Anyone else bothered by all the blond elves in the LotR movie?

[ColonelHardisson]

Another relevant passage:

"...and at the head of a long line of feasters sat a woodland king with a crown of leaves upon his golden hair, very much as Bombur had described the figure in his dream. The elvish folk were passing bowls from hand to hand and across the fires, and some were harping and many were singing. Their gleaming hair was twined with flowers..."

- The Hobbit, Chapter 8: Flies and Spiders

The woodland king is, of course, Thranduil, a Sinda and the father of Legolas. So it appears that the Sindar could also be blonde, and it seems there is a good chance Legolas was also. What Tolkien meant by "gleaming hair" in reference to the other elves is debatable, but I would venture to guess that he wouldn't describe dark hair as "gleaming." That doesn't necessarily mean they were blonde, but it seems to imply a light hair color.

 

[Wormwood]

This also points up something interesting about elves, possibly just the Noldor. Has nothing to do with the thread topic, but it's cool:
[snip]
They glow!

The upcoming Special Edition DVD will contain a scene where Frodo and Sam watch a procession of elves on their way to the Grey Havens. IIRC, the elves are outlined with a soft silver glow.

And they're blonde.

 

[Sulimo]

Based on my recollection of the Silmarillion and the LotR books, most elves were blonde. The Noldor seemed to have been dark-haired, except for the house of Finwe, particularly the descendants of Fingolfin and Finarfin (such as Galadriel).

Yeah. The Noldor are dark haired generally. The blondeness of the line of Finwe is due to the fact that his second wife was one of the Vanyar. His first marriage producing Feanor and his descendants who were dark haired.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

This reminds me of a great Tolkien Fan I know - he didn't want to watch the movie because he believed it would be bad and so on. But he saw some of the TV trailers, and he rambled about Legolas blond hair, because Tolkien described it being "gold hair", and so he wanted to see gold, not white/blond.

It seemed to be impossible to convince him that "gold hair" is a common term for blond. (And that Tolkien meant it this way...)
Maybe it is because he is not a native Englisch or German speaker...

Mustrum Ridcully

 

[Welverin]

Didn't you hear? Another board 'out there' promoted all of ENWorld to the rank of General Smartass (I won't even tell you what they promoted the Mods and Admins too )

Nah, I haven't been around much of late.

p.s. Here's a song for you.

 

[Holy Bovine]

That was great Welverin.


You know I have a folder on my computer just for cow links - there is some wierd stuff on the internet about cows.

But it all comes to the Holy Bovine

 

[Welverin]

That was great Welverin.

Since you liked that, give some of their other songs a try. They aren't related cow related, but still good.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

"Glorfindel was tall and straight; his hair was of shining gold, his face fair and young and fearless and full of joy; his eyes were bright and keen, and his voice like music; on his brow sat wisdom, and in his hand was strength."

- The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter 1: Many Meetings.

Glorfindel actually translates as "Golden-Haired," which would suggest to me that it is a sufficiently unusual characteristic to merit a name. Tolkien himself speculated whether 3rd Age Glorfindel was the same person as 1st Age Glorfindel (who perished in the flight from Gondolin): returned from the Undying Lands to bring succour to the Elves. He is suitably vague, of course.

They may not have been blonde, but I don't think the Sindar were necessarily dark haired either. Celeborn - a Sinda - wasn't blonde, but...

"...the hair of the Lord Celeborn was of silver long and bright; but no sign of age was upon them..."

In the "History of Galadriel and Celeborn" in Unfinished Tales, Tolkien speculates that Celeborn may not have been a Sinda, but a Telerin Elf from Valinor. Again, he is suitably indefinite and vague.

Re: Finarfin

Alone among the Noldorin Princes, he and his descendants had golden hair, derived from his mother Indis, who was a Vanyarin Elf.

Silmarillion, Index.

Tolkien seems to be suggesting the coloration of the other races via the Hobbit strain that resembled them

Ooh, Colonel. That's a bit of a stretch. In disposition and demeanour, yes, but I think that the fact that Fallohides are blonde is indicative that Elves are also may be stretching things a bit. With the Hobbits (3 strains), Tolkien also had this whole analogue to the invasion of Britain by the English in 5th century happening also.

Jutes, Angles and Saxons = Fallohides, Harfeet and Stoors.

Note that "Marcha" and "Blanca" - the legendary leaders in the Hobbit migrations - are exact corollaries of "Hengest" and "Horsa" (Two brothers who, according to tradition, founded the first English kindgoms in Britain). All are words which mean "Horse." Marcha=Mearh=Mare etc.

I've always felt that all elves are black-haired, except maybe some Telerin silver-hairs, and the Vanyar. Then I read this:

"...and at the head of a long line of feasters sat a woodland king with a crown of leaves upon his golden hair, very much as Bombur had described the figure in his dream.

You've got a damn good one there. Guess I need to rethink.

On an unrelated note, did you know that Cirdan had a beard?

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Ooh, Colonel. That's a bit of a stretch. In disposition and demeanour, yes, but I think that the fact that Fallohides are blonde is indicative that Elves are also may be stretching things a bit.

Maybe, maybe not. I'm not sure if or why Tolkien would be careful to note that each strain of Hobbit was friendly with another race, give them some of the characteristics of that race, and then not mean to suggest that those Hobbits physically resembled that race. I mean, Tolkien was, ultimately, making this stuff up, not reporting historical fact. He also wasn't above basing the appearance of the Dunedain on descriptions of Atlanteans, which suggests to me that he was willing to make a number of unusual connections in his literature. But, you're right that it may be stretching - but I'm not the only one to make the connection. Halflings in D&D were divided into three strains also - Hairfeet, Stouts, and Tallfellows. Each of them resembles one of the bigger races - human, dwarf, elf - physically and culturally. The point being that seeing such a connection isn't unique to me.

I always assumed all Tolkien elves were blonde, and, apparently, so did Peter Jackson and a lot of other Tolkien fans, judging by how prevalent the blonde elf stereotype is. A lot of this has to do with the direct descriptions of Galadriel and Glorfindel, as well as Tolkien's tendency to describe the elves, no matter which strain, with the word "fair." "Fair" means blonde to lots of English-speakers, but can easily refer to skin color.

All in all, I tend to think that the elves are colored thus, hair-wise:

Silvan or Wood-elves - Blondish, strawberry blonde

Sindar - blonde or silver

Noldor - dark haired, blonde in the house of Finwe (except Feanor)

One could make the assumption that perhaps Tolkien meant for the Noldor to be very different from other elves, and gave them dark hair to physically distinguish them.

Of course, this is all just guesswork on my part, based on what I got from Tolkien's writing.

 

[Darkness]

p.s. Can I have a position in the army General?

Be careful - there are two posters around here who are "Bothered About Dragongirl's Aim."

So if you join her army, you might be sent out to smite them - which could be quite dangerous...