Did elves smoke?

[narfforc]

I think you two have been partaking of the weed......ha-ha, good to see humour is alive and kicking.

[davem]

Originally Posted by narfforc

I think you two have been partaking of the weed......ha-ha, good to see humour is alive and kicking.

Well, I was being quite serious! I think clues to Elven flammability may be found in the text if one searches closely. It seems to be a result of over-excitement or a reaction to extreme danger. For example, in Appendix B we find the following interesting incident:

In the North also there had been war and evil. The realm of Thranduil was invaded, and there was long battle under the trees and great ruin of fire; but in the end Thranduil had the victory.

Clearly the Mirkwood Elves in the heat of battle had spontaneously combusted, igniting the surrounding trees. Of course, its possible that this was a deliberate strategy on the part of a highly trained squad of Suicide Elves (the 'Forlorn Hope'), who sacrificed themselves in an assault on the attacking Orcs.

EDIT

It occurs to me now that the 'Blasting fire' used by Saruman at Helm's Deep may provide evidence that Orcs were descended from Elves. If the Orcs had retained their Elven trait of combustibility he may have used shredded Orc.

This begs the question of what Gandalf used in his fireworks, too. One hopes they were Orc based.....

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by davem

This begs the question of what Gandalf used in his fireworks, too. One hopes they were Orc based.....

The fireworks which had white sparkles were made from shredded Elf toe nail clippings. The black, explosive powder was made of Elven nose hair. Yellow fireworks, like Roman Candles, were made from Galdriel's ear wax. And all red fireworks were carefully constructed from that most precious of commodities, Elf scabs.

[davem]

I think we can also make an informed guess at the nature ot the 'Tricksy Lights' in the Dead Marshes too.

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by davem

I think we can also make an informed guess at the nature ot the 'Tricksy Lights' in the Dead Marshes too.

I can picture Gandalf right now, hard at work in his fireworks workshop, feeding captive Elves beans in the attempt to make green Catherine Wheels.

[davem]

Could we have misjudged Feanor re the burning of the Ships at Losgar. Maybe some over excited Noldor burst into flame & took the ships with them?

[Macalaure]

I think the flammability of orcs gives a whole new perspective to the Dagor Bragollach. Come to think about it! The Siege of Angband went on for centuries while the orcs kept multiplying. At the end, Angband was severely over-populated with them, causing immense social stress to each individuum.
We tend to think that the sudden fire was a carefully planned device of Morgoth to break the siege, when in fact, the number of orcs unavoidably reached a critical point and made many of them go up in flames. The resulting pressure could not be contained by Angband anymore and instead burned the plain of Ard-galen.
We know that hoards of orcs marched behind the flames. These are the first lucky ones who could save themselves from burning and fled in horror - into the swords of elves and men.

Originally Posted by davem

Could we have misjudged Feanor re the burning of the Ships at Losgar. Maybe some over excited Noldor burst into flame & took the ships with them?

So you mean we should blame Amras for it?

[Hookbill the Goomba]

You two had better be careful or this thread will be moved to mirth!

Elves? Smoking? I don't see why not. They drank heartily enough, (as seen in The Hobbit) and I like to think that Tolkien put enough of himself into the books that the elves could, after getting to Valinor, sit back in a nice cosy chair and have a good smoke.

I just recalled, however, that Bilbo gave to Merry and Pippin some pipes that he said were made by the Elves (I don't have the book at hand, so someone will have to check that for me). So, perhaps they did. Maybe, like humans, some did and some didn't. I think the question is academic, anyway.

[Lalwendë]

A present for Mr Hookbill:

Bilbo laughed, and he produced out of a pocket two beautiful pipes with pearl mouth-pieces and bound with fine-wrought silver. 'Think of me when you smoke them!' he said. 'The Elves made them for me, but I don't smoke now.'

Perhaps Bilbo had to give up, owing to the flammable nature of his Elven friends.

[davem]

Originally Posted by Hookbill the Goomba

You two had better be careful or this thread will be moved to mirth!

Well, I can only say that I am attempting to explore the nature of Elves in this thread & if others are dragging it down to the level of a 'Mirth' topic I, surely, cannot be held responsible.

While we are speculating, I wonder if the Beacons of Gondor were Elf-Powered. It would be easy enough for a cunning Lord like Denethor to lure some passing Elves to the Beacon Hills on pretence of needing their aid. All that would be needed would be to then invite them to the top to admire the view & at the opportune moment have one of his men sneak up behind them & shout BOO! Instant beacon!

Originally Posted by Lalwende

Perhaps Bilbo had to give up, owing to the flammable nature of his Elven friends.

And how many innocent Elves lost their lives before he learned that lesson, I wonder?

EDIT.

Don't know if anyone could answer this, but how long would an Elf burn for? In the episode I referred to from HoM-e 7 gandalf says of Legolas 'He would burn bright while he lasted!'. This would call into question the usefulness of using Elves as a fuel source. The implication of Gandalf's words is that while Elves may be easy to ignite, they burn out quickly. I think we must imagine them as similar to matches. Which would imply they burn from the head down....