Concerning Elf-friends

[HerenIstarion]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

err to go a long way back.... I am fairly sure that frodo had met elves in the shire before meeting gildor's company... it was one of the reasons he was considered "odd"

Pretty good point. But the case is, by that time, even as modern titles have changed their meaning, so the 'elf-friend' did. Meeting elves is one thing, being named an Elf-Friend another, pretty much as in older times anyone huge and strong enough to become a leader of a warband could have been termed as 'duke' (that is, dux = leader), but look at modern dukes now. Or, in other words, meeting the Her Majesty, even if we have tea together any odd evening, does not make me a knight unless I'm knighted.