Now imagine yourself befriending that person’s grandchild, enjoying this new person’s wit, wisdom, and wonder in the world. You are able to travel with that person, have adventures with them, and do wonderful things. This person is about as intelligent and passionate as you are. Imagine yourself befriending someone who only lives for 3 years.

Other than the Nazgûl only 5 mortals had ever possessed a Ring of Power for any length of time: Isildur, Smeagol, Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam.

They were trying to avoid fading by creating the Rings of Power. I don’t think people realize he was talking about the Elves’ search for deathlessness. And, of course, he said the theme of The Lord of the Rings is “death and the search for deathlessness”. Tolkien devoted a lot of thought to “how Elves think”. There are a few other places in the book that provide insights into Elvish thinking, but not with so much exposition (in my opinion).īeyond LoTR you can look at essays in books like Unfinished, Morgoth’s Ring, and The Peoples of Middle-earth. The second passage is Legolas’ explanation of how the Elves perceive time, when the Fellowship is traveling down the Anduin after leaving Lothlorien. He is restrained with the wisdom of long experience. Gildor seems both interested and uninterested in Frodo’s adventure. The first is Frodo’s encounter with Gildor Inglorion in the Shire. Two passages from The Lord of the Rings stand out for me. Tolkien’s own insights into Elvish psychology. Fingolfin and Fingon also lived beside several generations of Edainic leaders who served them faithfully. When I wrote that answer I was thinking about characters like Elrond, who fostered many generations of Aragorn’s direct ancestors. I’ve thought about what I wrote on Quora years ago several times. There are days when we look at her and almost see him. The experience of sharing a home with a dog that so resembles in appearance and personality a previous companion is uncanny. We affectionately say she is his grand-daughter. She comes from the right area but she was a rescue and we know nothing about her ancestry. One of those dogs so closely resembles another dog who died a few years ago she could be his great-granddaughter. You’ll see my original reply to this question below but I wanted to add some context. I saved a few of my most popular answers for future republication here or elsewhere. I closed my account in 2017 because I was tired of their constant changes to the user interface. Q: How Does the Psychology of Tolkien’s Elves Compare to Typical Humans?ĪNSWER: I once had a Quora account and answered many questions there. Tolkien wrote some thoughtful scenes and essays explaining how he thought an elf’s worldview might differ from a mortal man’s. How does Elven psychology differ from the psychology of mortal humans? J.R.R.

The atlas of tolkien's middle earth