Know Your LotRO Lore: The Elves
by Shawn Schuster 
Jan 6th 2009 at 3:00PM
Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Lore, Education, Know Your LotRO Lore
The Elf is possibly the most intricately-detailed race in all of J.R.R. Tolkien's works. He created their histories, bloodlines and origins throughout his entire life, from before The Hobbit to works published after his death.
Did Tolkien invent Elves? No, but he did redefine them as they're portrayed today in modern fantasy settings. Mostly everything we see in WoW, Warhammer, and of course LotRO come from Tolkien's descriptions of the Germanic and Celtic mythological creatures. Follow along below on our journey through the origins and progression of Tolkien's Elves in Middle-earth and beyond.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jess said on 8:22PM 1-06-2009
One thing that really shocked me about the Silmarillion is that it shows the Elves are not all that they are cracked up to be. They are quite glorified by Tolkien in the Lord of The Rings and taken to ridiculous proportions of over-glorification by Peter Jackson in the films.
Tolkien shows us their EXTREMELY dark past in the Silmarillion though. A past rife with kinslaying, betrayal, slaughter, death and curses.
No wonder they are always depressed!
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Roy said on 6:23PM 1-15-2009
What really puts me off is the way the originality of things are raped, because certain clichés have taken over just about everything nowadays.
The above image of an elf is quite a gross example. Tolkien's elves do not look THAT much different from humans. They are, admittedly, over-glorified in the Jacksons films, but still their appearance should be that of a human, only somewhat loftier, exalted or something.
Elves in Middle Earth really do have perfectly normal human looking ears, not those ridiculous D&D style pointy freakish mutated growths. :) And hobbits too! I wonder who ever it was that had the idea in the first place to introduce those in the films..
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Chris Girone said on 1:16PM 1-22-2009
Actually, it was JRR Tolkein whom described the Elven ears to have a "leaf shape" to them. So no, their ears are completely true to the books! Take that Nancy Drew!!!!!
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