Elven characteristics
The Elves were the fairest creatures in Arda, a far more beautiful race than Men, and generally tall (about six feet). Among them, those who had gone to Valinor were the fairest and had the greatest skill of body.
Elves had keener senses, sight and hearing than Men, were slender, graceful yet strong, but were resistant to extremes of nature, illness and disease. However many Noldor died at the crossings of Helcaraxe.
Pointed ears
There are no explicit references to pointed Elvish ears in The Lord of the Rings or The Silmarillion. It was stated elsewhere that "the Quendian (Elvish) ears were more pointed and leaf-shaped than Human." However, practical considerations, including a number of occasions where Men were mistaken for Elves (most notably Túrin Turambar), suggest that the points must have been subtle.
There is a noted similarity[1] between the words for "leaf" (lassë, las) and "ears" (lasu, lhaw) and suggested an etymological connection.
Hair colour
Elven hair colour is quite varied and complex. In general, the Vanyar were golden-haired, and the other Elves (including Noldor, Sindar, and Avari) had dark or even black hair, although some of the Teleri (including Celeborn) had silver hair. Lúthien Tinúviel and her remote descendant Arwen Undómiel, both described as the fairest of all Elves, were dark haired.
This is not the full picture, however: Finarfin, the youngest son of Finwë, and his descendants (such as Galadriel) had golden hair on account of Finwë's second wife, Indis of the Vanyar. Idril, the daughter of Turgon, had golden hair inherited from her mother, Elenwë of the Vanyar. Even the sons of Fëanor, the eldest Noldorin prince, were not all dark-haired: Maedhros and the twins Amrod and Amras had auburn hair, from their grandfather Mahtan. Fëanor's son Celegorm had blond hair, thus his epithet the Fair in contrast to his brother, Caranthir the Dark.
Additionally, a silver hair colour existed in the royal houses of the Sindar, with Thingol and Círdan both described as having silver hair. Galadriel displayed an extremely rare hair colour nowhere else observed: "silver-golden" hair, said to be dazzlingly beautiful ("blending the light of the Two Trees, Telperion and Laurelin"), which may have been a result of her unusual mixed Noldorin-Vanyarin-Telerin heritage (her mother was the niece of Thingol, and her father was a son of Finwë and Indis). Thranduil, father of Legolas and a Sindarin Elf, is described as having blond hair in The Hobbit, but his son Legolas' own hair colour is not recorded.
Eye colour
When Tolkien describes Elven eyes, they tend to be grey. This is certainly true of Lúthien (and her descendants: Elrond, Arwen and her brothers, and Aragorn and the Dúnedain). Voronwë, who guided the man Tuor to Gondolin, also had grey eyes.
Though he was half-Noldorin, Maeglin is said to have dark eyes (possibly from his father Eöl, who was not of the Noldor), while Olwë (the brother of Lúthien's father Thingol, and a Telerin king) had blue eyes. The eye colour of most other Elves is not mentioned, and so would be difficult to generalize.
Androgyny
Elves were mostly beardless since they grew one only during their third cycle of life (Mahtan was an exception)[2]. Because of their (typical) beardlessness and beauty, the Elves are sometimes perceived as androgynous. However, they were probably not meant to be so; Legolas was:
"tall as a young tree, lithe, immensely strong, able swiftly to draw a great war-bow and shoot down a Nazgûl, endowed with the tremendous vitality of Elvish bodies, so hard and resistant to hurt that he went only in light shoes over rock or through snow, the most tireless of all the Fellowship." (The Book of Lost Tales Volume 2)
Other characteristics
The Eldar could manipulate sanwe-latya (Quenya for "thought-opening" or "telepathy") which allowed them to communicate with thought (Ósanwe).
Elves apparently did not sleep but rested their minds with beautiful thoughts in reverie or looking at fair things.
Also, unlike Men, Elves were ambidextrous[3]
References
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Lost Road and Other Writings, Part Three: "The Etymologies"
- ↑ Vinyar Tengwar, Number 41, July 2000
- ↑ Vinyar Tengwar, Number 49, June 2007
