Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical | Races: Elves

This week, I am taking a short break from the Appendixes to share my next set of character illustrations. I have designed eight variations on Elves: Vanyar (Valinor), Ñoldor (Rivendell), Ñoldor (Wandering), Ñoldor (Lothlórien), Teleri (Lothlórien), Teleri (Mirkwood), Teleri (The Shire), and Teleri (Lindon). While most of the physical traits and clothing of the Elves appear throughout the Legendarium, and are accessible through online databases, I have used my own knowledge of clothing history, an understanding of Middle-earth botany, real-world genetics, and creative license when creating these prototypical characters.

My Elves look a little flat in their stance in contrast to the more dynamic positioning of my Hobbits from the last post about the races of Middle-earth. I wanted the Elves to convey a “look”, like the outfit worn by a model on the runway, so I watched a MasterClass by Vogue magazine editor Anna Wintour to better understand the illustration style. The appearances of my Elves mirror many standard visual tropes found not only in the illustrations of Tolkien’s Elves but also in the selection of traditional models by agencies and designers. To use Tolkien’s own language, Elves are tall and slender and fair with even features and a deep gaze, their long hair neatly in place unless strayed by a sudden wind, and their clothes unchanged despite years of wear. Elves varied in height, which I indicated using a striped background, each stripe representing 1 foot.

My illustration of Elves does not vary greatly in some ways from most modern portrayals, and these visuals have origins stretching back hundreds of years as recorded in Stith Thompson’s Motif Index of Folk Literature, Elves often have “unusually large ears” (F232.3), “long hair” (F232.4), especially “yellow (golden) hair” (F233.5), are taller than average or “giants” (F232.6), and are “fair (fine, white)” (F233.6). The clothes of the Elves must appear pretty and well-made, as they “work on cloth” (F271.4), “are skillful as weavers (F271.4.2), “spin” their own thread (F271.4.3), and “engage in needlework” (F271.8), while “fairies give beautiful clothes” (F343.5) as gifts to their friends.

As last seen on my version of Fallohide Hobbits, all Elves wear gákti, a traditional Sámi outfit with bands of color on the collar, waist, and ankles. While traditional gákti are blue and red, the variations worn by Elves come in an array of colors based on their kindred or ethnic group and their place of origin. Elves also wear the same shoe style as Sámi to match their gákti, since this style inspired the shoes worn by the much smaller and less powerful Elves who work for Santa. While some viewers might find the little pompoms on the tips of the curved toes to be too whimsical, the design is historically accurate and differentiates Elf shoes from the footwear of other Races.

Several of my Elf designs have freckles, something I have not frequently seen in other portrayals. My rationale behind this design choice was the existence of red-haired Elves within the Ñoldor, specifically Maedhros son of Fëanor, half-cousin once removed from Galadriel and a foster father of Elrond. Since the real-world MC1R gene is one of the genes responsible for both red hair and freckles in humans, I assumed that many Elves carried a similar gene and had freckles even if they did not have rare red hair.

Elves must have large eyes compared to the other Races, aiding their ability to see incredibly far. Legolas could apparently see 5 leagues (about 24.2 kilometers or 15 miles) with little strain. This was much farther than a person with perfect vision in the real-world could see due to the curvature of the Earth, although Elves saw Arda as flat, so the surface curve was no problem. In my illustrations, Elves generally keep their eyes relaxed, and their heavy lids create almond-shaped eyes like many Scandinavian people. In the real-world, this is possibly due to Sámi, Inuit, and East Asian ancestry, as these groups have interacted for hundreds of years. When using their full vision, I depict the Elves widening their eyes to become an eagle-like shape, perfectly round with a large pupil. This design was inspired by Tolkien scholar and Tumblr user ColonelMagpie, who used knowledge of biology and algebra to determine a diameter of at least 3.5 centimeters or 1.4 inches, compared to the 2.4 cm or 0.9 inches of real-world adults.

Finally, I made a bold choice on Elf tooth design. Since real-world people have variation in the shape of their teeth depending on their genetics, the people of Arda should have even greater variation. I gave Hobbits a tooth design similar to rabbits with a pair of large incisors protruding from the front of the mouth and extra premolars and molars in the back, the perfect setup for constant chewing. The teeth of immortal Elves had to last for thousands of years, yet they lived in an ancient or medieval society before modern dentistry. Either their teeth were made of significantly more durable material than the teeth of Men, or they regrew their teeth throughout their lives. Since Elves were connected to the Sea, I found inspiration in sharks, whose teeth are known for continually falling out and growing back. Every Elf tooth looked like an eyetooth or canine to Men, but these do have slight differentiation, as the actual canines appeared larger than the other teeth. Not only was this a proven way for Elves to have healthy teeth throughout their long lives, but the design supported the duality of the appearance of Elves, that they are both fair and wise along with powerful and dangerous.

