The government would find a way to make money off of them.
I’d wonder where the other two researchers went.
Yeah, that does seem to be the Chekhov’s gun in Skald’s story. There just seems to be something ominous about it.
They’ll be fine as long as they fly their flags correctly!
http://http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=572922
Being advanced means more about Economy of Scale, Need and Access to Resources than the duration of your civilization. No way that small of an isolated and resource poor civilization is more advanced than ours.
That would be gnomes, not elves.
(At least the gnomes are responsible for underwear in ‘South Park,’ and there’s a Far Side cartoon where they’re hiding car keys, so I assume they have a sock-grabbing division somewhere on the org charts.)
All I want to know is have their females got the necessary bidness for inter-species congress?
That assumes that their civilization began developing at the same time as ours.
I’m not sure I agree. As I described them, they’re not that dissimilar from humans. Yeah, they’re tall and all, but still within the range of human variation. And since their language shows a family relationship with Sanskrit (something they surely knew before we did) they certainly consider themselves part of the human family. I don’t see the split as having happened more than 6,000 years ago.
As I just wrote, it’s INTRA-species, but interRACIAL.
I think a big part of that would depend on how similar their culture is to the American norm. I think I wrote that the women average 6’6" tall; they’ll be taller than most men and tower over not a few. A lot of women in our culture would have a problem having sex with a man that much smaller than they are, I think; and since the Yon women are acculturated to be shorter than the men, rather than typically taller than them, there may be some preconscious distaste going on there.
About the men, I dunno.
This. They may have–probably did have–a much larger population in years past. As to the resources issue: who knows what technological solutions they have? I doubt replicators (because I think replicators are probably impossible), but maybe something else.
Taking a slightly different tack, I think there would be some degree of fear of these “magical” beings. It would not surprise me to see one or more cults involving them pop up–some seeking to worship the Elves, some seeking to kill them.
Also think it would rock the more hard core religious right pretty hard–all of a sudden, humans are not necessarily the top of the food chain and/or God’s finest creation.
Also think a bunch of elves are probably gonna die, unless they have the means to defend themselves and or willing to use said means vigorously…
Are you feverish? We’re not at the top of the food chain now. The food chain goes sunlight, maize, pig, human, shark, bacteria. 
I tend to think that we’d regard them as humans. Say we discovered some Cro Magnon society somewhere, but on the other end of the scale developmentally. While not h. sapiens sapiens, we’d tend to consider them human, and probably want to work with them and study them and send missionaries to them. Still, they’d be humans.
So these “elves” would be regarded as human. Longer lived, but we’d not drive 'em off like Methusala’s Children. More technologically advanced, kind of like we are to the people of Fiji. I don’t think anyone would really be all the impressed with the people.
Technologically, a more direct parallel would be something like, what if the first decade of the 20th century world just discovered that the 21st century USA existed? In our current perspective, we’d know that nothing is magic, and there would tend to be all sorts of analogous items, thoughts, tools between us. For example, and early 20th centurier would understand the concept of a cell phone, just not merely its technology. We’d certainly be impressed, though.
So with that in mind, I’m certain that h. sapiens elfus would have a broad understanding of whom or whom not to befriend, nation-wise. They’d also have already established the certainty that they’re safe from invasion attempts prior to any first contact with us.
Aliens from another planet, though, would be something else entirely.
The word “War” flashed through my head instantly.
That is largely meaningless, as civilization doesn’t advanced on a clear and linear scale.
:mad: That’s incredibly cynical!
For my part, I foresee a widespread demand for elf porn.
Maybe if they brought cookies.
Now that would really be something. If they really were the dark fey of old, utterly foreign and unfathomable, yet tantalizingly familiar. Seductive in appearance, dangerous as all getout in actuallity.
Of course, we’d be over-run with Fey wannabe’s. People who actively seek them out, foolishly thinking it will somehow be different for them. Guys who pretended to have contact and allegiances with them, primarily to attract stupid women who like bad boys. People who do it as a claim on power they don’t have. Deluded fools who think they can be accepted and become part of the Fey. People who seek their favor. People who seek their alliance in petty games of power.
I’d be all shook up.
Had these been Sylvia Townsend Warner Elves, I’d have been all over this thread.
Shame on you, Skald, shame!