On Being an Elf.

Far be it from me to read qualities and allusions into literature that just aren’t there, but I am coming to think that Lord of the Rings is not so much a fantasy as a genuine allegory pertaining to the human condition. What got me started on this little suspicion (and I expect it’s been discussed ad nauseum by academics, but I don’t generally read academics) was a high incidence of comments on YouTube compilations along the lines of ‘I wanna be an elf.’

I’ve said before that the battle scenes in LOTR aren’t realistic, but rather evoke the hero archetype. By the same token, it now seems to me that the various races represent different levels of consciousness within the material manifestation of the human being. In that sense, the elves are clearly at the top. They represent grace, wisdom, idealism, high mindedness and so on. In short, higher consciousness – something to which certain people are given naturally, and to which others might aspire. (The Lady Galadriel is, of course, the more complex and rebellious exception which proves the rule, and all the more delightful for it.)

Accordingly, when somebody says ‘I wanna be an elf,’ I would have to reply ‘So be an elf.’