Elves and their ears

I know I was going to write about crafting but the toons bother me too. I just came across a picture of Celebrimbor by Angus McBride. For those of you not familiar with McBride's work it is entirely worth it to look it up and see what a person who has a good grasp of anatomy and actual military hardware can do with a Tolkien character.

His pictures of Galadriel for the I.C.E. MERPs series were great as well. The depiction of the elves is by far the best. No cartoony pointed ears, no ethereal gauzy mist floating around, but he still injects the feeling of other-worldliness and wonder.

So why am I writing about the Elves. Obviously, I am one of those that believe the Tolkien Elves did not have obviously pointed ears. Tolkien himself wrote in a direction to publishers on an early edition that Hobbits had pointed 'elvish' ears. The scare quotes are not mine, they are the good professors. Remember he is a professor of English he knows what scare quotes are for. That means that they do not mean the literal meaning.

He understood that due to Victorian images of creatures of Fairy that the illustrators would understand his direction on 'elvish' ears. However, he also was conveying that somehow the label is not correct. The only possible interpretation is that the professor does not want to convey the idea of pointy ears for elves.

Some of Tolkien's elves may have had pointed ears. Others obviously did not. That elves could be mistaken for men is a clear indication that at least some of them did not have any point to their ears at all. Also, it does not jibe with his very Catholic view of the world. The elves according to his writing were the representation of man before the Fall.

I can hardly believe that created in God's image and perfect before original sin would equate to pointy ears. Tolkien's view of elves did change over the years essentially maturing into the final view he held. Since they are perfect; ageless, immortal, beautiful, and immune to all disease, I doubt that Tolkien also conceived them with donkey ears.

Which brings me to the game. LOTRO only allows ridiculously pointed donkey ears for elves. They now have hair styles that cover it, but nothing but huge pointed ears are ever shown. They don't even give players a chance to choose which vision of the elf (movie or books) they prefer.

Bad enough that they make elves out to be effete ponces, they give them ears a rabbit would be embarrassed to own. This would be an easy fix. Give players the option of how pointy they want their ears to be. Next the horror of Dwarves and Hobbits.