Elves' Ears

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

I picture a fairly human figure, not a kind of 'fairy' rabbit as some of my British reviewers seem to fancy: fattish in the stomach, shortish in the leg. A round, jovial face; ears only slightly pointed and 'elvish'; hair short and curling (brown). The feet from the ankles down, covered with brown hairy fur. Clothing: green velvet breeches; red or yellow waistcoat; brown or green jacket; gold (or brass) buttons; a dark green hood and cloak (belonging to a dwarf). (Emphasis added)

LAS- *lasse leaf: Q lasse, N lhass; Q lasselanta leaf-fall, autumn, N lhasbelin (*lassekwelene), cf. Q Narqelion. Lhasgalen Greenleaf, Gnome name of Laurelin. (Some think this is related to the next and *lasse 'ear'. The Quendian ears were more pointed and leaf-shaped than [?human].) (Emphasis added)

Thanks to the links provided above by the Wight, I saw these citations in the other threads. For me, at least, they do not really put the final nail in the pointy-ear coffin.

1. If these really are the only direct references to pointy-ears, then that's pretty slender evidence to hang such an important feature on.

2. I find them rather uncompelling in their own rights:

2.1 In the first citation, Tolkien is making a comment on Hobbit ears, not Elvish. His only reference there to Elves is extremely indirect -- not only is he referring to them as elves (with a lower case 'e') he even puts them in quotation marks, which means that he is using the word not in its usual sense. Given that he always capitalises the Elves of his world, and that he never refers to them in such a backhanded manner ("The 'elves' of Lorien. . .") I can only conclude that in this letter he is referring to the elves of popular imagination: those pixie like spirits of the wood which have NO relation to the Elves created by Tolkien. (In letter 151 to Hugh Brogan, Tolkien wrote that he came to regret calling his folk Elves since it allied them too closely with these trivial figures of English myth.)


2.2 As to the citation from the HoME, there's all kinds of reasons for me to be unconvinced by it. First, who are these "gnomes" he's talking about? Second, the association between the word 'leaf' and the word for 'ear' is made in a very tenuous manner: "some think." Finally, the final word appears to be an assumption by the editor insofar as it is in parantheses with a question mark. This can only mean that the writing was not completed or that word is indecipherable -- in which case we don't really know what Tolkien meant in this throwaway line. And if the comparison in ear shape is not between Elves and Men, then how can we really draw any definitive conclusions about it?

Against these rather vague and uncompelling descriptions of Elf-ears I would hold up the much longer descriptions of Elves in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (in particular, the description of the Elves in the Appendices) in which no mention is made of pointed ears whatsoever. Why would he reserve such a crucial distinction between the races for one letter and an illegible note in some rough drafts for an unpublished work??

Even among his unpulbished works (during his lifetime) the descriptions of Elves are remarkably devoid of pointy-ears. Nowhere in the Sil or UT do we hear that Elvish ears are anything special or different from our own. In fact, in another letter (#144 to Naomi Mitchison, who was proof-reading the typescript of LotR and so, presumably, Tolkien would want her to get it right) Tolkien describes his Elves:

They are represented as a race similar in appearance (and more so the further back) to Men, and in former days of the same stature.

Just checked in the mirror: I don't have pointy-ears, so I figure anyone "similar in appearance" to myself wouldn't either!

Guess that's settled now.

For my next trick, I'll prove that Balrogs had wings.