Lord Of The Rings: 10 Things Only TRUE Fans Understand

In most European mythology, Elves are often described as beautiful blond creatures with pointy ears. This distinction was carried over for The Lord of the Rings films since all the main Elves are blond save for Elrond and Arwen. On top of that, every single Elf is depicted with long flowing hair and pointy ears.

This is such a staple in pop-culture, it's easy to forget how Tolkien described Elves in his work, or more importantly, how he DIDN'T describe them. According to Tolkien, the Elves are distinctive for being tall, agile, graceful, fair, and wise. In all his books (not just The Lord of the Rings), Tolkien never described the Elves as having pointy ears or being a dominantly blond species. Although Legolas is depicted with blond hair in the films, his hair colour is never mentioned in the novels.

Depicting the Elves as dominantly blond and pointy-eared was implemented into the films to make the characters easy to recognise. Ironically, The Lord of the Rings movies helped cement these traits being commonplace for Elves even though the author never described them that way.