LotR -- Book 2 - Chapter 06 - Lothlórien

[davem]

I know I’ve been pretty critical of Elves in the past myself, but to try & put the pro case:

I understand Bethberry’s point here, yet we can’t forget that Elves are not Men. Their perceptions are diffferent, their values are not ours; psychologically they are almost a mirror image of us. If humans behaved as the Elves do it would be the result of a conscioous decision to act against our nature. We may find their behaviour to be wrong - given the circumstances of the War of the Ring, but as Tolkien explained:

Our language is confused using after or before both (in certain circumstances) of the future. We sometimes think & speak of the future as what lies before us, we look ahead, are provident, forward-looking, yet our ancestors preceeded us & are our fore-fathers; & any event in time is before one that is later. We speak as if events & a succession of human lives were an endless column moving us forward into the unknown, & those born later are behind us, will follow us; yet also as if though facing the future we were walking backwards, & our children & heirs (posterity!) were ahead of us & will in each generation go further forwards into the future than we. (a widow is a relict, one left behind by a husband who goes on). As far as a single experiencing mind goes, it seems a most natural transference of spatial to linear language to say that the past is behind it & that it advances forwards into the future, that later events are before or in front of earlier ones. At the point where the individual ceases the survivors go on further go (sic) ahead of him. All living creatures are one mass or column marching on, & falling out individually while others go on. Those who do so are left behind. Our ancestors who fell out earlier are further behind, behind us forever....

In Elvish sentiment the future was not one of hope or desire, but a decay & retrogression from former bliss & power. Though inevitably it lay ahead, as of one on a journey, ‘looking forward’ did not imply anticipation of delight. ‘I look forward to seeing you again’ did not mean or imply ‘I wish to see you again, & since that is arranged/and or very likely, I am pleased.’ It meant simply ‘I expect to see you again with the certainty of foresight [in some circumstances] or regard that as very probable - it might be with fear or dislike, foreboding.’ Their position, as of latter day sentiment, was one of exiles driven forward (against their will) who were in mind or actual posture ever looking backward.

But in actual language time & place had distinct expressions. (Quoted in Flieger, ‘A Question of Time’)

In other words, the Elves don’t choose how they experience the world, or how they respond to it. They aren’t superbeings with absolute freedom. In actuality they are very limited in what they can do. They are natural artists, & the creation of realms like Lorien is in their nature. We may feel more comforatble with the approach adopted by Elrond in Rivendell, the active, participatory approach, but lets not forget that Elrond is only half-Elven. Galadriel is in many ways the perfect Elf, & so her ‘vices’ (seen from the human viewpoint) are also ‘perfect’ - ie they are ‘extreme’ vices. Elrond can accept the passing of the Elves, because to a signioficant degree he can step outside his Elvishness & look on it from the Human perspective. Galadriel cannot.

In a real sense Elves are more tempted by the Ring than other races, because it offers the power not simply to conquer Sauron (which both Men & Elves desire) but also the power to [i]preserve[/i all things as new], which Men, as a race do not desire as such- it is doubly tempting to them, & so corresponds to their innate nature that while they may hate its source they are drawn to its potential to give them what they most desire.

The Elves we encounter are generally sad, resigned to their fate, but in Galadriel we see something else - she is not free of her nature. Lorien is what the Elves would turn Middle earth into, not out of desire to remake the world in their own image & usurp Eru, as is the case with Sauron, but simply because that’s what they do if ‘let loose’ on the world. In effect, by refusing the One, & thereby sacrificing the Three, they are behaving unnaturally. We have to accept that what they are doing, participating in the War to even the limited extent that they do, is against their nature.

Lorien, as we encounter it, is ‘Elvendom’ - Elvish nature manifest in nature. We can’t judge them as if they were human - if we do we find a race of selfish artists dwelling in Ivory Towers, deigning to condescend & help out the Human race, when in fact they’d rather be singing songs & weaving tapestries.

The Elves tragedy is shown most clearly in the efforts they have to make to contribute anything - even thinking like Men is an effort, because they have to adopt a mindset which is not in any way natural to them. It seems for instance that Legolas is constantly having to be ‘slapped in the face’ by the others, or by external dangers, to prevent him drifting off into a reverie. But that’s only a ‘fault’ in him if we forget what he is, & expect him to be like us. He is the one character who is least ‘developed’, has the least interesting story arc, who ultimately goes nowhere as a character - but that’s because he has nowhere to go anymore (except back into the Dreaming). The Elven world is seperating itself out from the Human world, & strangely its as if Frodo is the last link between the two, pulled both ways, before he makes his (inevitable) choice. After Frodo the worlds become seperated forever (even if certain individuals - Elves & elf-Friends - can still make the choice to pass into the dreamworld).

There’s a line from a poem (St John of the Cross??), ‘So now, if from this day, I am not seen among the haunts of Men, say that I went astray, love-stricken on the way’. The Elves are passing away, ultimately nevermore to be seen among the haunts of Men. We can’t in fairness ask anymore of them than we actually get.