The White Council

Re: Elves Eat and Farm ,was: Re: Did Elves Farm?

Tolkien and Inklings Discussion

snip : : : Voronwe says "...long must be the hunger and cold the winter that shall slay the kin of those who passed the Grinding Ice." : : : He does not say Elves do not eat. He then shows Tuor his pouch of waybread. If Elves did not need to eat why would he have that? : : : When Voronwe and Tuor pass the Second Gate Elemmakil has "food and wine brought to them", why would the Eldar keep food and wine there if they do not eat. In 'Laws and Customs of the Eldar' it is stated that "Among the Noldor it may be seen that the making of bread is done mostly by women... Yet the cooking and preparing of other foods is generally a task and pleasure of men." The Elves obviously Eat.

: : : To answer the question of Farming the quote continues: "The nissi are more often skilled in the tending of fields and gardens...". The Elves farm .

: : To prevent from restating anything refer to my post on the other branch 'Did Elves Farm'.

: I see nothing on another branch relating directly to my quotes from the CORPUS wherein it is shown that Elves EAT or DIE of starvation and tend fields (ie FARM). If you have anything to contradict the quotes from JRRT provided above, feel free to respond here.

I only want to prevent from getting into too many debates over the same topic, but if you insist.

My apologies if this makes replying or reading hard, but I am going to use a different method of replying: Voronwe says "...long must be the hunger and cold the winter that shall slay the kin of those who passed the Grinding Ice." Was he refering to the hunger for food, or for Aman? If he was refering to food, this is my reasoning... The elves did eat, but only when they wanted to. Food appears to a common treat instead of a need for elves, in that they had feasts often. They became rather attached to food and ate it for two reasons; 1. Food consumption resulted in the ability for cells to reproduce and the process of healing then could take place (taking for granted that elven cells did not die of age). 2. The taste of food was well liked amongst elves and became adopted as a daily treat that elves eventually had taken for granted and withdrawl from food was hard, but possible. He does not say Elves do not eat (*1). He then shows Tuor his pouch of waybread. If Elves did not need to eat why would he have that? *1- Did he ever say directly that they did? What direction should we assume? The elves carried waybread because they did need it at times, but only for healing or for any of the other things that waybread had to offer. When Voronwe and Tuor pass the Second Gate Elemmakil has "food and wine brought to them", why would the Eldar keep food and wine there if they do not eat. Just as I have said, the elves did feast. What is a better drink for a feast than wine? In 'Laws and Customs of the Eldar' it is stated that "Among the Noldor it may be seen that the making of bread is done mostly by women... Yet the cooking and preparing of other foods is generally a task and pleasure of men." The Elves obviously Eat. I am going to be redundant and repeat myself :) The elves did feast, they also would eat food for healing and for the excellent taste that elven-food undoubtedly yeilded.

My argument is that elves did not eat on a regular basis, and that they did have ability to eat, which they well enjoyed.