The White Council

Re: Tolkien's Paradox

Tolkien and Inklings Discussion

: I have often lamented Tolkien's choice of having the elves as (for practical purposes) immortal beings. It creates uncomfortable paradoxes. For a start an immortal people would have very different motivations from humans, though in most cases elves are given the same sort of strivings and desires as men. For a start there would be very little pressure on elves to reproduce, and friendships of centuries or millenia would be more central to elf society than human. Production of clans, or even extended families would be almost interminably long winded affairs, and changes in language (which drift across generations in humans) would not be likely. Why would an elf who spoke proto-Quenya when he awoke want to change language to Sindarin later?

: There is also the strange paradox of the events of the Silmarillion, which Tolkien wanted to present as a sort of invented mythology. This is how they are presented in LOTR, as events of a mythical past. Though to some of the characters of LOTR such as Galadriel, Celeborn, Cirdan etc these events were those of their own memories and therefore most definitely non-mythical. Tolkien would have been better advised to have made his elves long-lived compared to humans but certainly not immortal.

As I recall, Michael posted an excerpt from one of Tolkien's letters in which he mentions the fact that Elves were not immortal, but very long-lived. He used the word "immortal" in reference to Elves, but the word doesn't convey his real meaning. But the Elves seem to be so long-lived that for all intents and purposes they seem immortal to us. And does seem rather peculiar that Gandalf and Saruman had to gather old tomes together to search out "forgotten" lore about the One Ring and the fate of Isuldur while living witnesses to that time were available. Not that the Elves witnessed Isuldur's demise, but surely they received news of the event. Do Elves forget such things? Evidently. And as aloof as they seem to be, it's possible that what for men are monumental events are to the Elves of little consequence. But I doubt it, since they knew that the fate of the One Ring was tied directly to their own. Had I been Gandalf I would have wisked Bilbo off to Rivendell upon first seeing the Ring (or soon thereafter), and let Elrond get a look at it. To leave Bilbo in the Shire for years and years, and yet suspecting the true nature of the Ring doesn't seem plausible when we start unraveling Tolkiens tapestry, and yet I prefer the tapestry flaws and all and it seems to make sense when your in the heat of reading the book. I suspect this is the kind of scrutiny that Tolkien felt ruined a good fairy story.