Zigūr, I agree with you about the existence of '
this curiously common assumption that Elves were averse to manual labour'.
It made me think about the similar assumption that Elves were vegetarian, as shown in the first few seconds of this clip from the first of Jackson's adaptations of
The Hobbit,
An Unexpected Journey, when Bilbo and the dwarves are in Rivendell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovKDk7ZaXSw
