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Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Frankly, I doubt Legolas could have the same affect on lawn as on snow, due to the very different natures of the media through which he would be passing.

True, frozen water and grass are somewhat different. Grass contains a lot of water, but also, unlike H2O, it contains cellulose, which can be found in glasses of water when a natural laxative is prepared, but that has nothing to do with elves as far as we can tell.

The wind created by his passing would produce several consequences. First, the frictional drag could in fact create higher temperatures than the grass could sustain, with the effect that Legolas would leave a trail of burnt grass tips marking his path. One possibility.

Have considered this, and have noted that tornadoes drive, at the very least, particles across grass at very high speeds. I've seen pictures of the devastation left in the wake of a tornado, but have never noted any fires causes by the tornado that weren't generated by other means (downed power lines, petrol/natural gas leaks, etc). So I'm not sure that Legolas's passage would create enough heat to singe the grass tips. Even if it did, not sure how the same would play out on the snow, as one, at the very least, would see meltings where Legolas's slippers touched the frozen water, and so would negate the observation that the elf prince left little to no evidence of his passing.

Also, if enough elves singed enough grass, as surely the First Age elves would have done to a greater degree, we would have seen a response from Yavanna. On the other hand again, we never did discover the purpose of the ent-wives...

On even yet another hand, didn't the touch of Lúthien Tinúviel cause the spontaneous appearance of flowers? So maybe there is something to the toes of fire theory, as some plants, such as Jack pines, require fire to grow (well, to be seeded). Were the elves the 'honey bees' of the forest and grassy plains?

A second would be the effect simply of the sway in the grass caused by the aerodynamic force of his body through the air. This sway in the grass could then create an ever-so-slight beaten path in those areas over which he flew/trod--flod? Yes, perhaps elves do flod. Furthermore, turbulance is a natural effect of movement through air. This could in fact produce a random pattern of grass damage. Not crop circles I would think, but still erratic patches where the grass has been bent.

I'm sure that elven flodding is well-documented in story and song:

The leaves were long, the grass was singed,
The hemlock-umbels tall and flaring,
And in the glade the flames did binge,
On grass and and sticks and nightingale wings blazing.
Tinuviel was flodding there
To the beat of a drummer unseen,
And light of fire was in her hair,
And she danced like her backside was catching.

Either way, I think Legolas and other elves had best graze elsewhere than your neighbours' lawn.

In my neck of the woods, anyone looking like Paris Hilton prancing upon one's lawn is just asking for trouble.