I was thinking, while out shoveling, and seeing birds standing on the snow eating grain I had thrown out for them, that they really must weigh next to nothing. Associating this to The Lord of the Rings which I’m reading again for the first time in fifteen years, where Legolas too can walk on snow without sinking through like ordinary men will.
So the question is, is it because elves don’t weigh just about anything, or is it because of some magical quality a mortal man does not understand? If they were pretty much as light as birds, woudn’t they involuntarily fly around above the battlefield, facing the fighting uruk-hai for instance? Assuming the uruk-hai would be able to hit and/or grab an elf, of course.
I think it is more transcendent than just weight and buoyancy and stuff like that. It is more about how the Eldar Race has a special relationship with the earth, and are affected differently by such physical phenomena as gravity, momentum, life and death, etc. You just can’t think of them in normal terms.
This also lets them scamper up the hide of an Oliphant as easily as if it were green-screened.
Like Tim said, elves do have weight and mass, but they’re not affected in quite the same way by natural forces that humans are. Tolkien’s elves are sort of what he envisioned “unfallen humans” might have been like–in the world, but not really of the world. I assume that’s also the source of many of their other “powers” like being able to travel the straight road and crafting magical gems without using sorcery.
I just want to point out that these are the questions the Straight Dope exists for. I commend the OP for a clear, specific topic question on a new topic.
