Wednesday, September 04, 2024

On Tolkien's Elves being Fair

In a group, some people claimed to not understand this meme :


"Elves in 2001 *White Elves in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings*
Elves in 2024 *Black Elves in the Rings of Power*"

A few left wingers (besides the usual insults and insinuations) claimed that Tolkien never described his Elves as white.

The oddest cope I got (from two people) about blackwashing Elves is that "fair" could be referring to things other than skin colour (e.g. “impartial and just, without favoritism or discrimination”), and one of them tried to sealion.

So I went to my archives and dug up the relevant bits:

"Elves has been used to translate both Quendi, ‘the speakers’, the High-elven name of all their kind, and Eldar, the name of the Three Kindreds that sought for the Undying Realm and came there at the beginning of Days (save the Sindar only)... They were a race high and beautiful, the older Children of the world, and among them the Eldar were as kings, who now are gone: the People of the Great Journey, the People of the Stars. They were tall, fair of skin and grey-eyed, though their locks were dark, save in the golden house of Finarfin"

--- The Lord of the Rings, Appendix F: On Translation

"Vanyar thus comes from an adjectival derivative *wanjā from the stem *WAN. Its primary sense seems to have been very similar to English (modern) use of 'fair' with reference to hair and complexion; though its actual development was the reverse of the English: it meant 'pale, light-coloured, not brown or dark', and its implication of beauty was secondary. In English the meaning 'beautiful' is primary. From the same stem was derived the name given in Quenya to the Valië Vána wife of Oromë."

--- The War of the Jewels

“Glorfindel was tall and straight; his hair was of shining gold, his face fair and young and fearless and full of joy"

―The Fellowship of the Ring

"their sister was Aredhel the White. She was younger in the years of the Eldar than her brothers; and when she was grown to full stature and beauty she was tall and strong, and loved much to ride and hunt in the forests. There she was often in the company of the sons of Fëanor, her kin; but to none was her heart’s love given. Ar-Feiniel she was called, the White Lady of the Noldor, for she was pale, though her hair was dark, and she was never arrayed but in silver and white"

"As Maeglin grew to full stature he resembled in face and form rather his kindred of the Noldor, but in mood and mind he was the son of his father... He was tall and black-haired; his eyes were dark, yet bright and keen as the eyes of the Noldor, and his skin was white"

--- The Silmarillion

Naturally, the left wing troll came back with these marvelous rejoinders:

"you should like...dig up JRR Tolkien, and complain to his carcass about how the Wokes made your fairytale inclusive."

"I'm fine with diverse elves. It kinda seems like you're the one that needs to cope with the change."

As usual, they ruin existing properties and mock those who object, because their objective is to destroy the past.

Because anything goes in fiction it doesn't matter if Professor Charles Xavier tells Harry Potter to use the Force.

Also see: heated seats, reposted below:


"You can accept dragons, elves and talking trees, but you can't accept a 2021 BMW 5 Series 530i with optional heated seating. Why are you so bigoted? *Battle of Pelennor Fields*"

Of course, good luck if you have white Wakandans. Left wingers hate the idea of "diversity" in Wakanda.

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