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Elven Characteristics

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File:Piotr Wysocki - Last Elf.jpg
Last Elf by Piotr Wysocki

The Elves were a far more beautiful race than Men, and generally taller. Among them, those who had gone to Valinor were the fairest and had the greatest skill of body.


Pointed ears


In the Etymologies Tolkien noted the similarity between the words for "leaf" (lassë, las) and "ears" (lasu, lhaw) and suggested an etymological connection. This indicates that he envisioned their ears as leaf-shaped.

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 had silver hair. Lúthien Tinúviel and her remote descendant Arwen Undómiel, both described as the fairest of all Elves, were dark haired.


Additionally, a silver hair colour existed in the royal houses of the Sindar, with Thingol, Círdan, and Celeborn all 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 Noldoin-Vanyarin-Telerin heritage (her mother was the niece of Thingol). 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




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 described in the following way:
