Tolkien's Pointy Ears: tolkien actually intended pointed ears?

» Laitoste - tolkien actually intended pointed ears?

In the Annotated Hobbit with annotations by Dougals A. Anderson, there are lots of interesting tidbits...

One thing, that has nothing to do with my title, is that Sam's song "The Stone Troll" found in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil is to be sung to the tune of "The Fox Went Out." It's an old folk song, and the band Nickel Creek has it on their first album...just thought that was an interesting piece of information...

Anyway, to my intended subject... on page 10 of the 1988 Annotated Hobbit, it has an excerpt from Letters, No. 27 where Tolkien describes hobbits. As you have noticed, the hobbits, as well as the elves, have pointy ears in the movie. Ahem...Professor Tolkien says that,"[Hobbits have a] round, jovial face; ears only slightly pointed and 'elvish'; hair short and curling(brown)." Well, there you have it. An interesting fact to notice is that he said that their ears were "only slightly pointed and 'elvish'." Now why would he say 'and elvish' unless he thought elves had pointed ears? On page 165, it says that "Tolkien noted the possible relationship between the two[elvish words lasse with the meanings 'leaf' and 'ear'] in that Elven 'ears were more pointed and leaf-shaped' than human ones. hmm... elf ears are more pointed and leaf-shaped than human ones... well, if anyone can show proof of Tolkien thinking otherwise, perhaps the Professor couldn't make up his mind--as seen with other things in his works. Also, if I have misunderstood these facts, someone please correct me.

Hope everyone is enjoying all the goodies coming out...;)

-- posted by Laitoste