Posted: September 24, 1999 at 04:38:19: by Jimcalagon the Red
Michael, you conveniently forgot the letter (no 25, I think) in "Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien" where he describes Hobbits ears as being "slightly pointed and Elvish". (Emphasis mine) I always took the use of his word "Elvish" rather than the more correct "Elfin" to mean that he was referring to 'his' Elves.Does this letter not indicate that both Elves and Hobbits have pointed ears?
: : In one of his history books (Unfinished Tales, one of the books
: : in the history of Middle-earth, I can't remember). Tolkien
: : described them as leaf-like. He kind of expanded but I can't
: : recall right now. But I think the general idea was an oval
: : type leaf with some type of point at the end.
: Actually, what Tolkien wrote was that Quendian ears were more pointed and leaf-shaped than ????. Unable to decipher the "????" part, Christopher Tolkien put in "[human]" to indicate he was taking a wild, uncertain guess. : Many people have erroneously used this entry (found in "The Etymologies" in THE LOST ROAD AND OTHER WRITINGS) to argue that Elven ears were pointed. Elves looked just like Men. Men were occasionally mistaken for Elves. No one ever said anything like, "I see by your ears you are an Elf". : So Tolkien Elves do not have noticeably pointed ears, but some people (most, according to the poll I ran on the LOTR/HOBBIT MOVIE site) feel they should have pointed ears.
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