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afro-elf
09-29-2001, 04:42 PM
I'd got a lot of ideas about Tolkien's Elves BUT it is mostly second hand.

Could someone confirm this as in what are the sources that state them



No need to confirm Immortality


BUT

Elves look better than us

immune to sickness and disease

heal from wounds FAR faster than we do


can see in the dark ( I know they can see farther in daylight)


are taller that men ( at least the Noldar)

their songs were " visible"

had better hearing and voices


the Noldar were more physically powerful than men

elves had better grace and dexterity

i know they handled the heat and cold better than us

they did not scar

the noldar had a nimbus about them

silvan elves left no mark of their passing what about sindar and noldar

did all elves possess some kind of "magic" the noldar seemed to.

and thranduil Legolas's dad did

BUT legolas seemed without it BUT he had "SENSES" beyond mortal keen

Ñólendil
09-29-2001, 07:54 PM
' are taller that men ( at least the Noldar) '

Noldor is the name you're looking for. At the time of the End of the Third Age, the younger Elves and perhaps it seems the Silvan Elves of Mirkwood were around the same height as noble Gondorians such as Boromir (but Legolas -- a young Sindarin Elf of the Wood-elves -- was smaller in stature than Boromir in particular), who had Númenórean blood. But the Númenóreans in the Second Age and the High-Elves of the Elder Days (and later days for the latter) had the average height of seven feet. The Noldor were High-Elves. I believe Galadriel was stated* to be six and a half feet tall, or thereabouts. Galadriel was 25% Noldorin, but her other blood was also High-Elven.

' their songs were " visible" '

' had better hearing and voices'

Their voices were more melodious, yes. The minstrels among the Elves at least were able to produce songs that made themselves visible before other eyes.

the Noldar were more physically powerful than men

Possibly. I thought Men in general were over all more physically powerful than Elves, Noldorin or otherwise. The Noldor were however slightly heavier in build than were the Grey-elves (said in the Appendix referred to in the footnote).

'the noldar had a nimbus about them '

At times, I wouldn't say this was exclusively a trait of the Noldor. Laws and Customs Among the Eldar (published in Morgoth's Ring) seems to reveal that this was the power of the fëa or spirit shining through the hröa or body. The fëar of the Elves (especially in later days) were very powerful, and eventually grew too powerful for its 'house' and consumed the body, the process of which was called fading.

' did all elves possess some kind of "magic" the noldar seemed to '

In my opinion all Races could perform (provided study if needed) 'magic'. All Elves certainly did, to them it was Art. I think the magic of Elves who had not been in the Blessed Realm was simply more subtle than those that had.

I don't see anything wrong with the other observations.

I'm not sure if I'd be able to tackle all the sources for this stuff, but most of them seem to be apparent in the Lord of the Rings.




*In Númenórean Linear Measurements, an Appendix to the Disaster of the Gladden Fields, published in Unfinished Tales.

UnStashable
10-05-2001, 02:30 AM
I believe it also said in the silmarillion that the men of Hador Goldenhead could withstand the cold better than the noldor did.

Ñólendil
10-05-2001, 06:48 PM
I don't know about that. Possibly the other way around: the Noldor had endured the Grinding Ice. I know that in Of Tuor and His Coming to Gondolin (Unfinished Tales), there is a passage in which Tuor questions Voronwë concerning survival in the cold wild, and Voronwë replies with 'You know the strength of Men. As for me, I am of the Noldor, and long must be the hunger and cold the winter that shall slay the kin of those who passed the Grinding Ice. ... '