Of late, I’ve
been reading the Inheritance Cycle (by Christopher Paolini) to Colleen. As a
result, you now get to hear about one of my biggest pet peeves in fantasy:
vegetarian elves.
To start
off with, I should probably say that this is in no way an attack on
vegetarianism or veganism – it is merely my opinion relating to an aspect of
world building.
Now, I
completely understand the concept of elves being vegetarian – from a certain
perspective, it makes complete sense. Elves revere nature and life, so wouldn’t
they be opposed to killing animals?
However, I
can very easily refute that argument by saying: take a close look at nature. In
nature, it is kill or be killed. Eat or be eaten. Yes, some animals eat only
plants, but that’s because they lack the ability to eat meat. Elves are one
with nature and, as such, would partake in the natural cycle of life. To
abstain from eating meat would be to elevate themselves above nature.
That said,
it is also important to go back to the roots of modern fantasy. Tolkien. This
is where we start, because prior to Tolkien, elves were all short sprites like
the ones who help Santa. Tolkien reinvented the race into what is used in most
stories.
So, were
Tolkien’s elves vegetarians? No. Thanks to the movies, this isn’t common
knowledge because the idea that elves are vegetarians is so widespread that it
managed to get into Peter Jackson’s interpretation. However, in The Hobbit,
when Bilbo and the dwarves are in Mirkwood, they find themselves on the
outskirts of a hunt – involving elves hunting a white elk. Later they come upon
the elves feasting and, yes, meat is mentioned.
This is the
point where we reach why this becomes
a pet peeve of mine. It can easily be argued that each writer is at complete
liberty to make their world whatever they want it to be, which is entirely
true. So what’s wrong with vegetarian elves? Internal consistency.
When aspects
of a world are created, even a fantasy world, they have to make sense. For
that, let’s look at the common traits elves always
have. Pointed ears. Graceful bodies. Keen eyesight and hearing. Exceptional
archery skills.
This last
one is the problem. Exceptional archery skills. Why are elves exceptional archers? They are generally a peaceful
race, so they would have no need of weapons unless threatened – at which point,
they’d have to learn pretty fast to be that good at archery. There are easier
weapons to use. No, they aren’t exceptional archers for the purposes of war –
it is because they are hunters. And as they are so attuned to nature, they
would not hunt for sport – only for food. Thus, for elves to have archery
skills (and tracking skills, for that matter), they must eat meat.
All of that
said, it is possible for elves to be vegetarian – the world building just has
to match. And, while it was his books that inspired this post, Paolini actually
did a good job on the world building end of making his elves vegetarians – they
have a reason for their choice and instead of exceptional archery, they’re
simply very good at all forms of fighting due to their age, magic, and
super-strength (making them more like Vulcans than traditional elves).
So, in
conclusion, elves can eat whatever they want – but the world and their abilities
had better support their food choice.
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If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.
