Wood Elves

[narfforc]

O Elbereth Gilthoniel!
We still remember , we who dwell
In this far land beneath the trees,
Thy starlight on the Western seas.

'I am Gildor,' answered their leader, the elf who had first hailed him. 'Gildor Inglorion of the House of Finrod. We are exiles, and most of our kindred have long ago departed and we too are now only tarrying here a while, ere we RETURN over the Great Sea

The elves that Frodo and Sam see in the movie look more like The Elves of Imladriss rather than the rustic Silvan Wood-elves of say Thranduils realm, in saying that will we see elves of more elequance within The Elven-King's Hall in the Hobbit movies or will they be dressed ala Legolas. What has always worried me about Gildor is that he names his company 'Exiles', when the Ban was lifted after The War of Wrath. Some Noldor, notably Galadriel refused to return.....is Gildor a sef-imposed exile? therefore he can return when he takes the fancy. Anyone who wishes to know what High Elves are should read The Silmarillion.

[Galin]

Originally Posted by narfforc

What has always worried me about Gildor is that he names his company 'Exiles', when the Ban was lifted after The War of Wrath. Some Noldor, notably Galadriel refused to return.....is Gildor a sef-imposed exile? therefore he can return when he takes the fancy.

Galadriel was still under special ban for her role in the Rebellion but I think Gildor is stating his status as an Exile (of the Etyañgoldi) rather than meaning he is still not allowed to return. As you noted, he is tarrying -- possibly at the request of Elrond?

I remember reading in HoME that Finrod replaced Inglor as the name of a son of Finarfin, doesn't Inglorion translate as Son of Inglor/Finrod in that case it is another of Tolkien's slight errors, as Finrod didn't have any children. Part of Finrod's Quenya name is Ingoldo, anyone have any answers?

Tolkien went back and forth as to whether or not Inglor/Finrod Felagund had children: it seems that at the time of writing The Lord of the Rings (or at least in the time 'surrounding' this general period) Inglor Felagund had a wife and children, and in notes to the QS manuscript even Gil-galad was his son. In early workings of the text Of The Rings of Power And The Third Age Galadriel was a daughter of Felagund the fair and the elder sister of Gil-galad.


In any case, Tolkien hadn't published that Felagund was named Inglor, though he muddled the picture of the first edition a bit, because there 'Finrod' was Galadriel's father and Felagund her brother.

Anyway, Gildor as the son or descendant of an Elf named Inglor isn't necessarily problematic. In the revised conception one might argue that House of Finrod should have been revised to House of Finarfin, but I would suggest that Nos Finrod perhaps became more known, or more 'popular' in Middle-earth, due to the circumstances (Finarfin remained in Aman), and also the popularity of Finrod Felagund, Friend of Men.

[Blind Guardian]

Originally Posted by narfforc

Anyone who wishes to know what High Elves are should read The Silmarillion.

I did.

Originally Posted by narfforc

What is Sacred 2?

A game. There are High Elves in it. I don't remember there being High Elves in the Sil.

Originally Posted by Galadriel

Forgive me, I don't quite know what you're talking about

Sacred 2



I didn't realize a joke would bring so much confusion...

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Blind Guardian

I don't remember there being High Elves in the Sil.

The High Elves - aka Calaquendi - are the ones that went to Valinor: Vanyar, Noldor, and Teleri

[Galin]

High Elves can have two types of reference in my opinion:


A) Most often High Elves = Tareldar, the Elves that went to Aman, and thus in Middle-earth the returning Noldor.

B) But also it sometimes refers to the Eldar or 'West-elves' and thus includes the Sindar -- as opposed to the East-elves.

I think Frodo (at least arguably) can be said to use 'High Elves' in the sense of B here, because the Sindar would use the name Elbereth as well... even though, again from an external perspective, Tolkien wrote this line when the language scenario was quite different.

[Evisse the Blue]

Well....that part in the movie when Frodo says 'Wood Elves' always makes me laugh because it's silly. Mostly it's the way he says it, like those 'wood elves' are some extinct or elusive species of the woods which must not be alerted to their presence / disturbed out of their habitat. Secondly because from the first time I saw it in the Extended Edition, I understood exactly the thought process at work here, to introduce the 'elves' from afar to the non-book reading audience, who have no idea what elves are and name them '...wood elves, because they happen to be in a forest, right? This way the audience won't be confused at all'. Also as Sam and Frodo watch them from afar in awe, they appear as visions of light and splendor, much like the book-reading audience envisions High Elves. The NBR audience would just assume all elves are like that, be they the wood, hill or dale species. High fives all around!