What Do Elves Eat, Anyway?

It's no accident that we've skipped most of the "meals" associated with elves in Heroes' Feast, but we finally came around to make one: bacon and asparagus. The bacon surprised us because we don't associate meat with elves.

Not Just Vegetables​

Heroes' Feast says a lot about elven cuisine by what it doesn't include. Of the elven recipes in Heroes' Feast, two involve seafood (shrimp and Dragon Salmon), one involves eggs, and only one involves meat: Greenspear Bundles in Bacon. Why was it included? Because it's actually made by half-elves:

Greenspears, also referred to as asparagus or "sparrow grass" by humans, is a perennial flower plant that has ascended to staple-status in many elven diets. While elves consume greenspear raw, seasoned, roasted, or steamed with herbs, their half-elf brethren--liberated from certain culinary taboos--have developed an additional preparation technique. In an irreverent touch, but one that flavorfully complements the greenspear, half-elves add salted and cured pork into the mix, in deference to their half-human taste buds. Regarding bacon, the thicker cut is always the better!"

This is the first meal we served with guests and they found it surprisingly delicious. It's the sort of meal that's different enough to introduce as an appetizer but flavorful enough that it gets eaten quickly. I'm not fond of asparagus or bacon, but the combination is delicious.

It's also a meal you can feasibly make for your players with a very short baking time (15 minutes or longer if you prefer your bacon crispier).

Tolkien's Elves​

The association of elves with vegetarianism is likely due to their affinity with nature, established in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. There's much discussion of elven lembas, a kind of travel ration, but little else. The association with elves avoiding meat likely stems from the inspiration for wood elves, the Green Elves of Ossiriand, who decided that men as "hewers of trees and hunters of beasts" were no friends of theirs.

Still, there is enough evidence throughout Tolkien's works to indicate that meat was present when elves served a meal or when they ate at a table, and the fact it wasn't mentioned that an elf skipped the meat portion of the meal argues that they were not vegetarian.

D&D Elves​

But what of elves in Dungeons & Dragons? Here's what Heroes' Feast has to say on the subject:

Because they place such a strong value on life, a high percentage of elves stringently exercise food restrictions, and a great many would fall into the category of vegetarian, vegan, or pescatarian--little that bleeds ends up on elven plates.

Ironically, D&D wood elves seem to be different from their Tolkien-inspired brethren:

High elves tend to align their diets most closely to their values, and prefer fruits, vegetables, and grains to meat and poultry. By contrast, wood elves are often wanderers and adventures and, consequently, more disposed to hunting and foraging.

So it seems that at least some elves eat meat after all. But you wouldn't know it from the recipes in Heroes' Feast.

Your Turn: Do elves eat meat in your fantasy campaign?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

One of the regular is an Elf who is vegan and she was apprehensive of human cuisine at first, but she gets impressed by tofu steaks. She realizes that elven cuisine is super bland and decides to go on a quest to discover new flavours.

This is the most dystopian thing that's ever been written about elves.

If tofu steaks are exciting, then elves are living a bleak, bleak life.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Dwarves.

They get surprisingly tender if you stew them long enough.

Pretty sure that there are elvish hunters mentioned in The Silmarillion - Celegorm for one. I think that it's more that elves oppose hunting for sport rather than for food and crafting. I doubt elves have a meat-heavy diet, and they would certainly follow the ideas about ethical consumption.

But I also recall some lines in the various Dragonlance works where Caramon expresses dismay that elves don't seem to eat meat. But Caramon was more than a little basic.

In the end, it's another "do dwarven women have beards" question. And as the DM, I'll let the player decide if their elf is a vegetarian or not.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

In my post-apocalyptic Winter Eternal game, it depends on the elves.

The eladrin and their vedalkyn servitors ate balanced. Their philosophy was about balance, meaning they did their best to make zero footprint on herding, crops, meat slaughter etc.

Now, the wood elves, being forced into nomadic survival and constant battles against the orc hordes, turned to worship of Yeegnoghu and became naked, demon worshipping berserkers who loved the taste and texture of flesh, but more so gained a metaphorical sustenance from the adrenaline of the pursuit and kill.

 

[Undrave]

This is the most dystopian thing that's ever been written about elves.

If tofu steaks are exciting, then elves are living a bleak, bleak life.

Japanese know how to cook tofu.

 

[ph0rk]

Japanese know how to cook tofu.

Lots of people do. The best Tofu is fried in lard - which would make for an excellent existential crisis for said sad elf.

 

[Yaarel]

I also view elves as having annual sacred revelries, when clans get together, that are orgiastic, with various kinds of competitions and entertainments, that are often magical in nature.

On such a day, elves might get "high" (on a certain kind of tree leaf?) and drunk (on a certain kind of berry wine?), not to mention magical intoxications.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Snails (small to giant). crawfish, spiders and scorpions, fish, some say dwarf and goblins, grubs of land shark, every 17 years cicadas, serpents. I hear they have amazing hydroponic gardens.

 

[rgoodbb]

"Dwarf Ears on Lembus and Goblins rotating,
Displacer Beasts medium rare for no waiting,
Auroch blue cheeses with wine from the Kings
These are a few of their Feyvourate things"...​

 

[Undrave]

This is the most dystopian thing that's ever been written about elves.

If tofu steaks are exciting, then elves are living a bleak, bleak life.

Joking aside, I think the point was that those elves were isolationists and weren't learning from other culinary traditions, so a new ingredient like tofu, or seaweed or miso, was a total surprise.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Hmm. Heroes' Feast has an interesting definition of "life." Mine includes plants.

@Bedrockgames has the right idea. To truly respect life, elves would have to eat something that doesn't grow. Like hair clippings...

My wild elves (they hate that term) eat 90% vegetables, 10% animal products - mostly because animals are much more productive while still alive.

A common misconception about angel hair: