Did the Eldar eat Dwarves?

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

Well, it may not be a coincidence that Tad-dail is so similar to Tarka Dal. Best be careful what you eat at a Noldorin barbeque.

Although it's not expressly denied in any text, this idea of the Noldor eating dwarves feels wrong to me. I think that it's suggested by the word hunt, which Tolkien uses fairly regularly to describe chasing down enemies. For example, Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas become the Three Hunters when chasing Uglúk's merry band, but I don't recall them toasting up Uruk burgers on the edge of Fangorn.

Huinesoron has identified the possibility of either clothing or hands identifying the quarry as something more than an animal, and it would seem to me that a butcher gets a fairly close look at the kill. Enough at least to constitute catching sight of it in a clear light. Anything left lying dead in the wilderness will be eaten very quickly (nature tidies up well), so I doubt that abandoned bodies would constitute much of a health risk. Also I'm by no means convinced that if the hunting itself can become widely known among the Dwarves, feasting on the corpses can be kept a secret. Even Mîm has no record of it in his litany of grievances, yet it seems that the hunts are common knowledge. Who would need to be kept in the dark anyway? These were mere cunning animals after all: who hides their bacon from a pig?

All this is conjecture, though. To be honest, dark though he could be when the mood took him, Elves eating Dwarves doesn't sound much like Tolkien. He called the Noldor Gnomes for years to emphasise their wisdom, and where they fall into evil he portrays it as tragic. Cannibalism, even the eating of other rational beings, is something he assigns to Gollum and Orcs, and has Saruman ascribe to Wormtongue. It's something bestial, sub rather than superhuman, not consistent with his apparent view of the Eldar. While it might have been as unknowing as Túrin's incest, something tells me that this idea is one so serious that he would have done something with it had it occurred to him.

[Rhun charioteer]

They likely hunted them both in response to attacks and for sport, not food.

[Inziladun]

Maybe it's also notable that when Turin's band of outlaws captured Mim the Petty-dwarf, it was noted that Mim "bit like a beast". Androg marked Mim as either an Orc or something akin, despite being close enough to have been himself bitten by him. Turin spared Mim, noting the beard and recognizing him as a Dwarf, though it's a fair certainty the outlaws would have killed him without a second thought.

[Huinesoron]

Speaking of Mim, checking in Children of Hurin I find that Khim took an arrow to the chest, and yet still managed to make it the rest of the way home (a full day's journey for Turin's company), and live through to the following evening. Dwarves, even Petty-Dwarves, are hardy folk, and the arrows of Elves are unlikely to bring them down where they can be examined closely.

Unrelatedly, I note that one reason the elves so strongly rejected Petty-Dwarf personhood is probably those beards: Elves as young as they were didn't grow them, so 'hair on the face' wasn't something they knew a person could have.

hS

[Andsigil]

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

Unrelatedly, I note that one reason the elves so strongly rejected Petty-Dwarf personhood is probably those beards: Elves as young as they were didn't grow them, so 'hair on the face' wasn't something they knew a person could have.

hS

I thought Cirdan had a beard (?). Though it was probably less glorious and manly than mine. One would have to go to Erebor or the Iron Hills to find one to match.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Andsigil

I thought Cirdan had a beard (?). Though it was probably less glorious and manly than mine. One would have to go to Erebor or the Iron Hills to find one to match.

Círdan's beard seems to be a special case among the Elves. The possible reasons for its existence notwithstanding, perhaps it was a relatively recent adornment for him (ie, post Second Age or so). First Age Círdan could have been beardless.

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Círdan's beard seems to be a special case among the Elves. The possible reasons for its existence notwithstanding, perhaps it was a relatively recent adornment for him (ie, post Second Age or so). First Age Círdan could have been beardless.

The earliest confirmed beard is Mahtan's, who had one before the death of the Trees. If you take Tolkien's weirder writings into account, this grew early in his second stage of life (out of three), and was highly unusual; Cirdan's was an old-age third-stage beard. Tolkien Gateway speculates that the first stage was childhood and adolescence, ending at age 100; that means beards could have been seen on Elves hundreds of (what would later be) Years of the Sun before they left Cuivienen. But I'd hate to lay money on it.

Delving deep into speculation: Tinfang Gelion (AKA Tinfang Warble) appears in the Lay of Leithian, pegged as one of the three greatest musicians of the elves (my pet theory is that he was actually the composer of the Lay, and name-dropped himself into it). His name means 'Spark-beard', and the 'Gelion' suffix suggests he was a native of the lands beyond Gelion - in other words, one of the Nandor of Ossiriand. If his beard was an actual beard, he was either a very elderly musician (and the poem does say 'who STILL the moon/enchants on summer nights of June'), or he was another early-beard-grower.

One final stab in the dark: 'tin-' means 'small star/spark'. It's not a word you'd use to describe a colour, so I wonder whether 'Tinfang' means something like 'star-spangled beard' - in other words, a salt-and-pepper colouring. Given that we've never heard of elves with multicoloured hair (thank the stars!), that would suggest that Tinfang was old, and that his beard appeared even as his hair was turning silver-grey.

hS