Somehow I imagine the Elves (at least in the latter days) as being more the upper class merchant class--in that they bartered for the goods they didn't produce themselves, such as foodstuffs (I can't picture Elves ploughing either), with the exquisite jewelery, woven cloth, embroidery, etc. that they turned out? Is this realistic? Not so much that they couldn't work hard, but did they have the open land available to produce food? (I suspect Tolkien didn't think too much about it, just as "upper class Bostonians" didn't think too hard about where their eggs and meat were from!)
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"And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed on into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water."
-The Return of the King
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