Timeline for Why would elves care what happens to Middle Earth?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
27 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 30 at 5:14 | vote | accept | Allure | ||
| Sep 27 at 23:19 | comment | added | ulatekh | First they came for the hobbits... | |
| Sep 27 at 4:44 | comment | added | RC_23 | Let's not forget that the Elves (specifically the Noldor) cooperated with Sauron and created the Rings of Power in the first place. Thus they bear some moral responsibility to try and clean up the mess. (Though admittedly they did a lot to that end in the 2nd Age. Sauron just doesn't die) | |
| Sep 26 at 23:08 | comment | added | Allure | @RBarryYoung stuff might happen to Middle Earth before they die. | |
| Sep 26 at 21:27 | comment | added | RBarryYoung | All the humans in Middle Earth are going to eventually die anyway, so why should they care what happens to Middle Earth? | |
| Sep 26 at 20:00 | comment | added | Lexible | Because they have empathy. | |
| Sep 26 at 6:16 | comment | added | Simon Crase | I expect that any MVGA elves have already left. | |
| Sep 26 at 3:08 | answer | added | David Roberts | timeline score: 7 | |
| Sep 26 at 2:41 | comment | added | Todd Wilcox | If you want to consider every letter and commentary that Tolkien ever wrote about middle earth to be canon then you’ll be able to reason in circles about a large number of topics. You probably won’t get satisfying answers to a number of questions because he changed his mind and mused openly and had no need to make every word he wrote about his stories consistent or logical. Also check chepner’s answer: at least Elrond thought the elves would be trapped in middle earth if Sauron conquered it. | |
| Sep 26 at 2:35 | comment | added | Allure | @ToddWilcox according to tolkiengateway.net/wiki/…, not being re-embodied is the exception, not the norm. | |
| Sep 26 at 2:31 | comment | added | Todd Wilcox | @Allure Yeah I either forgot that or haven’t read it, but looking at online sources about it seems like a one-time thing, not something open to all elves all the time. In any case, it doesn’t seem definite that Tolkien intended even glorfindel to be resurrected (the simlarillion was published posthumously) so I don’t think the concept will lead to meaningful answers to this question. | |
| Sep 26 at 2:28 | comment | added | Allure | @ToddWilcox there's Glorfindel, who died during the First Age and was re-embodied. | |
| Sep 26 at 2:27 | comment | added | Todd Wilcox | @Allure Uhhh, I’m not aware of that possibility being mentioned in the main text of LoTR or the Hobbit. I’ve only read the Silmarillion a couple times and don’t remember any elf dying and being re-embodied, but I might have just forgotten. | |
| Sep 26 at 0:15 | history | became hot network question | |||
| Sep 25 at 16:47 | comment | added | Mithoron | Why do good people care about anything? | |
| Sep 25 at 14:51 | answer | added | chepner | timeline score: 15 | |
| Sep 25 at 14:50 | answer | added | Mark Olson | timeline score: 6 | |
| Sep 25 at 12:41 | answer | added | Machavity | timeline score: 6 | |
| Sep 25 at 12:25 | comment | added | Allure | @ToddWilcox they could die and be re-embodied, no? | |
| Sep 25 at 12:25 | answer | added | Lesser son | timeline score: 26 | |
| Sep 25 at 12:24 | comment | added | Allure | @AakashM when they have years left to live, no. | |
| Sep 25 at 12:24 | comment | added | AakashM | From a certain point of view, all humans are 'terminally ill' - no one alive now will live beyond 120, probably - and yet some appear to care about climate change. Do you find this surprising? | |
| Sep 25 at 12:11 | answer | added | TGar | timeline score: 20 | |
| Sep 25 at 11:43 | comment | added | Todd Wilcox | It’s not clear to me that they would be leaving if Sauron had regained the ring. Assuming Sauron conquered middle earth, wouldn’t he enslave the elves and prevent them from leaving? Assuming any elves survive being conquered in the first place. | |
| Sep 25 at 11:38 | comment | added | Daniel Roseman | Surely the whole reason that they have remained in Middle-Earth in the first place is that they love it. They could all (except for Galadriel) have left for Valinor at any point; they choose not to. | |
| Sep 25 at 11:14 | comment | added | gdelab | - They are directly concerned as long as they remain in middle earth - Hatred for Sauron and what he represents : the reason some of these elves are here in the first place, historically, is to get revenge from Morgoth. Their hatred might still include his work and his servant Sauron. - Mostly, Idealism / Basic altruism towards their friends and allies : why do expatriates vote ? Why do real people join wars that do not concern them directly (think how WW1 and WW2 started, or volunteers in the spanish civil war, in syria/irak against isis, in ukraine...) ? | |
| Sep 25 at 9:48 | history | asked | Allure | CC BY-SA 4.0 |