Moving Sale: Magic Rings and Other Trinkets Half Off - Page 4
© Michael Martinez
In whatever way we can, we try to improve our work and imprint our wants and desires upon the things we make. Elves would be no different in that respect, but they'd be able to make the picture move, perhaps, or glow. The legs might never chip, the paint might never peel. The hinges wouldn't just open with a thought, they would do so without so much as a squeek. A Noldorin lady might possess nothing more than a pair of scissors and her jewelry box, filled with delights and gifts, baubles that floated, glowed, changed colors, fertilized gardens, caused water to cleanse itself, warmed the hands on a cold winter day, cooled the brow in summer, always rolled true, reflected the owner's mood, etc. We create such things now (even floating things). Tolkien may have felt the Elves could create them then (and by a different means).
When the Noldor arrived in Middle-earth they must have looked pretty scraggly to the Sindar. Well, Feanor's Noldor sailed across the Sea by ship. So they might have been a little dizzy by the time they made landfall but they would not have been long without the benefits of civilization. And they also brought more horses across the water than Fingolfin's people were able to save (if they saved any). It may be that Fingolfin had a lot of horses to begin with. The Noldor might have been moving along as a group of caravans (huge caravans). So the horses would have been lost in crossing the Helcaraxe. And if they were used as beasts of burden, then there must have been carts or sledges lost aplenty along with the horses, or packs.
Araman and the Crushing Ice must have been littered with lost or forgotten artifacts. Few large items like the Palantiri could have been carried for long by the Noldor, but they must have had things beyond their enchanted swords and armor, lamps and harps. A well-equipped Tolkien Elf would probably make all but the most successful role-playing gamers drool with envy. After all, the Elves could both make magic stuff and fight (even the women). It's not for small reason that prospective players of the long-delayed online Middle-earth game fear that any player who gets a Noldo should be all but unbeatable. Those guys ate Orcs for breakfast, lunched on trolls, and finished off an occasional Balrog or two before turning in the for the night. Or so it seems.
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