Physical Appearance
by Numellote
SOURCE: ''UNFINISHED TALES''
Chapter: ''Of Tuor and his coming to
Gondolin''
Page: 42
EYES
''Then
the elf turned and looked up, and Tuor met the piercing glance of his
sea-grey eyes, and knew he was of the high folk of
the Noldor.''
Page:44
STRENGTH /ENDURANCE
''You know
the strength of Men'', he said. ''As for me, I am of the Noldor, and long must be the hunger and cold the winter that shall slay the
kin of those who passed the Grinding Ice.''
Chapter:
''The History of Galadriel and Celeborn'', ''And of Amroth King of Lórien''
Page:
295
HAIR
''Finarfin
was of his mother's kind in mind and body, having the golden hair of the Vanyar, their noble and gentle temper, and their love of the Valar.''
Page: 296
''Finrod
was like his father in his fair face and golden
hair, and also in noble and generous heart, thoughhe had the high courage ofthe
Noldor....''
Page: 296
HEIGHT / HAIR/ STRENGTH
(Of Galadriel) ''Her mother-name was Nerwen (''man-maiden''), and she grew to be tall
beyond the measure even of the women of the Noldor, she was strong of body,
mind, and will, a match for both the loremasters and the athletes of the Eldar
in the days of their youth. Even among the Eldar she was accounted beautiful,
and her hair was held a marvel unmatched. It was golden like the hair of her
father and of her foremother Indis, but richer and more radiant, for its gold
was touched by some memory of the starlike silver of her mother; and the Eldar
said that the light of the Two Trees, Laurelin and Telperion, had been snared
in her tresses.''
Page: 320
BEARDLESNESS
''In a note written in December 1972
orlater, and among the last writings of my father's on the subject of
Middle-earth, there is a discussion of the Elvish strain in Men, as to its being
observable in the beardlesness of those who were
so descended (it was a characteristic of all Elves to be beardless); and it
ishere noted in connection with the princely house of Dol Amroth that ''this
line had a special Elvish strain, according to its own legends'' (with a reference to the speeches between Legolas and Imrahil in ROTK,
V 9,cited above)''. (written by Christopher Tolkien)
Chapter: ''Third Age'' ''The disaster
of the Gladden Fields''
Page: 370
HEIGHT
''The Eldar of the Elder days were also
very tall. Galadriel, ''the tallest o fall the women of the Eldar of whom
tales tell'',
was said to be man-high, but it is noted ''according to the measures of the
Dúnedain and the men of old'', indicating a height of
about six feet four inches.''
Page: 371 - COMPARISON IN HEIGHT
''Another
note remarks of Celeborn that he was a ''Lindar of Valinor (that is, one of the
Teleri, whose own name for themselves was Lindar, the Singers), and that ''he
was held by them to be tall, as his name indicated (''silver-tall''); but the
Teleri were in general somewhat less in build and stature than the Noldor.''
SOURCE: ''LOST ROAD AND OTHER
WRITINGS''
Chapter: ''The later Annals of
Valinor''
Pages: 114, 115
APPEARANCE
''Fëanor
was the mightiest Gnome of all that have been, wordcrafty and handcrafty, fair
and strong and tall, fiery of mood and thought, hardtempered, undaunted, master
of the wills of others.''
Chapter: '' Quenta Silmarillion''
3 a ) ''Of the coming of the Elves''
Page: 212
BEAUTY
''In
the beginning they were greater and more strong than they have since become,
but no more fair, for though the beauty of the Eldar in the days of their youth
was beyond all other beauty that Ilúvatar had caused to be, it has not
perished, but lives in the West, and sorrow and wisdom have enriched it.'' (Also
found in ''The Silmarillion'', page 46.)
Page: 214.
''The Lindar (later renamed Vanyar,
>>Numellote wrote>>), were his folk, the fairest of the Quendi,
they are the High-Elves, and the beloved of Manwë and Varda, and few among Men
have spoken with them.'' (Also found in ''The Silmarillion'', page 50.)
Page: 214
HAIR
''Elwë
was their lord , and his hair was long and white'' (Of Teleri)
Page: 246
APPEARANCE
''In those days Elves and Men were of like
stature and STRENGTH of body; but Elves were blessed with greater wit, and
skill, and beauty; and those who had dwelt in Valinor and looked upon the Gods
as much surpassed the Dark-elves in this things as they in turn surpassed the
people of mortal race.''
