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01-02-2008, 09:46 AM | #1 |
Princess of Skwerlz
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: where the Sea is eastwards (WtR: 6060 miles)
Posts: 7,500
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What do your Elven eyes see?
An early morning winter walk, with stars still shining, reminded me of this movie quote and got me to thinking about Elven eyesight. Now, according to Tolkien's mythology, the Elves awoke under the stars - and it was long before the sun was created. That means that they did everything - reading and writing, arts and crafts, all the things of daily life - by a minimal amount of light.
Granted, we don't know if the stars may not have shone brighter then than they do now, but it seems to me that their eyes would be different than ours. I'm not an expert, but as I remember from biology, the pupils regulate the amount of light that enters into the eyes. Do you suppose they had more sensitive pupils, that could adjust much more, since they would not have changed in nature after the appearance of the sun? What other differences would you suggest that would enable them to see under minimal light? Has anyone read information by Tolkien on this subject? I'm reminded of Star Trek's Spock, whose Vulcan eyes had an additional inner eyelid to protect them from extreme light...
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'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth...' |
01-02-2008, 10:21 AM | #2 |
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Facing the world's troubles with Christ's hope!
Posts: 1,635
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I think you're right about elves having some sort of special night vision. I wouldn't put it past Tolkien to give his little elves another special ability.
Elves remind me alot of cats. You can just picture them stalking around at nightime without a sound, moving from tree to tree. Where the Silmarils made shortly after the elves where created? I forgotten.
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I heard the bells on Christmas Day. Their old, familiar carols play. And wild and sweet the words repeatof peace on earth, good-will to men! ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow |
01-02-2008, 06:25 PM | #3 |
Cryptic Aura
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 5,996
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Well, there was the light of the Two Trees, whose last fruits were recreated as the sun and the moon, but I'm not sure how far they cast their light. Or how a tree would/could cast light, unless we are talking about a very special, powerful form of luminescence.
I've seen a white garden glow in evening and twilight, but that is a reflected light. Maybe the elves had a kind of infrared vision that could distinguish heat, especially the kind of heat generated by creative energy?
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I’ll sing his roots off. I’ll sing a wind up and blow leaf and branch away. |
01-02-2008, 06:44 PM | #4 | |
Haunting Spirit
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: 'Round the corner, down the well, passed the Balrog, straight to HELL!
Posts: 77
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Quote:
As for the topic itself, I would expect such, what with evolution and al such. But perhaps that may be proof of otherwise. The elves were a race that seemed very firmly set with what they were (save for the cases of the Halfelven), meaning that their own forms were set-in-stone, barely changable over the course of years and events. Men however, were shorter living and changed easily. It was a chain of balances set by Eru. He made Men short-living but flexible in the ever-changing world. While the elves had longevity and did not shift so easily. however, it is quite possible that they already posessed such sight upon awakening...
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My time is at an end, for I have walked from Valinor to the Far-east where men have not gone for millennia. Demons have fallen before me. And now... I must rest... |
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01-02-2008, 07:44 PM | #5 | |
Corpus Cacophonous
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: A green and pleasant land
Posts: 8,390
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01-02-2008, 09:53 PM | #6 |
Haunting Spirit
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Mirkwood, NC
Posts: 66
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One odd thing about Tolkien's Elves is that they can mate with humans, and produce viable offspring that can then supposedly successfully mate with other elves or humans. Is the last bit true - does Tolkien's work ever indicate that the offspring of a Elf-human sexual union (such as Aragorn and Arwen's child) can then go on to have children with another human or Elf? I don't know the answer, I'm asking.
If so, then Elves and humans are THE SAME biological species, and it is strange that the phenotype (outward appearance and abilities) would be so different between these two "strains" of the same species. For example, Elves are immortal whereas humans are mortal, Elves have better eyesight than humans, and so on.
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Time is the mind, the hand that makes (fingers on harpstrings, hero-swords, the acts, the eyes of queens). |
01-02-2008, 11:08 PM | #7 |
Loremaster of Annúminas
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 2,321
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Well, it's certainly true that Dior and Earendil went on to have children, indeed the ancestors of A&A, so I would say, Yessirreebob.
Keep in mind of course this is the world of giant talking Eagles and rings of invisibility and, of course, quasi-immortal incarnates- so I wouldn't lean too heavily on the science. Might as well wonder how a rainshower impregnated Danae.....
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The entire plot of The Lord of the Rings could be said to turn on what Sauron didn’t know, and when he didn’t know it. |
01-03-2008, 05:47 AM | #8 | ||
Animated Skeleton
Join Date: May 2002
Location: South Wales
Posts: 49
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If life was just a rehearsal, Would the show be Cancled. Greetings and Felicitations from the Lord of Balrogs! Last edited by Lord Gothmog; 01-03-2008 at 05:49 AM. Reason: clarity of reading |
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