Who Were the Elves Frodo Met in the Woods of the Shire?
ANSWER: In The Fellowship of the Ring the reader finds this passage describing Frodo’s life in the Shire after Bilbo’s departure:
He lived alone, as Bilbo had done; but he had a good many friends, especially among the younger hobbits (mostly descendants of the Old Took) who had as children been fond of Bilbo and often in and out of Bag End. Folco Boffin and Fredegar Bolger were two of these; but his closest friends were Peregrin Took (usually called Pippin), and Merry Brandybuck (his real name was Meriadoc, but that was seldom remembered). Frodo went tramping all over the Shire with them; but more often he wandered by himself, and to the amazement of sensible folk he was sometimes seen far from home walking in the hills and woods under the starlight. Merry and Pippin suspected that he visited the Elves at times, as Bilbo had done.
Who were these Elves, some readers ask? Was it Gildor’s company of Elves or some other group?
Gildor sort of rules that out in his conversation with Frodo in “Three’s Company”:
‘Tell me, Gildor, have you ever seen Bilbo since he left us?’
Gildor smiled. ‘Yes,’ he answered. ‘Twice. He said farewell to us on this very spot. But I saw him once again, far from here.’ He would say no more about Bilbo, and Frodo fell silent.
If Frodo had been meeting Gildor’s folk in the Shire woodlands then it seems odd that Frodo should not have heard from Gildor by this point (17 years after the Party) that Gildor had seen Bilbo twice. In fact, in “The Shadow of the Past” the narrative tells us that Elves had seldom passed through the Shire until the time of what I often refer to as the Great Exodus:
There were rumours of strange things happening in the world outside; and as Gandalf had not at that time appeared or sent any message for several years, Frodo gathered all the news he could. Elves, who seldom walked in the Shire, could now be seen passing westward through the woods in the evening, passing and not returning; but they were leaving Middle-earth and were no longer concerned with its troubles. There were, however, dwarves on the road in unusual numbers. The ancient East-West Road ran through the Shire to its end at the Grey Havens, and dwarves had always used it on their way to their mines in the Blue Mountains. They were the hobbits’ chief source of news from distant parts — if they wanted any: as a rule dwarves said little and hobbits asked no more. But now Frodo often met strange dwarves of far countries, seeking refuge in the West. They were troubled, and some spoke in whispers of the Enemy and of the Land of Mordor.
Prior to this time of flight any Elves Frodo met in the Shire might have been coming from Lindon or traveling to Lindon on pilgrimage to look at the Palantir (as Gildor’s folk did on occasion, according to J.R.R. Tolkien’s comments in The Road Goes Ever On). It may be that the majority of Elves with whom Frodo visited were Sindar or remnants of the Nandor and Avari who, perhaps, still wandered across Eriador (the mysterious Wandering Companies about which we hear so little).
Frustrating as it is we don’t know who the Elves Frodo met were — or if he was on friendly terms with any particular group of Elves. Perhaps Tolkien imagined Frodo never meeting the same group of Elves twice. Unless there is some long-forgotten note or essay buried away somewhere, we will probably never know the answer to the question of “who were the Elves Frodo met in the woods of the Shire”.
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Frodo’s remarks (in ‘Three is Company’) are actually fairly explicit:
‘One can meet them [Elves] sometimes in the Woody End. They don’t live in the Shire, but they wander into it in Spring and Autumn, out of their own lands away beyond the Tower Hills’.
He is surprised that Gildor’s company are High Elves:
‘Few of that fairest folk are ever seen in the Shire.’
I am not sure if Sindar and Nandor would count as High Elves, but at any rate the visitors Frodo knows of are from Lindon.
Perhaps enigmatic is the statement of an unnamed spokes-elf: ‘We have seen you often before with Bilbo, though you may not have seen us.’ This does not rule out Bilbo himself having had dealings with Gildor’s group. It may be that, most likely at Gandalf’s prompting, Frodo has been “groomed” for his role – and opportunities arranged for high-Elfdom to take his measure.
Frankly, Tolkien seems to have invented the Wandering Companies for this episode and then forgotten about them. There can be such a thing as too many “hero’s helpers” in a myth. Gildor, Maggot, Bombadil, Butterbur, Strider and Glorfindel are quite enough to get Frodo to Rivendell – not forgetting Merry to handle the practical side, such as transport!
The Noldor were High Elves for sure. Gildor confirms that his folk are “Exiles”, meaning Noldor. In the appendix Tolkien includes the Sindar among the High Elves.
Sorry, I was just being picky about your piece. Frodo is surprised to see High Elves, so this makes it unlikely (from what you say) that he has seen many Sindar.
Nandor (as well as Sindar and Noldor) are Eldar, according to the table in the Silmarillion, but the Silmarillion index classifies “High Elves” as “the Elves of Aman, and all those who ever dwelt in Aman” – thus not Sindar, let alone Nandor. On the other hand the LOTR index equates Eldar with “High Elves, of the High Kindred, West-elves.” Does that mean all Eldar are High Elves – I really don’t know! It is no big deal I hope.
Any little question can easily blossom into a big deal if it cannot be resolved quickly and cleanly. 🙂
I just noticed that the Grey-elven language (Sindarin) is distinguished from the High-elven language (Quenya) in another part of the appendices. I suppose we could just attribute this to YATI (Yet Another Tolkien Inconsistency).
Interesting!
So, whether Frodo exactly identifies them as such, the majority of the elves passing through (or allowing themselves to be seen passing through) the Shire are… Not-quite-so-high-Elves.
And the apparent inconsistency suggests that the distinction between ‘High Elves’ and the rest might depend on the context. Rather than having a direct mapping onto a specific kinship group, or Calaquendi or anything, maybe ‘High Elves’ is used to refer to those of more distinguished lineage within the area in question.
E.g. in the Sindar/Noldor environment of First Age Beleriand, ‘High Elves’ refers to the Noldor, but in an environment like Late Third Age Mirkwood the ‘High Elves’ would be those of Sindar origin. (Surely not Nandor, if that would then make most of the Silvan folk be ‘High Elves’ and have the term only exclude Avari!)
Cheers!
–Os.