#also like all authors Tolkein was bullshitting as he went

[ral-across-the-universe]

I feel like to me the two important things to think about with Tolkein-specific elves are that: 1. There was no real single codified idea of what an elf /was/ in Tolkein's era. An elf was a sort of fairy, which could be anything from a little gnomelike craftsman (cobbler's elves), or a nature spirit, or something tall elegant and regal and likely to steal you away for a hundred years if you're not careful

2. That Tolkein's elves are all of the above three pictures at once, all of the time.

Like, it's a spectrum, it's a venn diagram, definitely, and you've also got ranks of society at play. But they've also got that deep-history otherworldly fey quality that makes them very alien, very not-human.

They're trickster forest hecklers singing in the trees of Rivendell. They're solemn and graceful and have ancient wisdom, they have the gravitas of untold lifetimes of experience. And they're also all a little bit insane, with an unhinged passion for /things that truly matter/.

Epic poetry, epic battles, epic tragedies of ten thousand years, Big Operatic Drama that gets their blood and tears flowing. Appreciation for beautiful things, wordplay and song and arts and skills that take a thousand years to master. But also an impish delight in getting absolutely wrecked and sassy on Lakewood wine and roasting the hell out of a bunch of dwarves.

Maybe it's because age condenses personality over time, but I also think they're just born that way. They're just fucked up immortal theater kids whose intensity is turned to 11 about everything and they commit to their own bit to the point of being a bit cosmic horror.

Also shiny things make elf brain go brrrrr.