Food of the Elves?
What kind of things did the elves in ME eat? We all know of lembas, but what else? I can picture many soups and breads, but I'm sure that there are some exact things out there.
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I would assume they ate the same foods as the rest of the inhabitants of middle-earth, with the exception of lembas. I think Tolkien would have made it known if they ate other types like he did for lembas.
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There have been threads on this before and people end up arguing whether or not Elves would have been vegetarians. Just thought I should mention that so we might strike up an argument [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
I assume they have agriculture and have domesticated animals, but I think they hunt and maybe forage a little. To support my theories I present that Oromë hunted in Valinor and Elves knew of the healing abilities of athelas. |
Well, I don't know about striking up an argument, but could you point me in the direction of some evidence that the Elves had agriculture. I can't recall any mention ever being made of any fields or farmlands that belonged to the Elves. Of course, for that matter I can't remember that any Men were described with regards to their farming, except for Hobbits. The only other one that I recall being mentioned with relation to agriculture was Sauron, oddly enough. It would be interesting because so many Elf kingdoms were in the woods, and many Elves preferred a nomadic lifestyle.
The Elves certainly had horses, but whether they were domesticated is a bit murky because all animals were "tame" for Elves. As for hunting, the Wood-elves were hunting for stag in the Hobbit so they did do that. [ May 19, 2002: Message edited by: Kuruharan ] |
I think it is safe to say Men had agriculture. But we are talking about Elves here. Granted not all Elves would have been farmers. So I submit that Elves had a truly advanced form of agriculture where only a few had to work and they could exploit very little land and still have a bountiful harvest able to feed all the Elves of the given kingdom, along with supplemental food from hunting and gathering and any domestication of animals. The hunting and gathering thing is a given, we know they do because Tolkien wrote about it. The thing is, he didn't write about it very much. Maybe he didn't think it was important aspect of the stories. Also, his stories center around kings and warriors, a farming elf doesn't have any place in his works. Moving on to animal domestication. Dogs and horses both were, there are numerous references all through the texts. I don't feel like getting into it very deep right now, so just reply with all the mistakes you see with my post. I guess I will have to post again later.
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Since lembas is described as a wafer, I think that we can also assume that they grew grains of some sort. Quote:
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As for the question of whether the Elves had agriculture, did not Galadriel give Sam a box of soil from her orchard?
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This is from Morgoth's Ring:
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In the Hobbit:
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They certainly do. Thank you very much to you and Raefindel. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
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well this is from the silmarillion....of the coming of men into the west....in regard to hunting....
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twinkle [ May 20, 2002: Message edited by: twinkle ] |
Thank you all for this. It's very helpful. I have trouble remembering such things.
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Most elves weren't vegetarians, as most of the quotes above prove, but there was a small faction of elves called the Green Elves, or Laiquendi, that were. I don't know what happened to them. They may have been eventually assimilated into the other Elven cultures or simply died out. They shunned the killing of other living creatures, hence the nature of the quote that Twinkle posted earlier.
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That sounds kinda silly to me, because if you think about it, even vegetarians , though they don't shed blood,kill to eat.
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Very nice quotes, Rae [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]. For some reason I always think of the Elves as drinking ambrosia even though I know that's a completely different mythology. Still, miruvor isn't so very far away from ambrosia, is it?
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I'm an elf, and I like Pop Tarts! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] Sorry, I couldn't resist! (please don't kill me!)
[ June 05, 2002: Message edited by: Nevfeniel ] |
Ahh, your already dead [img]smilies/evil.gif[/img] Elven pop tarts sound good to me! Elves had to have agriculture, since Glorfindal took an army of 10,000 out of Rivendell for the Battle of Fornost, they couldn't forage for that many plus their families. They must have had livestock as well since dried meats were used for journey's. Lembas were made in Lorien, not in Rivendell.
[ June 05, 2002: Message edited by: Elrian ] |
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