Are grey elves actually grey?

[Tsyr]

No, grey elves, wood elves and high elves all came from Tolkien. Tolkien's gray elves often wore grey cloaks, and thus their name. Ironically, grey elves and high elves in Tolkien were almost the reverse from each other in D&D. Why would high elves be the most common, normal type of elf, anyway?

Well, it depends on the setting.

The Complete Book of Elves is a good source to check, I suppose, but it's sorta burried in my room right now...

Anyhow, in some (Most?) DnD settings, grey elves are as people described... kinda the albinos of the elf race.

 

[Darraketh]

I think it would be cool if they were translucent.

 

[Agback]

So, does anyone have any other info that would be useful to someone trying to roleplay a grey elf? And are they actually grey (doesn't matter, it just would be nice to know ? )? Thanks for all the help!

The term 'grey elves' comes from Tolkien, a 'translation' of his term 'sindar'. The Sindar were that group who set out on the Great Journey (and were therefore not Avari "Refusers"), but who never arrived at Aman in the Time of the Two Trees (and were therefore not Calaquendi ("Elves of the Light")). Most of them were members of that people who called themselves Lindar ("Singers"), but whom the other elves called Teleri "Lastcomers". It is hard to discover in Tolkien what the Teleri looked like, but we gather that they were neither blond like the Vanyar nor black-haired like most Noldor, and that probably few of them had bright blue Vanyarin nor ashen-grey Noldorin eyes. Many of them in Beleriand often wore grey mantles, in imitation of their king Elwë Singollo/Elu Thingol.

D&D borrowed the phrase "grey elves" without borrowing much else about the Sindar. Indeed, it seems to have slipped them into the position of the fair Vanyar as the mightiest and snootiest of the mighty snooty elves. (The Sindar were about fourth in the hierarchy, after the Vanyar, Noldor, and the Falmari (those Teleri who made it to Aman in the Time of the Trees.) D&D could have made them grey in colour, but there is no reason to suppose that they did. They are described in the Monster Manual on page 87, with a mention of two schemes of coloration: silver hair with amber eyes, and pale gold hair with violet eyes. Complexion is not discussed, so I presume that it is not appreciably different from that of other elves, ie. "pale-skinned".

There might be other information available that is peculiar to your GM's [chosen] setting. Ask your GM for details.

Regards,


Agback

 

[333 Dave]

Wasn't Luthien a Sindar? She had black hair, right?

 

[Darraketh]

Wasn't Luthien a Sindar? She had black hair, right?

Luthien was an Eldarin princess, daughter of Thingol and Melian.

 

[Desdichado]

Actually, in one of his essays buried deep in War of the Jewels (I believe) Tolkien says that the Sindar usually had dark hair "like the Noldor." Luthien was odd: she was a princess of the Sindarin people, but she wasn't really Sindarin, as her mother was a Maia (angel--sorta) and her father, Elwe Singollo (later changed to Elu Thingol as Sindarin diverged linguistically from Quenya) actually went to Aman and returned, so technically wasn't a Grey Elf. Even though he was the king of the Grey Elves.

Tolkien's "elvish origins" myth posits a fairly complicated history of the divergence of the elves, including three original houses, which mapped (sorta) to the three houses of the Eldar. Of the first house, all became Eldar and went to Valinor (as the Vanyar), of the second house (the Tatyar) I think about half? (can't remember here real well) became Eldar and went to Valinor as the Noldor of the third house (The Lindar) a similar number went and stayed, although those of the Lindar Eldar who undertook the journey split into three groups, the Sylvan elves (Green elves) who remained on the east side of the Misty Mountains, the Sindar who remained on the Western Shore, and the Teleri who came to Valinor, but remained on the eastern island Alqualonde.

 

[trancejeremy]

While the name Grey Elf came from Tolkien, at least in 1st Edition they were basically straight out of Spenser's Faerie Queen.

In that book, the Elves sort of had a kingdom like that of King Athur.