Elven life and culture

[Eleniel]

In my humble opinion a LotR related forum must discuss Tolkien's characters and races. I will start out with this thread on the Elves. There is an infinite number of topics to discuss on the immortal Firstborn of the Children of Ilúvatar like language, lore, history and culture... And these discussions might better be taken in specific threads of their own. I imagined this could be kind of an insirational thread to get us started on the talks on anything related to Elves.

Personally I'm fascinated of Elves because of the veil of mystery surrounding them. Tolkien gives us wonderfully detailed stories on their history, legends and language but every piece of information he gives feeds a new question. Elves seem to be so much like humans in many ways and yet there is the mysterious unknown: their immortality. The puzzling issue of conquering death and living forever.
With the Elves Tolkien managed to create a divine people who draw us to their magic though we can only admire them from a distance, and perhaps it as so appealing because we can never know everything.

[revontulet]

Hmm, for me what makes elves so different from men is not their immortality but their serenity. They are so calm, peaceful, wise and beautiful; dreamlike. They don't have the same kind of temper as men. They seldom get furious or mad and they don't seem to make mistakes. (Owh, Fëanor and his sons seem to be an exeption... very hot-blooded to be elves... perhaps they weren't? *grins slightly*)

Elves can be admired from the distance, but sometimes that distance is very annoying. It much easier to identify with men because they are, well, human. They make mistakes and maybe because their life rhythm is faster they have more passion in their lives.

*glances the text* Isn't it interesting the elves are always compared to men instead of hobbits, dwarves or maiar?

[Eleniel]

To start with the beginning. It isn't so strange that we compare elves to men... we simply compare them to us. The Elven culture is also the most expanded in Tolkien's work apart from that of Men (and perhaps Hobbits to a certain extent).
I do not fully agree that Elves should be more pure, more "perfect" than Men. As you mention Fëanor is a good example - and I don't neccessarily think he is an exception more than then rule. In fact I believe Elves contain and do express the same feelings and emotions as Men and other races, however, they do live longer lives and they have almost unlimited time at their disposal. This fact does make them wiser and seemingly more well-considered compared to mortals, and perhaps this also prevents them from making all the same mistakes as Men... although I am sure they still make mistakes, it just doesn't appear the same way. Also because of their long lives, they may treasure different values... or simply lead different lives from those of Men.

We know too little of this... *pauses to ponder further*

Elves can be admired from a distance, but I also think we often choose to admire them because we want to. We may look for role models. Striving for perfection is in the human nature and it's natural to look to the Elves to find what we seek. Our knowledge of Elven life is limited, and somehow I think Tolkien wanted it this way; so our imagination could dive into the unexplored world of magic. This way we can visualize our idea of perfection in the Elves.
We might look into the mirror and see what we want to see; the picture of Elves might be a reflection of or the representation of our good side.. the angel within us.

Alright, this got very psycological... *frowns* Basically Elves are surrounded by the mystery and the supernatural aura that will never cease to attract us, because our imagination is free to play about.
However, I still try to see the human in Elves.. that way exploring their lives and culture becomes like diving into our own world to find new views and perspectives.

[revontulet]

To start with, when comparing elves to men I don't compare them to people of 21st century but people of Rohan and Arnor and Gondor. So I do not compare them to us.

I wrote something else too, but *sighs* I think I'd better go somewhere else.

[Eleniel]

I understand everything I meet in relation to myself and my world, otherwise how would I be able to tell things from each other, however, you might be right that as a start we should talk about the peoples of Middle-earth in relation to one another to make the discussion 'easier'.
I came accross the idea of elves being like teachers of Men and other mortal races like the Valar were to the Elves. And the idea seems fitting, although I didn't like it at first. But the Elves did teach Men language and arts in the early days, and later when they have passed on their knowledge they withdraw and pass over the Sea.