The elves of folklore in the British Isles (i.e. fairies of various types) are very variously depicted, but quite often evoke fear from humans, and may be depicted as having an uncaring attitude towards humans.
This can be seen in the superior, heartless, sometimes cruel, way that elves laugh at mortals.
In contrast; Tolkien's elves as seen in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, are generally regarded very positively, as the best of the Free Peoples of Middle Earth.
They have their faults, are are certainly "superior" in their gifts; but the reader does not usually take away the impression that Tolkien's elves are heartless.
However, it has often been noticed that Tolkien's understanding of elves/ fairies overall changed very considerably throughout his life - and in his published works.
The depiction of the Rivendell elves in The Hobbit has always seemed to me unsatisfactory, indeed disappointing. This partly lies in Tolkien's residual affiliation to the Tudor-Victorian tradition of pretty, dancing, singing, rather silly elves - as seen in the songs given them ("tra-la-la-la-lally" etc.)
The first elf voice we encounter sounds distinctly epicene, even Oscar Wildean: "Just look! Bilbo the hobbit on a pony, my dear! Isn't it delicious!"
But the point I would like to emphasize here is that the Rivendell elves are said to laugh a lot , and mostly in a heartless, superior, slightly cruel kind of way.
"so [the elves] laughed and sand in the trees; and pretty fair nonsense I daresay you think it. Not that they would care; they would only laugh all the more if you told them so."
"some elves tease [dwarves] and laugh at them, and most of all at their beards."
The elves then proceed mock the dwarves as they almost crawl across a narrow bridge: "Don't dip your beard in the foam, father!"
And mock Bilbo for being fat: "Mind Bilbo does not eat all the cakes!... He is too fat to get through key-holes yet!"
The elves laughter is detached and arrogant, and directed at the hobbit and dwarves - the merriment (if merriment there indeed is) is not shared.
This heartless laughter is largely absent from elves in The Lord of the Rings (except a few waspish comments from Legolas early in the story, such as before he walks on top of the snow that traps the other members of the Fellowship).
But at our first sight of elves, when Frodo, Sam and Pippin meet Gildor the High Elves in Woody End, we again see this heartless kind of laughter:
"as the last elf passed he turned and looked towards the hobbit and laughed: 'Hail Frodo!' he cried. 'You are abroad late."
Frodo respectfully addresses them as fair people, and politely says "I would welcome your company"; to which the reply is "'But we have no need of other company, and hobbits are so dull', they laughed."
These are examples of inappropriate laughter; of a type that seems to express a basic lack of empathy; but such as might well be expected from a longevous species confronted by short-lived and less intelligent mortals.
And also there is in this apparently heartless laughter, it seems to me, an element of embarrassment; as if elves cannot be spontaneous or natural with other species; and do not know how to interact with them in a straightforward and personal way.
Such laughter then would perhaps be to "cover-up" a degree of elvish self-consciousness and condescension, even among kind and well-meaning elves such as Gildor; because they would really prefer not to have anything to do with hobbits, or dwarves... or anyone.
The heartless laughter of elves therefore makes sense, and is appropriate to the "immortal" and senior species as understood by Tolkien - whereas the residual Victorian silliness of "Tra-la-la-la-lally" is simply unfortunate.
2 comments:
Vox Day has a particularly heartless elf in his Fantasy series, she witnesses some human magicians get horribly killed in a botched rite and laughs uncontrollably. I can imagine they would have an inhuman sense of humour, after all even among humans military vets tend to develop a chilling mirth, strange jokes.
@WA - I am talking here of Tolkien's Legendarium.
From my experience, Most fantasy writers present elves as heartless, lacking in empathy - examples from among my favourite writers include Alan Garner, Terry Pratchett, and Susanna Clarke. And as I said, this is probably the general consensus of folklore.
But Tolkien in LotR does not, on the whole. Indeed absoutely the opposite with respect to Galadriel. Tolkien's Eldar are even now highly distinctive, even after decades in which JRRT has been such a major cultural and literary influence: at the time of writing LotR Tolkien's elves were probably unique.
One factor may be that to write convincingly of genuine nobility requires that the author possesses a fair measure of that virtue - which extremely few do.
Whereas to depict heartlessness, cruelty etc is to write of something that almost everybody has within themselves, and perhaps successful modern authors more than most!
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