Diskussionen om alvernas spetsiga öron hade vi redan på Ithrons tid.
(Förövrigt den enda där vi var överens)
Inte heller jag har någon gång hört Tolkien beskriva alvernas öron. Faries kom vi fram till hade spetsiga öron. (Har en bok med engelska barnkammarrim som är illustrerad med små bilder av älvor,"fairies" För den som är intresserad skickar jag med ett liten sammanfattning av en artikel jag läste i en tidning som klargör lite om bakgrunden och vad som skiljer elves and fairies.
The word "elf? comes from the Anglo-Saxon ?aelf? wich in turn derives from the Old Norse ?álfr? and/or the Old High German ?alp?. The closest anyone has come to tracing the word back to a meaning other than ?elf? is a possible connection to an Indo-European root meaning white. If this connection is accurate, the ?light-elves of the Norse edda would be the default type, and our slender, beatiful elves of fantasy represent somthing not far from the original notion behind the word.
The medieval peasants weren´t too clear about the origin of the elves either. They were thought to be the earlier inhabitants of the land displaced by the coming of men, spirits of the dead ,angels, or spirits of the air and trees.. The actual origin of the myths and legends of elves propably stems from many of these same roots. The association of elves with white connects them to Celtic rituals of the dead as well as to Christian description of angels
At the beginning stages, the various types of supernatural races intermingled easily. Elves, trolls and dwarves shared similar features, weaknesses and natures. Eventually, with more sophisticated sorytelling,(bards and skalds) the races separated.
Sparation followed the division between dark and light that split the fair elves from the the goblins and the dwarves,between ?wild? and ?domestic? elves. Domestic elves become brownies, and the wild elves became (among other things) our familiar tall, enigmatic ?High Elves? The Norse invasions of Scotland split the High Elves into dark and light again in te form of the Unseelie and Seelie courts.
Whith the Norman Conquest, the Old French ?fées? (or fays) became another term for the High elves, and a general term (as ?faries?) for any supernatural race besides giants or ogres