Unfair criticism of ROP Eldar.

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

It may be that Elvish grooming standards included long hair combed behind or around the ears, like Alan Lee portrayed it (and thus PJ's movies). Turin's here was more like Tom Hanks' in Castaway. Note that Saeros casts a comb on the table., not a pair of shears

This was my thought exactly - that if anything, the meaning was "brush/braid/clip your hair back". Then, ever my own devil's advocate, I thought that perhaps the reason that he threw a comb and not scissors was that he happened to have a comb, and did not happen to have a pair of scissors on him at that time. Who is to say that if a pair happened to be lying at hand he wouldn't have tossed that too, or even instead? And then I wondered why he was carrying a comb on him in the first place. And though it was first a humorous thought, it's actually a serious question: why would a courtier carry a comb around in the king's dining chamber, or anywhere in the palace, really? Was there any precedent to medieval figures of state carrying tools for personal grooming in their pockets or purses, like girls carry lipstick? Would he even have a purse on his person? Perhaps that is the more enlightening detail in terms of the customs of Doriathrin Eldar. Perhaps it was the norm to have basic toiletries always on hand, even when dining in the king's hall. Seriously, how does the guy just have a spare comb on him?