Weapons in Vallinor?

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

The Teleri's hunting game is not out of the question, of course. It just seems odd they would have enough weaponry to actually give the Noldor a good fight, if they only used bows for hunting.

Let's not forget that the Teleri lived for a long time in Beleriand after the Vanyar and Noldor had left, presumably sustaining themselves through hunting.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

Let's not forget that the Teleri lived for a long time in Beleriand after the Vanyar and Noldor had left, presumably sustaining themselves through hunting.

That exposes a good deal of double-standard, if not outright hypocrisy, of the part of the Green-elves of Ossiriand. Consider their complaints about the arrival of Men in Beleriand to Finrod:

'Lord,' they said, 'if you have power over these newcomers, bid them return by the ways that they came, or else to go forward....these folk are hewers of trees and hunters of beasts; therefore we are their unfriends, and if they will not depart, we shall afflict them in all ways that we can.'

Silmarillion Of the Coming of Men Into the West

So for the Noldor and Teleri, hunting was tolerated, but Men were reviled for it. Very telling...

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

That exposes a good deal of double-standard, if not outright hypocrisy, of the part of the Green-elves of Ossiriand. Consider their complaints about the arrival of Men in Beleriand to Finrod:

...

So for the Noldor and Teleri, hunting was tolerated, but Men were reviled for it. Very telling...

Not necessarily. Granted, nothing in this quote suggests that the Green-elves did any hunting at all, it would be easy for them to distinguish between the presumably more humane approach of the Noldor and Sindar on the one hand and the "wholesale slaughter" (to exaggerate slightly) of Men on the other--just as it's possible for modern vegetarians to distinguish between pre-Columbus Native American hunting practices and the kind of hunting and animal-raising that Europeans brought to the scene.

None of which is to suggest in any way that the Edain were anywhere as bad as the slaughter wreaked on the Great Plains bison, for example, but the Green-elves were certainly capable of distinguishing between the actions of their estranged kin and that of the Aftercomers. And, in any case, there is ample evidence that the Green-elves were not particularly close with the Noldor or Sindar--"tolerate" seems an appropriate term for their relationship, provided it still has some of the sense of "put up with."