physical description of elves?

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Originally posted by OrnelÃ*rë Mistë
I agree! In DnD, they say elves are a mere four to four and a half feet tall! Whether or not they are doing this to differ themselves from Tolkien or not, it's infuriating. And I also hated it when, before the LoTR craze, people said elves were very small and short.

Is that maybe Drow you're thinking? I didn't think Elves were THAT small...

SGH, that is what many people think of. However, the people who play DND are not "many people". They are almost always the people who are passionately in love with fantasy, and view Elves as very, very different from Keebler's and Santa's helpers. As a matter of fact, the original DND was a direct ripoff from LOTR, as Elfhelm detailed in the DND Classes thread in LOTR books. The Elves of DND are far more like Eldar than Keeblers. My best guess is that "by foul craft cross Gygax has crossed Eldar with Santa's elves". I've always thought that the DND elves were kind of like a meeting point between Eldar and Satan's...I mean Santa's little helpers.

[Ruinel]

Originally posted by Gwaimir Windgem
Is that maybe Drow you're thinking? I didn't think Elves were THAT small...

I know very little about DnD, so help me here. Aren't the Drow Elves who live underground in caves and are supposed to be evil? I'm probably wrong. What I know about DnD can easily fit into a thimble.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Indeed they are. If I remember correctly, they are much shorter than other elves, no doubt due to their underground existence.

[Ruinel]

Originally posted by Gwaimir Windgem
Indeed they are. If I remember correctly, they are much shorter than other elves, no doubt due to their underground existence.

Thanks. What are the other Elves called in DnD? Where do they live?

[Gwaimir Windgem]

They live on the surface world, I think mainly in woodlands.

As for "called": well, in the Dark Elf Trilogy, (one of the many "DND fanfics" set in Forgotten Realms), the Drow referred to the surface elves as faeries, I think. But I don't remember anyone else calling them that. I think they're usually just "elves". Though there are sometimes subraces.

[Ruinel]

Originally posted by Gwaimir Windgem
They live on the surface world, I think mainly in woodlands.

As for "called": well, in the Dark Elf Trilogy, (one of the many "DND fanfics" set in Forgotten Realms), the Drow referred to the surface elves as faeries, I think. But I don't remember anyone else calling them that. I think they're usually just "elves". Though there are sometimes subraces.

Ok... thanks. *feels enlightened now*

[Ornelírë Mistë]

As for subraces in DnD, there are: Drows, "Wild Elves", Sylvan Elves, Grey Elves. Sylvan elves live in forests in secluded, small communities. Wild Elves are... less refined I guess. Grey elves are described as the most noble and easily insulted. I think there are "High Elves" which are just "typical elves". Not sure. That's all I know about DnD elves.

On another note, what did the Nandor look like?

[Wayfarer]

The nandor were a subset of the Teleri, so they would have shared the same general traits.

They would most likely have been physically identical and culturally similar to both the Sindar and Laiquendai.

[Elvellon]

Being a sub-group of the Teleri, they were probably much like the Sindar; dark hair and predominantly grey eyes. They were likely tanned (due to their life in the woods) and perhaps somewhat shorter,

[Elvellon]

Beaten by 2 minutes

[cian]

edit (mistake!) sorry

[Inderjit Sanghera]

Just like to clear a few things up, since I haven't visited this thread for ages, heck I didn't even know I had been mentioned.

I don't think I ever said Thingol 9 foot if I did it was a silly assumption on my part. I think he may have been 8 foot-ish+ since Elendil, who stood at a height of about 7"10 and he is never specifically mentioned as being 'tallest of the Elves/Men" one can assume the 'tallest of the Edain' Tuor were taller and people like Argon, Turgon, Penlod and Thingol were taller, by a few inches maybe. Just speculation on my part, since Tolkien never gives a specific height on indivdiual people, apart from Elendil, though he does say the Noldor and Hadorians averaged 7 feet;

They were called 'halflings' but this refers to the normal height of men of Numenorean descent and of the Eldar (especially those of Nodlorin descent) which appears to be about seven of our feet

PoME; Of Dwarves and Men

This contradicts the statement given by BoP taken from the 'sub-section' from Disaster of the Gladden Fields that the average height was 6"4 unless that is a reference to the Dunedain in the T.A and the one in PoME of the escapees from Numenor. This is implied here:

'Thus two rangar was often called "man-high," which at thirty-eight inches gives an average height of six feet four inches; but thiswas at alater date, when the stature of the Dúnedain appears to have decreased, and also was not intended to be an accurate statement of the observed average of male stature among them, but was an approximate length expressed in the
well-known unit ranga

Just like to re-iterate- TOLKIEN NEVER GAVE A SPECIFIC HEIGHT FOR ELROS, THINGOL, TURGON ETC. I DONT THINK I EVER DID, IM SURE I DID I WROTE THAT IT WAS A ASSUMTPION BY ME IF I DID WRITE THAT TOLKIEN SAID SO THEN IT WAS A OAFISH MISTAKE MY ME.