‘And Elves, sir! Elves here, and Elves there! Some like kings,
terrible and splendid; and some as merry as children. And the music and
the singing --not that I have had the time or the heart for much listening
since we got here.’
In The Hobbit we seem to have mostly met the "merry as children" variety
of Rivendell elves. And even though Tolkien admonishes the reader that
thinking elves are foolish "is a very foolish thing to think", they really do
come off as silly at the least. Recall what they were singing when
we first met them in The Hobbit:
O! Where are you going
With beards all a-wagging?
No knowing, no knowing
What brings Mister Baggins,
And Balin and Dwalin
down into the valley
in June
ha! ha!
And then, there is that whole “Tra-la-la-lally” thing as well….
Compare that to our first view of elves in Rivendell.
"Glorfindel was tall and straight; his hair was of shining gold, his face
fair and young and fearless and full of joy; his eyes were bright and keen and
his voice like music; on his brow sat wisdom, and in his hand was strength.
“....Young she was and yet not so. The braids of her dark hair were
touched by no frost; her white arms and clear face were flawless and smooth,
and the light of stars was in her bright eyes, grey as a cloudless night; yet
queenly she looked, and thought and knowledge were in her glance, as of one who
has known many things that the years bring...Such loveliness in living thing
Frodo had never seen before nor imagined in his mind;..."
1)Do you think Tolkien used a different characterization of Elves in The
Hobbit and was then forced to reconcile the two views? Is Tolkien
trying to bridge these depictions when he has Sam say "Some like kings,
terrible and splendid; and some as merry as children"?
2)So there are elves here and elves there? How many elves are there in
Rivendell anyway?
3) We meet Arwen Undomiel for the first time in this chapter.
Tolkien is relatively subtle in drawing the relationship between Arwen and
Aragorn (and especially so for a very young person reading the book for the
first time.) Did you figure out instantly that this was Aragorn’s
“girlfriend”? It took me until the banner is delivered to really get the
idea: a huge embroidery project for someone else always involves love of
some sort ;-) I like that Tolkien's very short description emphasizes her
intelligence and wisdom as well as her beauty.
4) Did you form definate ideas about the appearance of Glorfindel, Arwen, and
Elrond? Feel free to share. Are there any illustrators’ drawings
that you favor ? (Please, do not post THAT picture of Elrond—you know of what I
speak.) Did the movie change your mind? The movie Arwen has
replaced my imaginings but Elrond remains firmly nebulous for
me.
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Books, good books, are ambivalent, pulling you away from your life, pushing you into it, often at one and the same time. ----Diary of a Left-handed Birdwatcher --Leonard Nathan
