This should be a rhetorical question...

[Amras Oronar]

And af course, people living in that days had too do a lot more then people nowdays. Overweight wasn't really a problem untill cars and stuff (1900+?) came arround I believe. Before that only the rich people were fat because they were lazy and didn't do anything, but I believe the average elve didn't sit arround eating all day, now take for instance a Silvan elf as they being discussed most here. They hunted a lot I believe is said. So, I don't think if you eat only normal meat and vegetables and stuff, and not the big greasy **** they sell nowadays, (I don't believe the elves invented fast food yet....) and go on a hunting party thrice a week, you won't have any overweight either

[The Might]

This does go for most inhabitants in Middl-earth, be they Elves or other races. Still some, such as the Hobbits were quite lazy. Among the Elves we can't be sure how much exercise they got, but I suppose they stayed fit. Still, in some cases such as Rivendell the Elves might not have had the possibility to get so much work out as they might have wanted.
I wonder no if lembas makes you fat...

[Boromir88]

Esty I don't think we have to worry about canoncity. Remember the 'merry feast' Elrond has before the Council of Elrond. I don't think we are ever told what foods are there but with dwarves in company and we are told the food was all Frodo's hunger could desire...it surely would have been a mighty feast with I would imagine more than just vegetables. So Rivendell at least had a variety of foods to offer all it's guests.

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Amras Oronar

And af course, people living in that days had too do a lot more then people nowdays. Overweight wasn't really a problem untill cars and stuff (1900+?) came arround I believe.

What about Friar Tuck? And Hobbits lazy? It takes a lot of work to make all that food and ale you know. And to harvest pipe-weed. Hobbits were just too short for their weight.

Seriously, this thread is a sign of the times, equating sin with things like eating, drinking and smoking, when sin used to be things like lust and avarice and blasphemy. I doubt Tolkien would have thought food, drink and smoking were sins as he was a committed smoker, enjoyed a beer (the Inklings used to meet in the morning, and morning drinking would alarm today's health freaks) and loved his food. The only thing keeping him from being very overweight will have been that he rode a bike and walked a lot, and he was not slender anyway.

Gillian McKeith would've had a field day with him and he'd be classed as an incredibly evil sinner by today's standards.

[The Saucepan Man]

I'm most definately with Lal on this one. Vegetarianism is not a healthy diet as it generally requires vitamin and mineral supplements and the like (or some revolting meat substitute) to replace those lost through lack of meat (part of our natural diet). And slender does not equal perfection. Beauty is not skin deep and resides in the eye of the beholder.

Hobbits weren't lazy. they just appreciated the finer things in life.

Give me a Hobbit for company any day, rather than one of those dreadful goody-two shoes, too perfect for their own good, wonderful slim, fair and healthy Elves. How insufferable they would be.

Oh, and I believe that Elves hunted from Rivendell. I suspect that even those ultimate teacher's pets, the Vanyar, hunted in Valinor ...

... with Orome.

Sign of the times indeed.

Hmm, I am obviously having ME Survivor withdrawal ...

[Formendacil]

What's this? A dozen posts, and no mention of Salgant of Gondolin, lord of the House of the Harp?

Mind you, we are talking "Book of Lost Tales" here, but he's most definitely described as fat:

Originally Posted by Tolkien, in the Book of Lost Tales,

but Salgant bore [a shield with a harp] of gold, and he alone rode into battle of all the sons of the Gondothlim, and he was heavy and squat.

Whether or not Tolkien had this idea of Elves in the LotR or post-LotR era (Galion is a possible proof for the Hobbit era), he clearly did in the Lost Tales era.

[Anguirel]

Curse you, Formendacil, I was just about to post that!

[Mithalwen]

To save me repeating myself....I will link this .

Also remember that to an extent ideas of health and beauty are culturally influenced. It is ony recently since food has become abundant in the west, due in part to modern agricultural methods, that to be thin has been regarded as desirable.... before it was a mark of poverty (and a suntan marked you as a peasant).....

And there is plenty of evidence for elves enjoying a party ... I am sure even Sauce wouldn't mind propping up a bar with dear old Galion and suspect Esty may well be right about him .....


As for the Might's quote ... it says desires of the body only..... not that they don't have desires of the flesh.... it is quite clear in the rest of that essay that they enjoy the desire that it mainly refers to ... just that the enjoy it with one other only at a ceertain point in their lives........ .... and so with drinking/ eating ..... just because they don't go in for Rabelaisian levels of indulgence it doesn't make them ascetics.

[The Saucepan Man]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

And there is plenty of evidence for elves enjoying a party ... I am sure even Sauce wouldn't mind propping up a bar with dear old Galion and suspect Esty may well be right about him .....

Ah, Galion. Yes indeed. He's my kind of Elf.