Middle Earth Ranger Forum

... I'd forgotten about this little nugget of dialogue from TTT:

Not Orcs,' said another, releasing the hilt of his sword, which he had seized when he saw the glitter of Sting in Frodo's hand.

`Elves? ' said a third, doubtfully.

`Nay! Not Elves,' said the fourth, the tallest, and as it appeared the chief among them. `Elves do not walk in Ithilien in these days. And Elves are wondrous fair to look upon, or so 'tis said.'

"Or so 'tis said."

Apparently Faramir - son of the Steward of Gondor - didn't know for certain what an elf looked like. Despite his station and the great population of Minas Tirith - he'd never even seen one with his own eyes. Nor had any of his men.

.... I think I'm going to have to update my mental image of Gondor a bit. I'd have certainly guessed that there was enough trade via Belfalas and the men of Dol Amroth that some contact with the elves existed.

I guess not. Hunh.

It's not too inconceivable. The Dol Amroth crowd have 'elvish blood' (explaining their naturally beardless faces (UT 2:4), but the main source of contact between Gondorians and Elves would be the haven at Edhellond, which was abandoned when the last ship sailed in 1981 TA (about 1040 years before the War of the Ring). Plenty of time to forget what elves look like, even if their genes persist.

Speaking of Gondorian nuggets, I came across this: “It may be noted that at the end of the Third Age there were prob. more [Men] that knew Quenya, or spoke Sindarin, than there were Elves who did either! Though dwindling, the population of Minas Tirith and its fiefs must have been much greater than that of Lindon, Rivendell, and Lórien. In Gondor ... Sindarin was an acquired polite language and used by those of more pure Númenórean descent, esp. in Minas Tirith, if they wished to be polite.” (Letter 347)

On the other hand it may be conceivable that Faramir had indeed seen elves before, but was making a slightly facetious remark about their looks.... But I confess that your interpretation seems more likely.

I agree with Elleth that Faramir most likely had never seen an elf before but the idea of him randomly dissing the elves to these strange folk that they have captured is hilarious to me.

Ha!

In context, I don't think he was dissing them though. Just old heroic language I think for "well people say such-and-such is true, but I don't really know..."