Elven female warriors

[Lalaith]

I believe you will get your wish, Vanya, if you read the Fall of Gondolin in the Lost Tales, Vol 2. There's an account of Idril Celebrindal in hand-to-hand combat with Maeglin. (She was fighting to save her child, Earendil, whom Maeglin intended to throw into the flames.)
This was, interestingly, one of the very earliest of Tolkien's works, written in around 1916.

Edit: It's a long time since I read LT and I only have Vol 1 to hand. I apologise, particularly to our splendid New Silmarillion scholars, if I've got anything wrong.

[Vanya]

To Lalath: I delayed reading HoME (LT as well) since it's not translated in Serbian. I find it difficult to read Tolkien in english, espetially Sil and UT ( I tried but I couldn't dive into it, when I had to consult the dictionary).
Maybe I'll try that particular story.

[Knight of Gondor]

I should hardly think less of the elves if they did not wish women to fight! Back in the medieval times, it was a great honor to defend realm, house and family.

I would assume that, contrary to modern day times, the women did not WANT to fight. These days, they want to, if for no other reason than to prove they're as good. The Elves/Men in Middle-Earth did not chose to fight, they had to. Why would the very people they protect join in the fight?

[Elianna]

A good point Knight of Gondor, about maybe women not wanting to fight. I seriously think that a whole stinkin' lot less wars would be fought if we had to go chop up each other with swords and arrows to win.

[Saraphim]

I agree with your remark, Elianna, that war is alot less personal than it used to be, and that people might think twice about fighting if it meant picking up a sword or bow.

Anyway, back to the subject.

I enjoyed reading Morgoth's Ring immensly because of the insight it gave me as to how the elves lived on a day-to-day basis. I was impressed to see that Tolkien gave the elven women the same status as the male elves.

I suppose my comment is that not all the elves fought, including many elven women. Many elven males did not take up weapons either.

Hmmm. I just had a thought. Perhaps the males were trained to be offensive warriors, while the women were trained to be defensive; to protect the homes or fortresses if ever they were attacked.

But that's just speculation on my part.

[Bêthberry]

I should hardly think less of the elves if they did not wish women to fight! Back in the medieval times, it was a great honor to defend realm, house and family.

Actually, Knight of Gondor, back in medieval times, women followed the armies. That is one reason why Joan of Arc had such a difficult time being accepted as a military leader.

[Silmiel of Imladris]

I don't know much about most of the stories you guys are refering too, but I feel that elf women did more on the magical front than actual fighting. Galadriel was the most powerful but there were probably others who could do many of the same things on a smaller scale. Besides elves as a whole hate wars, many of the men probably didn't fight either.