Page: 252
STRENGTH
''There Maedhros in time was healed; for
the fire of life was hot within him, and his STRENGTH was of the ancient world,
such as those possessed who were nurtured in Valinor.'' (Also found in ''The
Silmarillion'', chapter '' Of the Return of the Noldor'', page: 125 )
Pages: 299, 300
HAIR
''Then Celegorm arose amid the throng (169
p.).'' In QS this is followed by ''golden was his long hair.'' In Lay at this point (line1844)
Celegorm has ''gleaming hair'', his Old English name was Cynegrim Faegerfeax
(''Fair-hair''), IV 213. The phrase was removed in ''The Silmarillion'' text on
account of the dark hair of the Noldorin princes other than in'' the golden
house of Finarfin'' (see I 44),
but he remains ''Celegorm the fair'' in ''The Silmarillion'', p. 60.'' (note of
Christopher Tolkien).
SOURCE: ''THE SILMARILLION''
Chapter. '' Of Eldamar and the princes
of the Eldalië''
Page:58
HAIR:
(Of Thingol) ''His people gathered about him in joy, and they were amazed; for fair
and noble as he had been, now he appeared as it were a lord of the Maiar, his
hair as grey silver, tallest of all the Children of Ilúvatar; and a high doom
was before him.''
Page:60
HEIGHT
(Of Aredhel)
''She was younger in the years of the Eldar than her brothers, and when she was
grown to full stature and beauty she was tall and strong, andloved much to ride
and hunt in the forest.''
Page:61
HAIR
(Of Aredhel)
''Ar-Feiniel she was called, the White Lady of the Noldor, for she was pale
though her hair was dark, and she was never arrayed but in silver and white.''
Page: 61
(Of Galadriel) ''A sister they had, Galadriel, most beautiful of all the house of
Finwë; her hair was lit with gold as though it had caught in a mesh the
radiance of Laurelin.''
Chapter: ''Of Fëanor and the Unchaining
of Melkor''
Page:64
HAIR
(Of Fëanor) ''And his love he gave
thereafter to his son; and Fëanor grew swiftly, as if a secret fire were
kindled within him. He was tall, and fair of face, and masterful, his eyes
piercingly bright and his hair raven-dark; in the pursuit of all his purposes
eager and steadfast.''
Page: 65
(Of Indis)
''Now it came to pass that Finwë took as his second wife Indis the Fair. She
was a Vanya, close kin of Ingwë the High King, golden-haired and tall, and in
all ways unlike Míriel.''
Chapter: ''Of Men''
Page: 116
COMPARISON BETWEEN ELVES AND MEN
''
''In those days Elves and Men were of like stature and strength of body; but
Elves were blessed with greater wit, and skill, and beauty; and those who had
dwelt in Valinor and looked upon the Powers as much surpassed the Dark-elves in
this things as they in turn surpassed the people of mortal race. Only in the
realm of Doriath, whose queen Melian was of the kindred of the Valar, did the
Sindar come near to match the Calaquendi of the Blessed Realm. ''
Chapter '' Of the Return of the
Noldor''
Page: 120
EYES
The Noldor,
outnumbered and taken at unawares, were yet swiftly victorious; for the light
of Aman was not yet dimmed in their eyes, and they were strong and swift, and
deadly in anger [Š]
Chapter: ''Of the Noldor in Beleriand''
Page: 145
HAIR
(Of Idril)
''But fairer than all the wonders of Gondolin was Idril, Turgon's daughter, she
that was called Celebrindal, the Silver-foot, whose hair was as the gold of
Laurelin before the coming of Melkor.''
Chapter: ''Of Maeglin''
Page: 154
''But Eöl,
though stooped by his smithwork, was no Dwarf, but a tall Elf of a high kin of
the Teleri, noble though grim of face; and his eyes could see deep into shadows
and dark places.''
''Then he called him Maeglin, which is
Sharp Glance, for he perceived that the eyes of his son were more piercing than
his own, and his thought could read the secrets of hearts beyond the mist of
words.''
Page: 155
APPEARANCE (eyes, height, hair)
(Of Maeglin)
''He was tall and black-haired; his eyes were dark, yet bright and keen as the
eyes of the Noldor, and his skin was white. Often he went with Eöl to the
cities of the Dwarves in the east of Ered Lindon, and there he learned eagerly
what they would teach, and above all the craft of finding the ores of metals in
the mountains.''