Vanyar (Valinor)

The Vanyar were the first clan of Elves, the smallest and most elite group, also known as the “Fair Ones”. They were the standards of beauty across Arda with golden hair and blue eyes, along with serving as powerful leaders over the other Elves. I portray my model as eight feet tall, dressed in sunny colors to match the motif “fairies in gleaming clothes” (F236.1.5), and glowing with the residual light of the Two Trees as first discussed in “Appendix A, I The Númenórean Kings, (i) Númenor”. By the end of the Third Age, the Vanyar were the only Elves to live in Valinor due to the expulsion of the Ñoldor and the kinslaying or genocide of the Falmari, who were a group of Teleri Elves. In this way, the Vanyar aligned with the motif “fairies in heaven” (F215.1.1) along with the only way to access their country, “magic boat to fairyland” (F213.1). In The Lord of the Rings, these Elves show up in Bilbo’s song “Eärendillinwë” as Eärendil arrives on the shore near Valinor and is brought to the Eldar King (The Fellowship of the Ring, 262-265) but are not otherwise appearing.

In contrast, descendants of Vanyar are major characters. Galadriel was a quarter Vanyar through her father’s mother Indris, the second wife of Finwë, but she lived among Ñoldor and Teleri Elves. Elrond was a thirty-second Vanyar as a descendent of Indis, making him and Galadriel first cousins three times removed, while Celebrían and Elrond were second cousins twice removed. Gil-Galad the last king of the Ñoldor was somehow part of the same family, although Tolkien was divided over whether he was the son of Fingon a grandson of Indis or the son of Orodreth a great-grandson of Indris. Finally, Glorfindel had unusual powers for a Ñoldor, along with golden hair, so although Tolkien wrote nothing about his family, he likely had some Vanyar ancestry. Fortunately, other groups of Elves seem less concerned about lineage, so we will not have to go through this again. If you enjoyed that last bit, wait a few weeks for Appendix C, the Hobbit family trees.

Ñoldor and Half-Elven (Rivendell)

Borrowing terminology from TV Tropes, a crowd-sourced wiki acting similarly to the Motif-Index but specifically for modern media, Rivendell appeared to be more of a “found family” or “family of choice” than “kindred” with the exception of the Half-elven family. I presume all who lived in Rivendell dressed how they wanted according to their own cultural backgrounds. Arwen’s outfit during her first meeting with Aragorn seemed more in line with the Ñoldor of Lórien, since she had lived there for a few hundred years, while Glorfindel had his own glowing attire. To represent the Rivendell residents, I created a basic version of Elrond. His clothes are darker than his Ñoldor counterparts, and I have forgone his “circlet of silver” to maintain consistency with the other Elves. A visual description of Elrond appeared in Frodo’s narrative during “Many Meetings”: “His hair was dark as the shadows of twilight, and upon it was set a circlet of silver; his eyes were grey as a clear evening, and in them was a light like the light of stars.” (Fellowship, 254).

I added athelas into Elrond’s hair, a “magic healing plant” (D1500.1.4) or “magic plant heals wounds” (D1503.10) found in parts of Middle-earth sometimes used to make a “magic healing salve” (D1500.1.19) or “magic balm heals wounds” (D1503.4.1). According to Aragorn, these flowers were brought by Númenóreans (Fellowship, 224), yet his “Lay of Luthien” sung a chapter earlier seemed to reference those same flowers as Beren was healed by Luthien’s power while in Middle-earth: “He saw the elven-flowers spring / About her feet, and healed again…” (Fellowship, 217), which combines healing plants with “magic healing song” (D1500.1.24). Either the appearance of the flowers tied to healing was coincidental, or Aragorn was wrong, which would not shock me. At any rate, I wanted to make a visual connection between Elrond’s healing power through the Elven Ring of Air, Vilya, and the healing properties of athelas.

Ñoldor (Wandering)

This group of Elves included translator Gildor Inglorion, who met Frodo, Sam, and Pippin on their way to Crickhollow during “Three Is Company”. Like other Elves, they were bioluminescent, “starlight glimmering on their hair and in their eyes… a shimmer, like the light of the moon… seemed to fall about their feet” (Fellowship, 89). Frodo knew these were “High Elves”, or ones who had once lived in Valinor. They wore “gleaming clothes” (F236.1.4), which I have decided to portray as “blue” (F236.1.2), and “spoke the name of Elbereth”, patron Valar of the Elves. The Ñoldor contrasted the Elves who typically wandered through the Shire, although both of these groups fit the motif “fairies live in the forest” (F216). The Hobbits met the Elves “at cross-roads” (F217.3) and were brought to a “congregating place of fairies” (F217). I assume that many of these Elves had dark hair and grey eyes like Elrond and his children.

