Aura Elf

Angels

Demons

Fairies

Elves

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Unicorns, pegasuses and alicorns

Selkies

Mermaids

Spirits and ghosts

Haunted dolls or objects

Magical beings and magical fictionkins

Griffins

Vampires

Werewolves

Zombies

Changelings

Centaurs

And everyone else I forgot to mention! We are REAL, we EXIST, we are a real life fantasy!!!

Elf supremacism transcends universes, timelines, and every other possible obstacle.

A dwarf named Elezar was the first to say “otherkind” (my guess is it was simply formed off the name of the list, substituting “other” for “elfin”), in Digest #16, April 18, 1990, some months before Torin said “otherkin”. Torin also described himself as non-elven in two separate posts (first citing centaur and wolf, then saying he doesn’t use the label “elf”). So whichever way you slice that, it wasn’t elves bestowing it on non-elves.

As to whether it meant “non-elves”, though not everyone used it in identical fashion, “otherkind” seems to have been quickly understood to include or at least potentially include elves. Elezar explicitly included “elves and others of faeriekind” as well as dwarves in the category right off the bat. Torin’s “otherkin” was in the context of a post about functioning in human society and that it would be nice “if we could have our own otherkin community”, which sounds inclusive of all types to me. There are some instances of lists like “elvenkind/dwarvenkind/otherkind” and “elf/dragon/orc/whatever names” (both of those uses were by dragons, for what that’s worth, so again, not elves), but these seem to me similar to what Torin is quoted about in the Otherkin Timeline, that people got tired of typing such things; “other” is being used as “et cetera” and is not really trying to draw some particular distinction between elves and non-elves.

So far, I’ve only directly read (as opposed to doing text searches on) the first 60 or so digests plus #71, and need to start over with a more careful reading, but the impression I’m getting is that where “other” isn’t “et cetera”, it’s usually being used in contrast to humans, similar to how it’s meant now.

Okay, the question was specifically about elves and dwarves, but I’m broadening the post to include all people of Middle Earth, since it’s all related.

All elves are described as having fair/white skin. (to be honest, I’m not sure if it’s straight-up, explicitly stated, like “all elves are white”, but every elf we meet is described as white, and so many scholars - including those who were writing during Tolkien’s lifetime - state this, so I can’t imagine that Tolkien wouldn’t have corrected them if this is false. If somebody has found anything on this topic, please let me know!) The most variation we see among elves is their hair or eye color. In this post I talk about the different groups of elves, but most of those groups developed later on in history. The three fundamental (as in, they were born different) groups of elves are the Vanyar, the Noldor, and the Teleri, and they are all fair skinned. I see no reason why other skin colors would develop later on, so I think it’s pretty fair to say that even in the Third and Fourth Age, all elves have fair skin.

Tolkien never actually addressed the skin color of the dwarves, but it’s assumed that they were also white. ((REWRITTEN AFTER FURTHER RESEARCH: Men see more variation that elves and dwarves. Some men are described as fair skinned (this is usually the men of Rohan, and the Dunedain/descendants of Numenor, such as the men of Gondor.) Others are described as “swarthy” or as having slightly darker skin - such as the Dunlendings, and some small communities in Gondor. And the men of the far south (Harad) are consistently described as having dark skin. As far as hobbits go, Tolkien described the Harfoots (one of the three original groups of hobbits) as “browner of skin” than the other two groups. But just what that means isn’t clear - it could mean that most hobbits had fair skin and Harfoots had slightly tanner skin. Or it could mean that all hobbits had darker skin, and Harfoots even more so. Traditionally, adaptations have shown almost all men and hobbits to be white, but there’s really quite a bit of room for interpretation here.))

This lack of racial diversity in Middle Earth has motivated some to accuse Tolkien of being racist. And while that is a very interesting debate that there isn’t space to get into in this post, in the case of ethnic and racial representation in Middle Earth, it’s important to keep in mind that Tolkien was creating an English mythology, so there’s some truth to the argument that, for the time period he wanted the stories to take place in, it simply wouldn’t make sense for there to be much racial diversity.

But, like I said, the racism debate is a topic for another post. Just wanted to mention it since Tolkien’s all-white cast tends to lead people into the discussion anyway.

Based on the descriptions Tolkien actually gave us in the books, there are four possible hair colors for elves: dark brown, blonde/golden, red/russet, and silver. (Feanor was described as having hair that was “raven-dark”, which I always assumed meant black, but in Parma Eldalamberon he said that “no elf had absolute black hair”, so either you choose to ignore this comment, and therefore add black hair to the list, or just assume that “raven-dark” meant very very dark brown hair.) 

And, while there were always exceptions, these were the most common hair colors per cultural group:

Vanyar: Every Vanyarin elf Tolkien introduces is described as having blonde/golden hair - and in fact most of the blonde elves among the Noldor are attributed to Vanyarin ancestry.

Noldor: Tolkien states a few times that the predominant hair color among the Noldor was dark brown. However, as mentioned some with Vanyarin heritage had blonde hair (such as Galadriel and Finarfin), and a few Noldorin elves were described as having red hair (Mahtan, Maedhros, Amrod, and Amras.)

Teleri: Tolkien says that the Teleri were also mostly dark-haired. But some (especially among the royal family) had silver hair. And we do see a few exceptions - though there’s no mentioned Vanyarin ancestry, we do meet a couple Sindarin elves with blonde hair (most notably Thranduil.) (The Teleri include the Sindarin and Silvan elves as well, and the Avari would be a combination of Noldor and Teleri.)

Cottagecore Elf Moodboard

Requested by @jessdragonfly

Yess of course anon! <3 Just to stay on the safe side I went with vegan recipes but no worries you can always throw meat in there if it suits your fancy better! I just wanted to make sure that no cheese or egg got in there :D

Mini vegetable pot pie 

Pumpkin Pasta with Spinach and Mushrooms

Eggplant Parmesan and Zucchini Casserole 

Creamy Broccoli Cheese Soup

Roasted Butternut Squash and Spinach

Roasted Garlic and Herb Dinner Rolls

Cranberry and Thyme Cheese Ball

Mushroom Stroganoff

Vegan Grilled Sandwiches Three Ways

Biscuits and Mushroom Gravy

Bolognese

Moroccan shepherd’s pie with sweet potato

Spinach Dip

1 Hour Pot Pies

I haven't been on Tumblr in a while due to poor mental health and a recent hospitalization, but I'm back now and looking for more interactive mutuals!

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⚠️ OP IS A SINGLET, PHYSICAL ALTERHUMAN & ANTISHIP ⚠️