don't look it though), a bit of the Tookish side for adventure, and a love for fields of grass and trees and countryside

If I were an Elf, I'd probably disgrace myself for being so clumsy and weird