I took liberties with the flower of choice for these Elves, as there is no evidence of a plant like a poinsettia existing in Middle-earth. This family of flowers came from Central America and did not enter European or European American culture until the early 19th century, around the time Christmas became an acceptable and even commercialized holiday. (I attended a talk about this last holiday season.) In this way, the migration of the poinsettia was similar to the athelas, should Aragorn’s theory prove true. On an interesting linguistics note, the English name for the plant derived from meddling Latin American politician Joel R. Poinsett, who did much better in his role encouraging James Smithson to bequeath money to the United States for starting the Smithsonian museums.

Ñoldor (Lothlórien)

Ñoldor Elves in Lothlórien should look similar to Galadriel, if smaller and less “fair”. I based their clothing design on the description of Arwen’s outfit when she met Aragorn for the first time during “(v) The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen”, as her clothes must be from Galadriel’s design studio: “clad in a mantle of silver and blue, fair as the twilight in Elven-home; her dark hair strayed in a sudden wind, and her brows were bound with gems like stars”. (The Return of the King, 371)

As for their living situation, this group of Elves matched the motif “Fairies live in forest” (F216) and its more specific variant “Fairies live in trees by stream” (F216.1), their stream being named Nimrodel (Fellowship, 380-382). The “yellow elanor and the pale niphredil” flowers grew in their country, so I portrayed them with a golden flower tucked behind their ears (Fellowship,393). Much more about life in Lothlórien will appear during my post on the chapter of the same name.

One creative license I took with the design of Lothlórien Elves was giving them star-like freckles. The theme of light and stars representing free will — and described as purity or goodness by some literary scholars — appeared throughout the Legendarium, so I will track its mention throughout my analysis. The star freckles are part of this theme, mimicking the light of the Two Trees and the lively star-like glow found in the eyes of many Elves.

Teleri (Lothlórien)

In another bout of creative license, my illustrations of Teleri Elves of Lothlórien look similar, if shorter, than their Ñoldor counterparts, rather than like their kindred in Mirkwood, except for their eye color. I have given grey eyes to the Ñoldor, while Teleri have green or hazel eyes. Lórien Teleri wear the same clothing designed by Galadriel and her elf-maiden assistants, which is to be expected, but they also have matching star-like freckles. My rationale was that Galadriel’s power affected the appearance of anyone born or living in her presence, as seen in the final dialogue chapter “The Grey Havens”. Hobbit babies with “rich golden hair that had before been rare among hobbits” were born for years after Sam spread dust from Galadriel’s garden across the Shire (Return, 331). Teleri Elves born or living in Lothlórien would likewise look more like Galadriel and their Ñoldor neighbors.

Besides their gákti, these Elves wear grey cloaks, not appearing in this illustration to maintain consistency with the other looks. Brothers Haldir, Rúmil, and Orophin were “clad in shadowy-grey” (384) when meeting the Fellowship. Galadriel evidently enjoyed giving these cloaks as parting gifts for her favorite visitors, in line with the motif “fairy gives magic cloak” (F43.5.1). Pippin asked if these were “magic cloaks” (D1053), but the Elves were confused by his question (Fellowship, 415-416) as the word magic had no meaning in their dialect of Westron.

Teleri (Mirkwood)

Among the rankings of landed Elves, those from Mirkwood seem to be at the bottom of the hierarchy. Bilbo attempted to explain the situation in an editorial passage within The Hobbit: “They differed from the High Elves of the West, and were more dangerous and less wise. For most of them (together with their scattered relations in the hills and mountains) were descended from the ancient tribes that never went to Faerie in the West” (167). Haldir seemed to subtly bully his relative Legolas, prince of Mirkwood, by forcing him to sleep in a different flet or treehouse with the mortals of the Fellowship, while Frodo and the other Hobbits could stay with the brothers from Lothlórien (Fellowship, 385). Later, Haldir disparagingly described Southern Mirkwood while speaking with Frodo (Fellowship, 394-395).

A combination of motifs described the living situation in Mirkwood, including “Fairies live under earth” (F211.3), “fairies live in forest” (F216), and “fairies’ underground palace” (F222.1). Additionally, they “dwell[ed] in land to the east” (F219.3) within the southern part of the country neighboring Mordor. This location may have contributed to their lower status, as the East was viewed as an evil or corrupted place by people within Middle-earth.

