Lament for the Elves

[Lord of Angmar]

I agree wholly with what you have said Bêthberry. Not only would Tolkien never stoop as low in his writing as to have one of his characters insult another by calling them feminine or 'girlish', he probably would not even understand why someone would do so. Calling a man 'womanly', or, as it has been so un-eloquently put, a 'nancy' (which is really a disgusting term when you learn its origins, which I'll admit I did not know before this thread began), connotes the idea that the man being insulted is somehow weak, feeble, cowardly, or just overtly feminine in the traditional sense of the word. Since in Tolkien's writing many of the most powerful characters are women (Galadriel, Eowyn, Luthien, etc.), and since none of his female characters display any of the stereotypical qualities of Victorian femininity, any such insults would be meaningless.

I do not mean any of the above to offend or upset the RPGers who used such terms; it can easily be forgiven since, admittedly, the movies (and traditional mythos behind 'elves') have turned the Lord of the Rings Elves into somewhat effeminate creatures in the eyes of many.