The Hobbit - Chapter 03 - A Short Rest

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

What do Elves smell like? Bilbo’s remark makes me wonder. We do find out how they rhyme – with a lot of nonsense! There have been past discussions on how to reconcile “Tra-la-la-lally” with “The Lay of Leithian”; this is your opportunity to share your opinions. We see them laughing – a huge contrast to the melancholy Elves of the Legendarium.

I'm very much inclined to think of this rhyme, which so clearly describes our adventurers' exact conditions at the time, as the elves having a bit of sport with Bilbo and dwarves. Why must we always think that art, song, music reflects the feelings of the authors? Why don't we consider that the artists might be thinking of the feelings of their audience and playing with that?

After all, Gandalf has told us he has sent news of their arrival ahead, so why wouldn't the elves be inclined to take a comic look at the brave lads who would fight dragons but who can't find a path in the forest?

Yes, I think this is it. Elves are very much so superior that they must find some kind of game or play on which to expend some of that intellectual and aesthetic energy. Not that they mean to be cruel or unkind, just that, well, they have all this excess energy in them and they must work it out some way and what better way than to create nonsense verse that puts their audience--Bilbo and the dwarves--in a perspective very much different from that which the adventurers themselves feel about themself?

Come to think of it, elves might make very excellent internet monkeys, as least these elves might. They are, after all, tricksome creatures of the perilous realm.

Originally Posted by Lal

Rivendell is also a much more welcoming place than Lothlorien. This is possibly as it is located in a safer place, Galadriel's realm being closer to Mordor, but even though it is out of the way and quite difficult to find, it is still open to those who need to find it. Men, Dwarves and Hobbits are welcomed here - it is something of a strategic centre in Middle-earth, and a haven too.

Hmm. I wonder, too, if the nature of the leader also has an influence in how these retreats are viewed? The authoritative male figure is seen as a supportive fatherly figure while the goddess figure is much more ambivalent?