Mirkwood Elves appeared to wear two different types of clothes: fancy outfits for parties and plain outfits for traveling. While watching a party in Mirkwood, Bilbo noticed “Their gleaming hair was twined with flowers; green and white gems glinted on their collars and their belts” (The Hobbit, 154) In a similarly decorative fashion, the Elvenking’s crown changed with the seasons: “On his head was a crown of berries and red leaves, for the autumn was come again. In the spring he wore a crown of woodland flowers” (The Hobbit, 172). The text did not explain how Bilbo knew about the second crown, unless he snuck into Thranduil Elvenking’s closets to take notes for his “whole rooms devoted to clothes” (The Hobbit, 1), which seems in character. Legolas contrasted his father’s elegant attire with Frodo describing him as “a strange Elf clad in green and brown” (Fellowship, 26) and later mentioned that “the Elf had no boots, but wore only light shoes, as he always did” even when walking through the snow (Fellowship, 328).

While Thranduil Elvenking fit the motif of “fairy king with yellow hair” (F233.4.1), he was not closely related to most of his subjects, who as the descendants of Teleri would mostly have dark or silver hair. My depiction of Mirkwood Elves have freckles similar to the pattern on birch bark with brown and grey stripes instead of smaller spots. I thought this was a good way to illustrate Tolkien’s “Man to Tree” path, which led from regular Man to nature-loving Elf to giant Ent to moving Huorn to stationary Tree. The flowers in the hair of Mirkwood Elves are pink primulas or primroses, common throughout the Northern Hemisphere in the real-world and evidently common in Middle-earth, as Primula was the name of Frodo’s mother.

Teleri (The Shire)

Teleri Elves who wandered through the Shire — another group of “fairies live in forest” (F216) — were probably the fairies that Bilbo claimed were not his relatives despite the rumor that “long ago one of the Took ancestors must have taken a fairy wife” (The Hobbit, 2). As discussed during “Races: Hobbits”, Fallohide Hobbits lived among Elves for a time and potentially shared a common ancestor with them, as they were tall, fairer, longer-lived, wealthier, and more adventurous than other breeds of Hobbits.

I have drawn the Shire Elves as smaller than other kindred, reaching a maximum of five and a half feet tall, aligning to the motif “fairies are the same size as mortals” (F239.4.1). I decided this group wore “green clothes” (F236.1.6), since Hobbits of the Shire wore “bright colors (chiefly green and yellow)” (The Hobbit, 2; Fellowship, 2) at the end of the Third Age. They have green primulas in their hair and the brown freckles also seen in my iteration of Hobbits. If there were ever Elves to be mistaken for Men, it would be these Elves.

Teleri (Lindon)

Farthest west in the Grey Havens and surrounding country live Círdan’s Elves, “water fairies” (F212.0.1) who specialized in constructing “fairy boat[s]” (F242.2), especially the “magic boat[s] to fairyland” (F213.1). They also sailed their ships to rescue friends, although not always successfully as was the case when attempting to rescue Arvedui and his Men in the North during “(iii) Eriador, Arnor, and the Heirs of Isildur”. These Elves only appeared in “The Grey Havens” and the appendixes, and since none of these passages were in Frodo’s perspective, the text contained no clothing description. For my creative license with these Elves, they wear kelp in their hair instead of flowers and “wear multi-colored dress” (F236.1.7) with stripes representing the blues and browns of the sea.

Conclusion

The costuming of these Elves set standards for characters who would appear in the hypothetical animated musical. Variation on these outfits would allow recurring characters to be immediately recognizable to viewers, and visually similar characters to be distinguishable, while maintaining a strong visual connection to other members in their group. Significant description of clothing appeared throughout the text, and by combining this information with historical knowledge and creativity, I created a comprehensive system for the entire Race.

Read past installments of Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical

• New Project Announcement
• Introduction by Peter S. Beagle
• Foreword by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Introduction to the History of Animation
• Prologue, 1 Concerning Hobbits
• Introduction to Maps
• Races: Hobbits
• Perspectives on the Sea
• Prologue, 2 Concerning Pipe-weed
• Prologue, 3 On the Ordering of the Shire
• Prologue, 4 Of the Finding of the Ring
• Prologue, Note on the Shire Record
• Introduction to the History of Musical Theater
• Introduction to the History of Documentaries
• Introduction to the History of Conlangs
• Introduction to the Appendixes
• Overview of Appendix A “Annals of the Kings and Rulers”
• Appendix A, I The Númenórean Kings, (i) Númenor
• Appendix A, I The Númenórean Kings, (ii) The Realms in Exile
• Appendix A, I The Númenórean Kings, (iii) Eriador, Arnor, and the Heirs of Isildur
• Appendix A, I The Númenórean Kings, (iv) Gondor and the Heirs of Anárion
• Appendix A, I The Númenórean Kings, (v) The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen