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05-10-2014, 08:17 AM | #1 |
Shade of Carn Dűm
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 265
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Are Elves vegatarian?
Did Professor mean Elves to be vegatarian? I'm on the 8th chapter in The Hobbit, Flies and Spiders. The Hobbit and the Dwarves find some elves while journeying in Mirkwood, and they are mentioned eating "meat". Meat has only one meaning. I thought Elves were vegies, weren't they?
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05-10-2014, 08:39 AM | #2 |
Gruesome Spectre
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Heaven's doorstep
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The Noldor in Beleriand in the First Age were said to be hunters, and I would presume that they did not hunt only for skins. Elves in general did not shun eating meat, but perhaps certain communities, like the Green-elves of Ossiriand, who used the excuse that arriving Men from the east were "hunters of beasts" as a reason to dislike them, might have stuck with vegetarianism.
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05-10-2014, 08:54 AM | #3 |
Shade of Carn Dűm
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 265
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Elves were spiritual, and spiritual people/creatures refrain killing others for their own benefit, be it for food. Elves, being First Born, were not supposed to do so, as they did not smoke.
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05-10-2014, 09:03 AM | #4 |
Wight
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: far away,in the southern arda
Posts: 153
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But they do drink wine,like galion,thranduil and the wood elves.
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05-10-2014, 09:19 AM | #5 | |
Gruesome Spectre
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Heaven's doorstep
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Quote:
As for the smoking, that was a habit peculiar to western Eriador, attributable to Hobbits, that had not even been introduced until the Third Age. Only those, like the Men of Bree and the Dwarves who commonly dealt with Hobbits, were likely to have taken it up, or even known of it.
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05-10-2014, 10:24 AM | #6 | ||
Wight
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: The best seat in the Golden Perch
Posts: 219
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Post-LotR work on the Silmarillion (published in Morgoth's Ring) indicates that the Elves certainly did hunt, the most telling quote being:
Quote:
Quote:
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05-10-2014, 08:20 PM | #7 |
Shade of Carn Dűm
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 265
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I did not say being Firstborn would keep them from killing or hunting. It was a general question since Elves were the most spiritual creatures, and they loved nature. So their affection towards natural things i.e. Trees and Animals etc. would be dear to them. They instead of hunting or killing, would preserve them.
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A short saying oft contains much wisdom. ~Sophocles |
05-10-2014, 08:22 PM | #8 | |
Shade of Carn Dűm
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 430
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Quote:
They were quite perverse in their own way, when you look at the race with some caveats--even weirdos at times. They're also Elf-tossers: Turgon threw Eol off the crags in Gondolin after Aredhel was slain by a poison arrow. Last edited by Ivriniel; 05-10-2014 at 08:52 PM. |
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05-11-2014, 05:22 PM | #9 | |
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 1,033
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Quote:
On a time was Turin at the table of Thingol there was laughter long and the loud clamour of a countless company that quaffed the mead, amid the wine of Dor-Winion that went ungrudged in their golden goblets; and goodly meats there burdened the boards, neath the blazing torches ... The question might be: did JRRT change his mind with respect to The Lord of the Rings and later? For myself I do not think so. I see no reason to think that Legolas did not partake of all the 'flotsam and jetsam meal' for instance. And I think it's implied in The Fall of Gondolin (early 1950s version) that Voronwe and Tuor will eat meat in order to survive. An argument might be made for the Green Elves of Ossiriand however: according to the Quenta tradition, the Nandor of Ossiriand heard that a lord of the Eldar from over the Sea was among Men, and they sent messages concerning these new folk, part of which included: 'And these folk are hewers of trees and hunters of beasts; therefore we are their unfriends,...' But it was Finrod who had met Beor and his Men due to hunting with Maglor and Maedros, so if these Green Elves did not hunt, others did. Of course I realize that hunting and eating meat are not the same thing, but for myself I would need some fairly convincing argument to split that particular hair. I say yes, Elves ate meat |
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05-12-2014, 01:34 AM | #10 |
Animated Skeleton
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Rivendell (duh)
Posts: 37
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I'd imagine that Elves would eat meat. I don't think the majority of them would have had an issue with killing animals for food- It is completely natural to do so. I think they would have shunned at hunting purely for pleasure or sport but for something as, dare i say, useful as food... i think it would have been okay.
However, like humans nowadays, there would have been elves who were vegetarians, but, like today, it probably would have been an individual's choice. (p.s. no offence to anyone who does hunting as a sport. I did not mean to offend you and if i did i sincerely apologise) |
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