: But this is incorrect. Tolkien did NOT say the Elves had pointed ears. The entry for "las-" in "The Etymologies" is not saying that Elves had pointed ears.

: : Of course I always tempered my argument with the fact that
: : neither the Hobbit nor the LOTR describe the ears of anyone
: : (aside from perhaps the Oliphant), so if that is the readers
: : only source of information it would be acceptable to have all
: : characters with normal ears. But this does raise a problem
: : about which tidbits of information that Tolkien provides in his
: : letters can or should be used and which items should be ignored
: : or discarded.

In an amazingly topical sidenote, while it is never mentioned outright in LOTR, there is an ongoing controversy about Orc noses. In some of his letters to C.S. Lewis, Tolien described the Orcs as having "elephant-like snouts." These snouts made them the best trackers of the middle-earth races.

In a letter dated March 7th, 1947 Tolkien related to C.S. the story of Torkblotter, a famous Orc tracker whose snout had been cut off by a sword. Yet despite this handicap, Torkblotter was still able to track any prey relentlessly.

In a letter dated March 15th, 1947 C.S. inquires as to how this could possibly be. "Well, John, if that were so then how did he smell?" Inquired C.S. Lewis.

In a letter dated March 29th, 1947 Tolkien wrote his now famous one word reply, "Terrible."

And to think, nowhere in LOTR is this wonderful story repeated!
;)