pointed ears

[Duncariel]

I just have one question for the Fantasy World. Who decided that the race of elves have pointed ears. I haven't been able to find out. Thanks.

[Rumil]

I believe Tolkien said the elf ears were 'leaf shaped' (In HoME somewhere).
Now, as to the exact shape or degree of pointiness implied, this would surely depend on the species of leaf involved. I hope it wasn't maple!

[Duncariel]

LOL. smilies/biggrin.gif That's great. It would really suck to have a bunch of Maple-eared elves running around.

[Dain]

Strange, because if he said it in HoME, then how did it become the widespread view, since HoME isn't all that well-read except among fanatics like us. I think it probably comes from the faeries, gnomes and pixies and other mythological elf-type-things that had pointy ears, and so they've kept them. (There's probably an old thread on this somewhere.)

[Vardamar]

Did'nt you know.
Eru is a big STAR TREK fan, and decided to make the elves look like his faviorite characters, the Vulcans! smilies/biggrin.gif

[Bill Ferny]

There's probably an old thread on this somewhere.

Of course there are smilies/smile.gif

This (http://forum.barrowdowns.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=001071) thread is a pretty good one.

However, this (http://forum.barrowdowns.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=000905) thread, while shorter, has a great post by Elenhin that answers many of the questions in the other thread.

It would be great if someone were to resurrect either one of these threads!

[ February 16, 2003: Message edited by: Bill Ferny ]

[Dain]

There isn't too much on either that is easily resurrected, though they are both good discussions. I think basically they make a case for elven ears being more pointed than human ears if anything at all. The subject of Elven procreation has been resurrected elsewhere, I think...

[Inderjit Sanghera]

HoME 5:

*lasse 'leaf': Q lasse, N lhass; Q lasselanta 'leaf-fall, autumn', N lhasbelin (*lassekwelene), cf. Q Narquelion [ KWEL ]. Lhasgalen 'Greenleaf' (Gnome name of Laurelin). (Some think this is related to the next and *lasse 'ear'. The Quendian ears were more pointed and leaf-shaped than [human].)

This shows the Tolkien's early Elves may have had pointy ears, but as for the latter one sof LoTR and the Sil, we don't know.

[Peri]

Tolkien never mentioned it. I think PJ did it so that you would get more of a feel for their elf-ness.