Page: 158
HAIR
Yet to none were his eyes more often drawn
than to Idril the King's daughter, who set beside
him, for she was golden as the Vanyar, her mother's kindred, and she seemed to
him as the sun from which all the King's hall drew its light.''
Chapter: ''Of the Coming of Men in to
the West''
Page: 167
LIGHT IN EYES
''
But many Men remained in Estolad, and there was still a mingled people living
there long years after, until in the ruin of Beleriand they were overwhelmed or
fled back into the East. For beside the old who deemed that their wandering
days were over there were not a few who desired to go their own ways, and they
feared the Eldar and the light of their eyes...''
Chapter: ''Of Beren and Lúthien''
Page: 193
APPEARANCE (hair, eyes)
(Of Lúthien)
''Then all memory of his pain departed from him, and he fell into an
enchantment; for Lúthien was the most beautiful of all the Children of
Ilúvatar. Blue was her raiment as the unclouded heaven, but her eyes were grey
as the starlit evening; her mantle was sewn with golden flowers, but her hair
was dark as the shadows of twilight. As the light upon the leaves of trees, as
the voice of clear waters, as the stars above the mists of the world, such was
her glory and her loveliness; and in her face was a shining light.''
Chapter: ''Of Tuor and the Fall of
Gondolin''
Page: 292
HAIR
(Of Glorfindel) ''Then dreadful was their plight, and hardly would they have been
saved by the valour of yellow-haired Glorfindel, chief of the House of the
Golden Flower of Gondolin, had not Thorondor come timely to their aid.''
Chapter: ''Index of Names''-
Page: 397
(Of Finarfin) ''Finarfin - Third son of
Finwë, the younger of Fëanor's half-brothers; remained in Aman after the Exile
of the Noldor and ruled the remnant of his people in Tirion. Alone among the
Noldorin princes he and his descendants had golden hair, derived from his
mother Indis, who was a Vanyarin Elf.''
Page: 428
(Of the Vanyar) ''The first host of the Eldar on the westward journey from Cuiviénen,
led by Ingwë. The name (singular Vanya)
means 'the Fair', referring to the golden hair of the Vanyar; see Finarfin.''
<
Chapter: ''Of the Rings of Power and
the Third Age
Page: 359
GENERAL
''Those
were the Fading Years, and in them the last flowering of the Elves east of the
Sea came to its winter. In that time the Noldor walked still in the Hither
Lands, mightiest and fairest of the children of the world, and their tongues were
still heard by mortal ears.''
SOURCE: ''THE LORD OF THE RINGS''
''THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING''
Chapter: ''Three is Company''
Page: 89
EYES
''They
passed slowly, and the hobbits could see the starlight shimmering on their hair
and in their eyes.''
Page: 90
''They now marched on again in silence,
and passed like shadows and faint lights; for Elves (even more than hobbits)
could walk when they wished without sound or footfall.''
Page: 91
EYES
''Pippin
afterwards recalled little of either food or drink, for his mind was filled
with the light upon the elf-faces, and the sound of voices so various and so
beautiful that he felt in a waking dream.''
Chapter: ''Flight to the Ford''
Page:221
HAIR
(Of Glorfindel) ''The rider's cloak streamed behind him, and his hood was thrown back;
his golden hair flowed shimmering in the wind of his speed.''
Chapter: ''Many Meetings''
Page: 239
DESCRIPTION (eyes, hair, height)
''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 face of Elrond was ageless, neither old nor young, though in it was written the memory
of many things both glad and sorrowful. 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. Venerable he
seemed as a king crowned with many winters, and yet hale as a tried warrior in
the fullness of his STRENGTH. He was the Lord of Rivendell and mighty among
both Elves and Men.
In the middle of the table, against the
woven cloths upon the wall, there was a chair under a canopy, and there sat a
lady fair to look upon, and so
like was she in form of womanhood to Elrond that Frodo guessed that she was one
of his close kindred. Young she was and yet not so. The braids of her dark hair
were touched by no frost, her white arms and clear face were flawless and smooth,
and the light of stars was in her bright eyes, grey as a cloudless night. Yet
queenly she looked, and thought and knowledge were in her glance, as of one who
has known many things that the years bring....So it was that Frodo saw her whom
few mortals had yet seen; Arwen, daughter of
Elrond, in whom it was said that the likeness of Lúthien had come on earth
again, and she was called Undómiel, for she was the Evenstar of her people.''
