August 28, 2003

The Difference Between Elves...
Loken Kaidah

It would seem to me that the difference between the Elves in "The Hobbit" and the Elves in LOTR, has much more to do with the length of time between the time the Hobbit was written and LOTR was written. Tolkien's own conception of what elves were like could have changed immensely in all those years. I weould even say that if you look at the way the The Hobbit is written and the way LOTR is written and they are extremely different. The Hobbit is much more lighthearted. One major difference that comes to mind is the dwarves. In the Hobbit they are rather annoying, weak and almost cowardly. (This is at least true up until the Battle of Five Armies) But then you look at the representation of dwarves in LOTR (namely Gimli) and they are powerful, and brave. You can see differences in the elves as well. In the Hobbit they are rather dorky, singing falala all the time. They are definitely not as majestic, mysterious and powerful as they appear to be in LOTR. It seems to me that this is an indication that Tolkien's conception of Middle Earth and it s inhabitants was ever changing epecially in the early days.

Just a thought,
Loken