Author: Arakano (---.t-online.de)
Date: 08-14-2003 06:12
"...but all elves are good and all orcs are evil. Angels and fallen angels once again, but also something more subtle and earthly.
For in the elves, we have a race that can do no wrong as it wipes out inferior races wherever it finds them. Indeed, one of the reasons the elves don't get along with dwarves is because elves used to hunt them down for sport, thinking they were
mindless primitives. The elves were forgiven for that, and certainly Legolas and Gimli seem to get along."
Although i find the text in general interesting and agreeable, this passage is giving a wrong view of the elves in Tolkienīs works. Ok, they are all beautiful, gifted in everything they did and graceful beyond measure, but not all of them are good. Indeed, some of the Noldor Princes of the First Age are evil murderers who even slay innocent children! (After the attack at Doriath, for example)
And the fact that elves hunted dwarves is NOT forgotten, and the elves were not forgiven for that - at least not from the dwarves. But the victims of the elven hunters were mainly banished criminals, outcasts of dwarvish society, and so the consequences were not to extrem. Still, dwarves held a grudge against elves, and this led to serious consequences. When Saurons forces attacked Ost-in-Edhil in the Second Age, the dwarves of Khazad-Dum refused to open their doors for elven refugees, thus causing many more deaths among the elven populace. Dwarves were never fast in forgetting any wrong done to them.
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