LL-L "Folklore" 2004.08.13 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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From: Pat Reynolds <pat at caerlas.demon.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Folklore" 2004.08.10 (07) [E]

In message <009301c47f3d$770ba140$3eb78e8c at D5SYLB51>, Lowlands-L
<lowlands-l at lowlands-l.net> writes
>Also the iconography and literature seems to have directed the image of
this
>or that fantasy being: in my youth, elfs were little, flying beings, a bit
>shy, but also mild jocular teasers (sometimes even rather annoying), but i
>guess that thanks to the LoTR craze, most people envision them now as
>Tolkiens' wet dream of a blue-grey eyed  Herrenvolk.

If this is the case, then Tolkien has succeeded.  If you read his _On
Fairy Stories_, you will find that he viewed that the view of the elves
as little, cute beings was a Victorian invention, and his project was
(in a small part), to resurrect the earlier image of the elf.  If you
haven't read this paper, I do recommend it.

This is JRR Tolkien, we are talking of, author of a book called Lord of
the Rings, not Peter Jackson, director of a film of the same name.  It
is important to distinguish the two.  While the adjective 'noble', with
its connotations of superiority and class hierarchy, is doubtless
applied frequently by Tolkien to his elves (or at least, I remember them
as 'noble'), they are not 'a blue-grey eyed Herrenvolk'.
Most importantly, they are a different _species_ to humans (and to
dwarves, etc.).  One might as well say that I am being racist in
thinking cats are far superior to dogs!  Second, I know that, in many
circumstances, having a dog is far better than having a cat (when buried
alive, for example).  So, in many circumstances, the innate qualities of
elves makes them superior to humans and dwarves (and vice versa). The
whole point about racism is that 'race' is a culturally determined
categorization:  treating people differently, assuming that they have
certain characteristics because they are 'of that race' is baseless.
Because Peter Jackson has used humans to play elves in the film, you may
be crediting them with more human characteristics, more attributes which
the viewer perceives as human 'races' than Tolkien would have.  Jackson
chose for some reason, I know not why, not to cast any non-white actors
as elves, although I think that Elrond is reminiscent of some people I
know of Native American heritage.  There is nothing in Tolkien which
would have prevented him from casting people from more diverse
heritages.

Also on this, topic, I want to mention a very good paper which was
presented by Alvin (I think that was his name) Hall at Leeds Medieval
Conference this year which looked at monsters/others in early modern
Britain and Scandinavia - he made some very interesting points,
including that Elves and Celts were both in a group which sometimes got
classified as Human, and sometimes as Monster. It was a very good paper,
and I hope it is published soon.

Best wishes,

Pat
--
Pat Reynolds
pat at caerlas.demon.co.uk
   "It might look a bit messy now,
                    but just you come back in 500 years time"
   (T. Pratchett)

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