Page. 250
LIGHT IN EYES
''They spoke together, and then suddenly
it seemed to Frodo that Arwen turned towards him, and the light of her eyes
fell on him from afar and pierced his heart.''
Chapter: ''The Council of Elrond''
Page. 284
EYES
'' Elrond raised his eyes and looked at
him, and Frodo felt his heart pierced by the sudden keenness of the glance.''
Page:295
EYES
''The others were in file behind, and
Legolas whose eyes were keen was the reguard.''
Chapter: ''The Mirror of Galadriel''
Page: 369
DESCRIPTION (height, eyes, hair)
''Very tall they were, and the Lady no
less tall than the Lord: and they were grave and beautiful. They were clad
wholly in white, and the hair of the Lady
was of deep gold, and the hair of the Lord Celeborn was of silver long and bright; but no sign of age was upon them, unless
it were in the depths of their eyes; for these were keen as lances in the
starlight, and yet profound, the wells of deep memory.''
Page:372
EYES
(Of Galadriel) ''And with that word she held them with her eyes, and in silence
looked searchingly at each of them in turn. None save Legolas and Aragorn could
long endure her glance.''
Page:376
HEIGHT
(Of Galadriel) ''Tall and white and fair she walked beneath the trees.''
Page: 377
HEIGHT
(Of Galadriel) ''The air was very still, and the dell was dark, and the
Elf-lady beside him was tall and pale.''
Page: 381
DESCRIPTION
(Of
Galadriel) ''She stood before Frodo
seeming now tall beyond measurement, and beautiful beyond enduring, terrible
and worshipful. Then she let her hand fall, and the light faded, and suddenly she
laughed again, and lo! She was shrunken. A slender elf-woman, clad in simple
white, whose gently voice was soft and sad.''
Page:392
HAIR
''Then
the Lady unbraided on of her long tresses, and cut off three golden hairs, and
laid them in Gimli's hand.''
TWO TOWERS
Chapter: ''The riders of Rohan''
Page: 25
SHARP EYES
''Look! cried Legolas, pointing up into
the pale sky above them. There is the eagle again! He is very high. He seems to
be flying now away from this land back to the North. He is going with great
speed. Look!
No, not even my eyes can see him, my good
Legolas, said Aragorn.''
Page: 32
EYES
''But
Legolas stood beside him, shading his bright elven-eyes with his slender
handŠ''
''Yes, said Legolas, there are one hundred
and five. Yellow is their hair, and bright are their spears. Their leader is
very tall.''
Aragorn smiled. ''Keen are the eyes of the
Elves'', he said.
Nay! The raiders are little more than five
leagues distant.'' said Legolas.''
Chapter: ''The King of the Golden
Hall''
Page: 121
EYES
''It
seemed to Legolas, as he strained his farseeing eyes, that he caught a glint of
white;..''
Chapter: ''Helm's Deep''
Page: 140
''You have the keen eyes of your fair
kindred, Legolas'', he said; ''and they can tell a sparrow from a finch of
league off!''
THE RETURN OF THE KING
Chapter: '' The Passing of the Grey
Company''
Page:49
EYES
''Legolas
stood before the gate and turned his bright eyes away north and east, and his
fair face was troubled.''
Page: 51
(Of Elladan and Elrohir)''So much alike were they; the sons of Elrond, that few could tell them
apart: dark-haired, grey-eyed, and their faces elven-fair, clad alike in bright
mail beneath cloaks of silver-grey.''
APPENDIX A
I The Númenorean Kings
(v) HERE FOLLOWS A PART OF THE TALE OF
ARAGORN AND ARWEN
Page: 338
(Of
Arwen)''And behold! There Lúthien walked before
his eyes in Rivendell, 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.''
Page: 339
(Of Arwen)''Then
Aragorn was abashed, for he saw the elven-light in her eyes and the wisdom of
many days; yet from that hour he loved Arwen Undómiel, daughter of Elrond.''
Page: 344
''But
Arwen went forth from the House, and the light
of her eyes was quenched, and it seemed to her people that she became cold and
grey as nightfall in winter that comes without a star.''
