Been reading through the HOMEs books lately, and reading about those damn elves over and over has made me wonder: Were the elves capable of writing fiction?
A silly question, no doubt, but it seems that all of their songs/poetry/tales concern only true history, never fiction, or anything imaginary. And with their long lives and memories, one can hardly fault them (they still have plenty to talk about, I’d imagine). But considering that the Hobbits’ non-family-gossip stories and songs all seem to be full of fictitious nonsense, and that Tolkien mentions in the mythos that one of the gifts of men is their capacity to reach beyond their abilities (or some such) and shape the world themselves (this said in contrast to the elves). Which says to me that men (and hobbits) are capable of creating fiction, but perhaps elves are not. And let’s look at what the elves have done with their (significant) creative talents: mostly, they have described the world around them, and nurtured it; creating gems seems to have been their one tremendous act of raw creation. All the rest seems to be mere elaboration and celebration.
Shucks, their real lives come across as some of the most fantastic of Fantasy. What need do they have of fiction? They have intimate knowledge of mind boggeling things/people/places/times from this world and beyond. It would seem that to Elves, truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
Well, the elves we read most about in JRRT’s writings were those most involved with the Powers themselves; either the Valar and Maiar in Valinor, or the relatively enlightened dark elves living under the tutilage of Melian the Maia and her Calaquendi husband, Thingol. As such, their grasp of fiction itself could be a bit shaky, I suppose. Especially since they had the power to turn some of their utterances into reality with their songs of power (a theme explored mainly in HOMES). A rather daunting concept which might inhibit your typical Noldor from making up the lyrical tale of the “Elf from Nantucket whose…”
Oh, never mind!
But who knows? Maybe some loremaster back in Tirion wrote a speculative treatise on what Arda would have been like if Fëanor had been willing to surrender the Silmarils to restore the Two Trees. This change of heart may have prevented the Oath of Fëanor from ever being uttered. But then no marriage between Tuor and Idril, no Elrond, no Kings of Numenor, no Aragorn.
but they have created nothing new from this truth. (?) they record and celebrate it, not re-create. hence the world of the long-lived, the reminiscent and the slow-to-change had to come to an end; and the time of mortal Men, with their short desperate lives, urgent change and fertile imagination came to pass.
this perhaps reflects how the old and the rigid who cling on to power in RL need to step down for the next generation?
Isn’t fiction as a genre itself a fairly recent invention in human history? Seems like prior to the 17th century or so, all literature was either historical or religious (and therefore ostensibly true).
If we identify “fiction” with “mythology,” then it goes back some time. One suspects that the ancient Greeks (say) didn’t actually BELIEVE the myth about the origin of spiders, but it’s a good story.
If you just read the LORD OF THE RINGS, you would conclude that the elves definitely have a mythology. One of my great disappointments with THE SILMARILLION and later is that elven “mythology” all seems to be true, and Galadriel herself was eye-witness. It’s not, to my way of thinking, as interesting to have all that stuff be actual, real-live history with actual eye-witnesses still alive… as it was for it to be the elven equivalent of mythology.
Good point–they do, it seems, have SPECULATION about things they haven’t witnessed personally. Such as, mythology/predictions of how the Great End will go down, whether or not men go to Mandos after death (they seem split on this), and the origin of orcs from elves (JRRT, IIRC, actually says in one of his letters that the explanation that orcs were twisted from elves is just an elvish theory, and not necessarily the truth).
This has been close to my take. In a sort of meta-way the Elves represent Tolkein’s conservative nature. They’re in a constant state of low-level depression that things end and don’t stay the same. It is, actually, annoying as hell when you start to think about it.
I agree about it being annoying, now that I think about it. A lot of the people in Middle Earth seem stuck in the past, and I find extreme nostalgia like that to be depressing.
But are these HOME books? History of Middle Earth? I’ve never heard of them. I’m not too interested, but I know some people who really would be.
HOMES. History Of Middle Earth Series. Basically everything JRRT wrote about Middle Earth that didn’t get published. Stuff from circa 1916 to his death in 1973. The various drafts of “LOTR”. Meet Bingo Baggins, son and heir of Bilbo. Trotter, the hobbit ranger, who wore shoes! Marmaduke Brandybuck. Learn the 4 other names JRRT considered giving to Lobelia Sackville-Baggins before deciding on “Lobelia”. And learn why he considered and rejected them! Excited yet?
Early drafts of Ainulindalë! Akallabeth! Read how Earendil arrived too late! How the elf hero Beren battles Tevildo, prince of cats! Learn how Ungoliantë was once called Ungweliant, and before that, called Gwerlum! Thrill to the tale of unconsumated passion between a Lord of the Noldor and a human woman!
There’s some real gold in HOMES. But one must slog thru a lot of less interesting stuff. I’ve managed to read the whole series only 2.75 times (I’m plowing thru the last 3 volumes for the 3rd time now).