Fantasy, Part Two

So, if you read the title of this post you obviously saw the Part Two thing.  Well, I never actually did a Part One.  But looking back at my previous post about dragons I decided that there are so many other things about fantasy
than just dragons.  So here's Part Two of, most likely, many parts.

FANTASY, Part Two, Elves

So, as we all know there are about six main races in fantasy with variations here and unique races there, so I'll focus on the main five.

• Men
• Elves
• Dwarves
• Orcs/Goblins
• Dragons
• Wizards and other magical beings

I hope to cover each of these races as well as others in this series.  But this post I'll focus on elves.

So, what makes an elf?  Why are elves different than say, a human?  I mean they're both kind tall, usually slim and well built right?  Is the pointed ear thing such a huge thing that separates them?  No, there's so much more.

Just a side note, for most of these races I will be basing off of Tolkiens versions as well as a few others.  In most fantasy books and/or movies elves are portrayed as immortal beings.  I want to go with that a bit.  I can't explain why they're immortal except by saying that in Lord of the Rings and other works by Tolkien, elves were immortal mainly because they were the first-born of Ilúvatar (also known as Eru), but that's a completely different post.  So, on the basis that Tolkien is, in a way, the father of modern fantasy, and his elves being immortal, elves in almost every other fantasy novel are immortal as well.  I'm not well versed in ancient elven lore, as in, before Tolkien, which is my fault, I should probably do some research in that area.  But besides explanations before Tolkien, best I can explain is what I said above.  
So, being they are immortal, and keeping in mind that most modern fantasy is descended from the ideas that Tolkien put in his work, there's the question of why elves are always so moody?  That sounds funny, but I'm being serious.  Often in books elves are very happy in one moment, singing and being merry, then the next, very solemn and, often times, mad.  The reason I've come to by my own research and thinking is that they have more to bear.  I think of it this way.  We don't get to see very many young elves, most ones we see are at least over five hundred years old, some as old as three-five thousand!  So, think about us.  When we're young, in our teens and even up till around sixty, we are very merry and happy, and don't have very many, truly solemn moments we see in the elves.  We never get to experience all the weight they have on their shoulders at such old ages.  But we get a glimpse of it.
For example, and don't take this the wrong way, I have nothing against the elderly, in fact I hold them very dear, but when a person starts to get to a certain point in their life they start to become more, not sure what the word is here-weary-, but not in the way that they are just tired from lack of rest, but truly weary, as in, they've run the race, and now their ready to go.
That's how I see it.  And that's why they are so solemn all the time.  They're tired and have immense weight on their shoulders.  But they don't get an end like we do, they continue to go on (and that's part of the reason why they left to go across the sea, in LotR at least).  So, that covers the main attributes of elves.  I know that this probably isn't the most accurate information, and please correct me if you see something wrong.
Look out for the next post on Dwarves!

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