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The White CouncilRe: Did Elves Farm?Tolkien and Inklings Discussion |
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The White CouncilRe: Did Elves Farm?Tolkien and Inklings Discussion |
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Posted by Storm Crow's Apprentice on May 28, 2000 at 15:18:23 In Reply to: Re: DID ELVES FART? posted by Maedhros on May 27, 2000 at 20:45:45:
Elves eat, but I don't believe that they farm. They have gardens (Galadriel did), and they harvest food from the wild. I would speculate that they have probably developed some "magical" food production and processing capability - for example, infusing lembas with nutrients and preserving agents. There are two reasons that I believe that Elves buy the bulk of the food they consume from their neighbours. First, pre industrial farming is labour intensive and dirty. Would Elves spend hours shovelling manure? If they had to, perhaps, but not gladly. Also, while Elves are not vegetarians, the idea of Elvish butchers with their aprons covered in blood seems inconsistent with the Elvish image presented in LOTR. It seems likely that Elves wouldn't want to run pigsties and slaughterhouses, if they could avoid it. Second, they don't need to farm, because they can buy whatever they want with the sale of Elvish goods and services. The Elves certainly possess a lot to sell, including: a vast treasury of precious metals, jewels, advanced materials; valuable weapons and tools; extensive historical and geographical information; advanced medical, metallurgical and agricultural technology; lore; and current news gathered by an extensive intelligence gathering network (comparable in coverage to Sauron's, I would imagine). The Mirkwood Elves traded with their neighbours. Rivendell, Lothlorien and the Havens probably did as well, but on a smaller scale, since they weren't close to major settlements. So, in short, I would argue that Elves probably didn't farm.
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