Appendix F - II ''ON TRANSLATION'
Pages:
415, 416
(Of Quendi) ''They were a race high and beautiful,
the older Children of the world, and among them the Eldar were as kings, who
now are gone: the People of the Great Journey, the People of the Stars. They
were tall, fair of skin and grey-eyed, though their locks were dark, save in
the golden house of Finarfin; and their voices had more melodies than any
mortal voice that now is heard.''
SOURCE : 'UNFINISHED TALES'
Chapter:''Of Tuor and his Coming to Gondolin''
Page: 28 general (Of the Noldor)
''Then he saw that they were grey-cloaked but mail-clad under; and he marvelled, for they were fairer and more fell to look upon, because of the light of their eyes, than any of the Elven-folk that he yet had known.''
Supplement by Tinw:
A post by "Ithildin" in this thread on hair color adds a few useful tidbits. Excerpts from Ithildin's post:
In general Tolkien described Elves this way: "They were tall, fair of skin and grey-eyed, though their locks were dark, save in the golden house of Finarfin; and their voices had more melodies than any mortal voice that now is heard." (LOTR, Appendix F)
And of the Sindar in particular he says: "Elwë himself had indeed long and beautiful hair of silver hue, but this does not seem to have been a common feature of the Sindar, though it was found among them occasionally, especially in the nearer or remoter kin of Elwë (as in the case of Cirdan). In general the Sindar appear to have very closely resembled the Exiles, being dark-haired, strong and tall, but lithe. Indeed they could hardly be told apart except by their eyes; for the eyes of all the Elves that had dwelt in Aman impressed those of Middle-earth by their piercing brightness. For which reason the Sindar often called them Lachend, pl. Lechind 'flame-eyed'." (Quendi and Eldar, War of the Jewels, p384)
In Tolkien's earlier mythology, Elves were predominantly blond, and only the Noldor were dark haired. Christopher Tolkien wrote, "I pointed out that the words "'They were tall, fair of skin and grey-eyed, though their locks were dark, save in the golden house of Finrod [Finarfin]' were originally written of the Noldor only, and not of all the Eldar, and I objected that
'the Vanyar had golden hair, and it was from Finarfin's Vanyarin
mother Indis that he, and Finrod Felagund and Galadriel his children,
had their golden hair', finding in the final use of this passage an 'extra-
ordinary perversion of meaning'. But my father carefully remodelled
the passage in order to apply it to the Eldar as a whole, and it does
indeed seem 'extraordinary' that he should have failed to observe this
point. It seems possible that when he re-used the passage in this way
the conception of the golden hair of the Vanyar had not yet arisen." (HoME XII, The Appendix on Languages, p. 77).
Legolas' hair color is never mentioned, but in The Hobbit, his father, Thranduil is mentioned as having golden hair, "...and at the head of a long line of feasters sat a woodland king with a crown of leaves upon his golden hair..." (Flies and Spiders, The Hobbit) Of course, the Elves of The Hobbit are from a much earlier and somewhat different mythology, and many details cannot be correlated directly to LOTR.
Hair color among Silvan Elves is not specified by Tolkien; though it is described in The Hobbit as 'gleaming'. And when Haldir calls one of his scouts into the open in FotR: "'There is one of my people yonder across the stream,' he said; 'though you may not see him.' He gave a call like the low whistle of a bird, and out of a thicket of young trees an Elf stepped, clad in grey, but with his hood thrown back; his hair glinted like gold in the morning sun." (Lothlórien, FotR)
Tinw comment: We do not know for certain that the latter Elf is Silvan, but it is very likely: Haldir says he and his brothers are Silvan not Sindar, and speak Elvish with a strong accent, and this is explained in Appendix F ROTK: "most of its [Lórien's] folk were of Silvan origin." The mostly-Silvan population of Lórien is also addressed in the appendix of the Galadriel & Celeborn chapter of UT. Besides which, we have heard elsewhere that most Sindar (rare but not unknown in Lórien) are dark-haired, and Noldor apart from the "Golden House of Finarfin" and Glorfindel -- a character created so early in the mythology he doesn't always "fit" -- are darkhaired. Thranduil, father of Legolas, is at least half-Sindar (his mother's race is unknown), but again, The Hobbit was written before Tolkien had fully worked out the races of the Elves.
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