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the lord of the rings - What is the Elven Diet?


It seems that a lot of emphasis is given to both the Hobbits and the Dwarves in regards to their diet, but I don't recall much being said about the Elves. (It has been about 15 years since I read LOTR and the Hobbit, and I've never read any of the other works in the Legendarium) Other than Lembas what do Tolkien's Elves eat?



Answer



I'm not sure if a whole diet was specified in detail, but one question that was answered conclusively (here) was whether Elves were vegetarians: no, at least some of them[1] ate meat:




Tolkien's Elves appear to eat meat according to the earlier stages of the legendarium. From The Lay of the Children of Hurin, for example:



On a time was Turin at the table of Thingol there was laughter long and the loud clamour of a countless company that quaffed the mead, amid the wine of Dor-Winion that went ungrudged in their golden goblets; and goodly meats there burdened the boards, neath the blazing torches




This also indicates mead and wine as drinks.


As an additional evidence, we see in The Hobbit as the party witnesses the Elves cooking meat in Mirkwood:



The smell of the roast meats was so enchanting that, without waiting to consult one another, every one of them got up and scrambled forwards into the ring with the one idea of begging for some food.




However, there's no direct indication in LOTR itself of Elves ever eating meat.


[1]Green-elves of Ossiriand seemed to frown on hunting, as discussed in the last 2 links of my answer, and therefore may have been vegetarian:


... these folk [Men] are hewers of trees and hunters of beasts: therefore we are their unfriends,... (Silmarillion )




As a side note, if you're interested in food in LOTR in general, Michael Martinez used to have an interesting essay on the topic (archive.org copy), a bit thin on canon quotes, but for example specifically mentioning elves eating apples and some fruit.


Another good discussion is to be found here.




Also, Lembas was not an everyday Elvish food.




"This food [lembas] the Eldar alone knew how to make. It was made for the comfort of those who had need to go upon a long journey in the wild, or for the hurt whose life was in peril. Only these were permitted to use it. The Eldar did not give it to Men, save only to a few whom they loved, if they were in great need. ... (for good reason - DVK)


Source: The Peoples of Middle Earth, volume XII in C.J.R. Tolkien's History of Middle Earth series. Chapter 15, Of Lembas, via elendor.org



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