Summary
Like many fantasy stories,Lord of the Ringsis made up of so many species of people. Throughout the tales of Middle-earth, there are dwarves, orcs, hobbits, dragons, and even the tree people known as ents. While the hobbits may be the most popular for obvious reasons, perhaps the most relatable characters are the humans and the elves.
Humans and elves inLord of the Ringsshare so many similarities, including appearance (besides the pointed ears). So, it’s no wonder that they’re often seen fighting alongside one another against whatever evil is disrupting the peace of Middle-earth. Seeing as thoughelves are immortal, they’ve seen much more evil than any single human, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be understanding of each other and share certain morals.
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Battles and wars have been won on behalf of the human-elf alliance, but outside of that, what’s their relationship like? With the purity of elves and their culture comes the contrast of the very imperfect human race, but somehow they manage to make it work with one another.
Do Humans and Elves Get Along?
Elves have been around in Middle-earth forever – literally since its creation. They were the first civilization to reside in the mystical realm. Both elves and men are children of Eru Ilúvatar, the creator of everything on Arda (or earth). So, from a purely evolutionary sandpoint, they were always meant to get along.
Elves and humans look at each other as equals, even though elves are far more powerful and wiser. On the flip side, elves can sometimes be a bit prejudice against humans because of their imperfections and tendencies of violence and other faults like adultery. But this never gets in the way of the elves aiding the humans in greater conflicts, a service the humans unconditionally return. The two species maintain a mutual relationship of understanding and willingness to help one another when they are in need.
Perhaps the most prominent relationship the humans and elves have is that of being war allies. Most notably, the humans and elves were the last ones standing against the mighty wrath of Sauron in the Second Age and his army of orcs and other creatures. Both humans and elves were given Rings of Power, and both species recognized that Sauron’s intentions were truly evil, and he needed to be stopped.
One type of relationship that doesn’t occur often between humans and elves, however, is that of a romantic partnership. Humans may sometimes be drawn to elves as romantic companions, but elves are fairly strict aboutmarrying within their own community. Elves are so particular, in fact, that it is nearly physically impossible for them to be unfaithful to their partners. Elves are able to sense if another elf has a partner, and they are spiritually forbidden from making a pass at them. With all that said, there have been a few instances of humans and elves marrying.
From theLord of the Ringsstory, the most popular human-elf romantic relationship is probably the onebetween Aragorn and Arwen. Aragorn is human (however, he is speculated to be a special type of human as his strength and durability is far beyond that of average humans) while Arwen is a half-elf, and their relationship was one that faced heavy backlash from the elven community, specifically from Arwen’s father Elrond, who was a half-elf himself. He pleaded for his daughter to marry another elf, but her love for Aragorn was stronger than any connection she sensed from another in her own community.
Have Humans and Elves Ever Fought One Another?
More often than not, the humans and elves fought beside each other. In fact, there are very little instances in which either of them fought in a war without the other as their ally. As far as the premise of any war, or even battle, there hasn’t ever been one fought where the humans and elves were on opposing sides. However, there was one battle where a certain group of humans turned against the elves.
In the First Age, during the War of the Great Jewels, the Elves – under the command of Maedhros – devised a plan to defeat theevil Ainur Dark Lord Morgoth, who they discovered was not invincible. The elves banded with the dwarves, a group of men called the Edain, and another group of men called the Easterlings, in a battle that would come to be known as the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.
During this battle, the elves and their allies were overrun by Morgoth’s army of orcs. As they began suffering heavy casualties, they fell even harder when Ulfang the Black, the leader of the Easterlings, turned on Maedhros and contributed to the defeat of the elven forces. Thankfully,the dwarves stood strongand protected the elven leader from certain death, which in turn allowed for the war to wage on after the devastating battle.
Even then, the Edain men stood by the elves and continued to fight alongside them for the remainder of the great war. Besides this one instance, there aren’t any other times when the humans and elves fought against one another in the lore ofLord of the Rings.
