Are Elves vegatarian?

[Mithalwen]

Does it? Sport and food not only reason for hunting - potential threat elimination also possible. Gimli and Legolas hunted many orcs and that was neither sport nor food. I still think it likely that most elves would eat what they hunted and I don't think the sons of Feanor are necessarily typical Elves. Kinslayers are hardly likely to have qualms about shedding animal life. Anyway hunting for sport is hardly evidence of vegetarianism. I can quite see there might be moral objections to killing animals but not eating them once they are dead is just wasteful. No doubt Dean Swift might have made a modest proposal re eating dwarves though I think you would have to cook them very slowly and they would be a nightmare to skin...

[Aiwendil]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

Does it? Sport and food not only reason for hunting - potential threat elimination also possible.

That's true, and I suppose it's possible that the petty-dwarves were hunted because they were thought to be a threat. I think the more straightforward reading of 'Quendi & Eldar' is that they were hunted for sport, but I admit that's not the only reading.

Anyway hunting for sport is hardly evidence of vegetarianism.

Oh, certainly. I was not arguing for Elvish vegetarianism; indeed, there is no evidence of it whatsoever as far as I can tell. The only vegetarian I'm aware of in Middle-earth is Beren.

[Puddleglum]

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

Oh, certainly. I was not arguing for Elvish vegetarianism; indeed, there is no evidence of it whatsoever as far as I can tell. The only vegetarian I'm aware of in Middle-earth is Beren.

Maybe Beorn? TH doesn't explicitly say so, but the only foods I see actually listed served in his house seem to have been bread, honey, nuts, fruits and mead - so perhaps ...

Possibly Bombadil & Goldberry too? They served the hobbits cream, honeycomb, bread, butter, milk, cheese, green herbs & ripe berries.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Puddleglum

Maybe Beorn? TH doesn't explicitly say so, but the only foods I see actually listed served in his house seem to have been bread, honey, nuts, fruits and mead - so perhaps ...

Possibly Bombadil & Goldberry too? They served the hobbits cream, honeycomb, bread, butter, milk, cheese, green herbs & ripe berries.

Gandalf did advise Bilbo against mentioning the word "furrier" within Beorn's hearing, suggesting that Beorn was very possibly not in favor of killing animals, and the lack of meat at his table seems to support that.

As for Bombadil, he doesn't seem to have kept any animals, other than Fatty Lumpkin, and meat wouldn't appear to have been otherwise available to him.

That said, it might be hard to say sometimes whether vegetarianism in Middle-earth, whether it existed or not, was a conscious choice of lifestyle, or simply borne of necessity when groups had no ready access to meat.

[Tar-Jêx]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Gandalf did advise Bilbo against mentioning the word "furrier" within Beorn's hearing, suggesting that Beorn was very possibly not in favor of killing animals, and the lack of meat at his table seems to support that.

As for Bombadil, he doesn't seem to have kept any animals, other than Fatty Lumpkin, and meat wouldn't appear to have been otherwise available to him.

That said, it might be hard to say sometimes whether vegetarianism in Middle-earth, whether it existed or not, was a conscious choice of lifestyle, or simply borne of necessity when groups had no ready access to meat.

In medieval times, it was hard to be a healthy person without eating meat. For the peasants, meat was a luxury, but they weren't vegetarian.

[Galadriel55]

I was just thinking of a certain scene in the books (sadly don't have books with me, can't quote, but would appreciate if somebody did) from Flotsam and Jetsam that may be of interest. What kind of food do Pippin and Merry offer? They don't have much - beer, bread and honey, ham. Nothing says that or dear Legolas specifically did not eat the ham, but I've always assumed everybody ate everything.

So if it makes you happy, you can debate whether Legolas was surviving on bread and honey or if his behaviour proves that Elves are not vegetarian. I don't really feel like arguing it either way.

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by G55

So if it makes you happy, you can debate whether Legolas was surviving on bread and honey or if his behaviour proves that Elves are not vegetarian. I don't really feel like arguing it either way.

Honestly I’m not sure why anyone does, at this stage, as it seems to me that the case was closed a long time ago. I think it’s worth pointing out that the original question arises, not from anything Tolkien wrote about his Elves, but from Jackson's portrayal of them in "Unexpected Journey". The OP was puzzled at the discrepancy between this and the description in the book of the Wood Elves feasting on “roast meats”.

[Alfirin]

Originally Posted by Tar-Jêx

In medieval times, it was hard to be a healthy person without eating meat. For the peasants, meat was a luxury, but they weren't vegetarian.

Particularly if you are not really agrarian, as some of the elves probably were not (i.e. I not sure ALL the elves had farms around). Getting enough protein to stay alive is hard unless you are actively growing something you can stockpile, or live in a tropical region where there are seeds and nuts of some sort year round. That's one of the big reasons that most of the major agrarian societies relied so heavily on legumes of one kind or another. Once your population gets big enough that major meat consumption for everyone is not longer feasible, you NEED that pulse crop to make up the gap. Or why I say "Contrary to what most people thing, a hill of beans amounts to quite a lot." Even dairy can only get you so far, as you have to make sure that you dairy stock is perpetually lactating (not always easy to do, if you can't convince your rams and bucks to do their job on a given doe/ewe or you're a peasant family with only one or two milk cows who needs to find someone ELSE with a bull to "freshen" her.) or get really, really good at making hard cheese. It's a little hard to imagine Beren spending his whole autumn gathering nuts and acorns with the mania of a squirrel, but that is probably what he would have to do I he had really committed to a no meat lifestyle (unless I am right, and the animals got so close to him that he could milk the deer and collect the unfertilized eggs of the wild birds. and even those would be seasonal)

[mhagain]

Originally Posted by Alfirin

Particularly if you are not really agrarian, as some of the elves probably were not

Most of the Noldor and many of the Sindar were actually quite urbanized. Elves (or at least the Eldar) appear to have liked living in cities.

Tirion-on-Tuna, Alqualonde, Gondolin, Nargothrond, Menegroth, Ost-in-Edhil, Caras Galadhon, Mithlond, even Thraduil's caves - they were all cities.