Did some of the European members watch the Eurovision Song Contest this evening? I had read preview reports about the various groups, and one that was frequently shown on pictures was the Finnish heavy metal group Lordi. Visually, it sticks out from the rest; my reaction was spontaneous - they look like orcs!
Well, our earth isn't Middle-earth - guess who won?! There's no accounting for tastes, and their song entry for Finland, "Hard Rock Hallelujah", took first place by popular telephone voting all over Europe. And the German commentator who hosted the post-contest show on TV said exactly what I had thought - "Orcs won the Eurovision Song Contest!"
The Norwegian entry had Elves - not costumed as such, just some pretty girls singing and playing Hardanger fiddles (which reminded me of some of Howard Shore's LotR film music). But their song was titled "Alvedansen", which means something like "Elves dancing". Alas, the Elves did not manage to collect very many points...
Isn't it interesting that both of these countries are Scandinavian? It's obvious that the legends that formed the background for Tolkien's works are still active in Nordic regions!