Elven Characteristics

[Dulgakhôr]

Professor gives a bit about elven appearance in "Laws and Customs among the Eldar" (published in "Morgoth's ring (HoME 10)). In this he states that childrens of Men and Eldar seems alike in spirit (untainted by evil of the world and burden of memories), but...

This same watcher might indeed have wondered at the small limbs and stature of these children, judging their age by their skill in words and grace in motion. For at the end of the third year mortal children began to outstrip the Elves, hastening on to a full stature while the Elves lingered in the first spring of childhood. Children of Men might reach their full height while Eldar of the same age were still in body like to mortals of no more than seven years.

I guess you can fish out few more such pieces in Tolkien notes, but its extremely unlikely he left a more detailed description of physiology- it was simply not very important to him, and some fans found this frustrating:

"It seemed to men that Sauron was great, though they feared the light of his eyes. To many he appeared fair, to others terrible; but to some evil." (The Lost Road p. 67)
Thank you, Professor. And what did you say the color of his hair was?

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Dulgakhôr

I guess you can fish out few more such pieces in Tolkien notes, but its extremely unlikely he left a more detailed description of physiology- it was simply not very important to him, and some fans found this frustrating:

In Tolkien's defense though, he did get pretty detailed at times on both persons and places; he just was selective on the things on which he chose to elaborate.

I personally have never been overly concerned with the sometime lack of information on personal appearances. Imagination is a large piece of what makes reading enjoyable to me. I don't want to know everything.

And by the way, welcome to the Downs!

[Galin]

Here's one that not only helps with Elwe, but describes some characteristics of the Noldor and Sindar. I break the text to add a paragraph here.

'Elwe himself had indeed long and beautiful hair of silver hue, but this does not seem to have been a common feature of the Sindar, though it was found among them occasionally, especially in the nearer or remoter kin of Elwe (as in the case of Cirdan).

In general the Sindar appear to have very closely resembled the Exiles, being dark-haired, strong and tall, but lithe. Indeed they could hardly be told apart except by their eyes; for the eyes of all the Elves that had dwelt in Aman impressed those of Middle-earth by their piercing brightness. For which reason the Sindar often called them Lachend, pl. Lechind 'flame-eyed'.'

Quendi and Eldar, War of the Jewels

From the same text we know that though the Vanyar were the smallest clan [at least early on], they were 'mostly' golden or yellow-haired. I can't really find any late references to how tall they were in comparison to Men, or to other Elves, although maybe I'm missing something there.


I have found a number of general references to hair colour and tallness, but not for example, to hair style [see the thread 'hairy-pottering' for instance], except a few when in reference to a particular Elf. Tolkien even introduced red, or red-brown [or coppery coloured] hair among Nerdanel's kin, and at least a couple of references to a 'ruddy' complexion. JRRT even altered some of the names of Feanor's sons to match up with this new hair colour detail [which has caused a fair amount of confusion or at least conflation on the web in my opinion]...

... but anyway Tolkien still leaves plenty to the imagination I think.


And there is yet again the matter of external chronology. For another example, the text on Elven children from Morgoth's Ring might have been superseded by later description that appears to indicate Men and Elves grew to adulthood at basically the same rate. Laws And Customs is a relatively late text too, but JRRT could take even a long held idea and 'suddenly' discard it, as he did with the mode of Elven reincarnation for example [in other words he revised the mode in which Elves are reincarnated, not the fact that they were reincarnated].

For some time [which might not be not much longer than the time it took to write the text itself] JRRT even mused on changing the meaning of the term Noldor to refer to hair colour!

But then he went back to having it mean 'Those who know'

For another instance, in one text [see Words, Phrases, and Passages in Parma Eldalamberon] Tolkien writes that no Elf had absolutely black hair, but in a later text he simply uses the word 'black' when describing the hair of certain Elves.

We might keep in mind that JRRT was certainly free enough to change his mind if something had not already been published. Sometimes his changing ideas can be confusing, but he didn't know that so much of his texts and notes would someday be so available to his readership.

What's the interweb? For example