A new view on elven ears
 

Now then, look at your ear. See the bit of the lobe under your earhole? Right, good. Now, in say 70 years of living, gravity pulls that bit down. Lets say that somebody who was 70 had 2cm of that earlobe part. A very young elf of only 700 would have 20 centimetres of earlobe, presuming that gravity worked the same before the world was made round. So a 3000 year old elf (leggy) would have abot a metre of earlobe-thingy. And really old elves, like Cirdan, would have their ears down to the ground. Didnt this cause a problem in fighting, and being graceful? did they tie their ears in bows to keep the out of the way? How and what did they do to deal with the situation?

Well, I guess that because they didn't age, their ears didn't age. But if they did, I'd say plastic surgery for all.

do your ears hang low, do they wobble to and fro. *ahem* sorry. [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img] yes i'd have to agree with Horse-Maiden on that one. i dont really think they had that problem.

The elves aged, but only very slowly. However, this ear thing has nothing to do with age, its because of gravity, which pulls down your ear.
So if the laws of gravity were the same on the straight world, then every 70 years the elves' ears would grow 2 centimetres. (Thats a rouggh estimateby the way, let me check my grans ears)
Yes, I think 2cm in 70 years is about right.
It just amuses me how long the elves' ears would get. I guess that once their ears reach the ground theyd stop growing.

I'm actually pretty sure that it has nothing whatsoever to do with gravity. If that was the case, our noses would droop, too. Our fingers might as well. The thing is, the cartilage on one's body continues to grow throughout one's lifetime. This means that your ears grow all your life. It is for this reason that many elderly people have large ears. That's probably the reason (I hope). Elven genentics are probably different, anyway. So I doubt any of this affected them very much.

Didn't Bilbo have rather large ears...

Gravity pulls your ears down? *giggles* makes sense, though. But I keep thinking of Legolas, who is rather bouncy, meaning that he tends to float around, therefore evading the laws of gravity, so his ears are not yet going to grow down. And living so high up a la Celeborn and Galadriel must have evasive qualities... they practically live at the top of the Faraway Tree, and that is pretty darn high. Surely they are reaching the moon by now, meaning there is less gravity.

Guy who be short, how do you come up with these ideas anyway? Do questions like this just float around in your head all day? I have to admit though, it did give quite a comic relief to my day when reading. But I would have to agree with Luthien_Tinuviel on this one.

[ June 22, 2003: Message edited by: Eruwen ]

Yes, these are the things that keep me awake at night. [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img] I dont really know how I thought this up, I just remembered the random info about ears and linked it in with my obsession with LotR. Thus this topic was born.

You have way too much time on your hands.
I don't think elves' ears would grow down to the ground. In stead, what if they grew up? There might be something about the elves that makes their ears defy gravity. Then after 3000 years, they'd have really, really pointy ears.
That made no sense. If no one understands that, I'll try to explain better later. [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]

That's an interesting theory, but don't the ears point out from the top? So how would that work?

I believe he was referring to the ear lobe in which case, would an elf know that it was ready to vanish if you will when it's ear touched bottom? [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img] [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

[ July 08, 2003: Message edited by: ElenCala Isil ]

Don't you mean he? vanish?

[ June 22, 2003: Message edited by: Alatariel Telemnar ]

I don't think that Elves' bodies worked the same way as ours. After all, they do walk on snow. I don't think their earlobes dragged on the ground if they were as old as Galadriel and Cirdan. But if they did, that would be funny. They'd probably braid them into their hair to hide them or something.

They could... that be funny, Galadriel say something like, 'Celeborn, honey! Can you come help me? I can't fix my ears. I just can't get them to braid in with my hair...'

Heehee... [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]

[img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]
Good one. Hehehe. This can be turned into a long and serious debate: do ears grow because of cartilage or because of gravity? Either way, Galadriel's ears cover the distance from Aman to Middle Earth by now
[img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Oh, dear...

I am a little confused but thats OK because I stopped trying to understand people a long time ago. Anyway back to the ag-ing slowly for elves. I do believe that I have read that somewhere in some book along the line but I don't really get it. If elves were to age just slowly they would die after a while like mortals. *Shrugs* [img]smilies/confused.gif[/img] It seems to me that the elves age for awhile and then stop. Well whatever the really answer elves have to age sometime or they would be kids forever. Ok now I am probably making everyone else confused too so I will shut up.

I agree, I think elves age like humans till a certain point where the aging just stops... good idea Silmiel. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Are you insinuating (sp?) that my ears will touch the floor? I think I'm, lets see, 3,074 this summer, and my ears haven't grown at all!

That's 'cos you're in a movie. [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] The real legolas will have ears that reach the floor. I'll try and find evidence in a week or so.

hahaha you guys are funny. I never really thought about that. And for someone with my screen name, mind you, I do think about Elven Ears alot. hehehe. That's really interesting, I look forward to seeing your proof! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] Although, they are probably right about the slow aging thing.

maybe elven ears' lengths are porportionate (sp?) to their pysical age. For example, elrond happened to be a man, then my guess is that he would be around 40-50 years old. therefore, his lobes aren't that long yet.

if this sin't true, then elven ears are too pure to be lengthened by mere gravity.

oh my god! I dont even want to think about old elves and their ears! thanks guy who be short! i am going to have nightmares! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Everdawn, why would you have nightmares about elves? Elves cannot be part of a nightmare. Unless they get hit in the nose by a hammer or something... anyway, I have found one piece of writing on the net about this:
But thats a "probably"!
Must get proof...

Im going to have bad dreams about old elves running around with ears dragging along the ground! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] , nah, i will probably just laugh. But yes, it is an interesting view on elvish ears none the less. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

Since elves are magical, mystical people who aren't human I dont think that they would have a problem like that.

wow, this is late.. yes he.. and it might be a somewhat humourous concept if, by the time and elf's ears touched ground they knew it was time to sail off to the undying lands along with all the other long-lobed elves.. or perhaps they measured them, and when they reached a certain length they sailed off to the undying lands.. yes, that could be it.