A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Canon - Page 5
© Michael Martinez
Whether Tolkien's Elves have pointed ears is not a question of canon. One canon may have pointy-eared Elves and another might not. But whether one canon rules all, and in the darkness binds them, is a question of canon. Since Tolkien never bothered to refer to Elven ears again, how important was this idea (of their relative pointedness compared to something else)? Years later, while expounding upon the Elvish ancestry of Prince Imrahil (in another note intended only for himself), Tolkien made a remark, now immortalized in Unfinished Tales, concerning the beardlessness of Men descended from Elves. Christopher's casual mention of this note has been taken as the final authority on whether Elves should have beards. Consequently, there are numerous occasions where people ask how Cirdan can have a beard, since Elves don't possess them. In order to preserve the canon of beardless Elves, some people jump through some intricate hoops to explain the gaffe.
The simplest explanation is that Tolkien forgot about Cirdan's beard when he was working on the Imrahil material. Had he realized he had already put a beard on an Elf in a published work, he undoubtedly would have felt bound to abide by that. So the beardlessness of Elves should be considered a moot point. Elves can have beards because that is the way Cirdan is portrayed. However, the simplest explanation seldom wins favor in a canonical debate. The more elaborate and contrived a canon seems to be, the more fervent its adherents are in propounding it to the masses. It seems to always be a case of "the most effort justifies the canon." Well, it is a bit disheartening to have the wind taken out of one's sails, after staying up all night working out how Cirdan alone among the Elves can have a beard.
The canons often become intertwined under the strangest circumstances. The pointy-ears crowd, for example, will often cite a letter Tolkien wrote in 1938 to the Houghton Mifflin Company, his American publishers. They wanted to know how to draw a Hobbit. Tolkien told them "A round, jovial face; ears only slightly pointed and 'elvish'; hair short and curling (brown)." The letter is treated with the respect accorded a Papal Bull. All well and good, I suppose, but the reference to "elvish" is certainly not to a Tolkien Elf, which no one at Houghton Mifflin had ever seen. There is nothing in the text of the book which suggests that the Elves do (or don't) have pointed ears. Tolkien's comment was intended to be taken in the context most familiar to the publishers that is, everyone knew that Elves had pointed ears. At the time, there was no connection between The Hobbit and Tolkien's Elvish legends (which the HMCo people hadn't read), except for a few borrowings Tolkien had made to liven up the story.
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