dr su I was reading through your galadriel posting and I was wondering if you had any ideas or headcanons on what kind of athletes/sports eldar may have participated in? I'd think archery and javelin, maybe discus and running?
ouhhh hmm okay okay let me skim my doctor brain. I think I had a conversation similar to this with a mutual like a couple of months ago… and in the past I actually posted about noldorin jousting. however, I see that as more of a beleriand-centric activity where they’re sort of just doing bullshit to do bullshit. like yeah let’s charge at each other on horses with big wooden lances with the main goal of knocking the other off to display chivalry and house pride. we have nothing else to do and also your house sucks. fuck you
but anyways I think you are wholly right on all of those. a lot of eldar sports as a whole would focus on agility and endurance in my mind, but specifically with the noldor I think they would fixate on the throwing sports like javelin and discus. running and archery also would’ve been pretty common throughout the elf clans. one must imagine the falmari bowfishing… the vanyar also maybe had something specific with climbing because mountain idk
there is much to consider on this actuallyy. I do also think wrestling/physical competition and equestrian sports were a thing. wrestling rules changed from clan to clan, but the standard guidelines were probably☝️no biting. and✌️no attacks on the eyes, like greek olympic pankration, where other things like holds, joint locks, kicks, and etc were permitted.
equestrian events were obnoxiously noldorin. it was an opportunity to flaunt extravagance and power through the presentation of an animal, and this was especially something of interest for the house of finwë & co. i have dressage in my mind for this. noldorin dressage *jazz hands*. also horseback archery, and previously mentioned jousting
there is also (im saying this word a lot). hunting. even outside the followers of oromë, i wouldnt be surprised if hunting was a popular pastime amongst the royal houses. This vision came to me while i was writing my nerdadriel fic. finwean royal hunts amongst the princes while the princesses were expected to sit somewhere with the child royals and servants. something something. they were held mostly out of celebration, like for the birth of children or marriages
dancing!!! And dancing!!! it wouldn’t be regarded as a sport, in the sense of competition, to the eldar I don’t think, but it was an integral cultural activity. a lot of the dances of the eldar mimicked animals. amongst the falmari, swans were commonly referenced, especially in the marital/courting dances tbhh. maybe vanyarin couples would mimic the bald-eagle death spiral in certain ways too
