legolas's hair - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

William Cloud Hicklin · 09-13-2012, 04:13 PM

But surely he didn't mean that the Teleri had blue hair......

It's very interesting that in pre-LR writing, Tolkien was happy to assign 'ethnic' descriptions to the Edain and the 'swarthy' Easterlings, but not to the Elves (or Dwarves). I can't find anything in the QS/Later Annals/Lhammas writings that can be read as anything but a vaguest stretch assigning physical characteristics to Lindar/Noldor/Lembi.

There is however one passage which might I suppose be read as a "dog that didn't bark." In QS Sec 130 T describes the Houses of Men, and the Beorians "were dark or brown of hair; their eyes were grey, and their faces fair to look upon; shapely they were of form, yet hardy and long-enduring. Their height was no greater than the Elves of that day, and they were most like to the Gnomes, for they were eager of mind, cunning-handed, swift of understanding, long in memory."

That "for" is interesting; because it seems that the comparison to the Noldor here is based entirely on the Beorians' habits of mind, not their coloration.

PS: FWIW, in the QS text of Beren and Luthien, Celegorn expressly has golden hair, so "the fair" in his case really does mean "blonde."

09-13-2012, 04:13 PM	#22
William Cloud Hicklin Loremaster of Annúminas Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 2,321	But surely he didn't mean that the Teleri had blue hair...... It's very interesting that in pre-LR writing, Tolkien was happy to assign 'ethnic' descriptions to the Edain and the 'swarthy' Easterlings, but not to the Elves (or Dwarves). I can't find anything in the QS/Later Annals/Lhammas writings that can be read as anything but a vaguest stretch assigning physical characteristics to Lindar/Noldor/Lembi. There is however one passage which might I suppose be read as a "dog that didn't bark." In QS Sec 130 T describes the Houses of Men, and the Beorians "were dark or brown of hair; their eyes were grey, and their faces fair to look upon; shapely they were of form, yet hardy and long-enduring. Their height was no greater than the Elves of that day, and they were most like to the Gnomes, for they were eager of mind, cunning-handed, swift of understanding, long in memory." That "for" is interesting; because it seems that the comparison to the Noldor here is based entirely on the Beorians' habits of mind, not their coloration. PS: FWIW, in the QS text of Beren and Luthien, Celegorn expressly has golden hair, so "the fair" in his case really does mean "blonde." __________________ 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.