In Defence of Elves

If I was to create a Fantasy forum bingo game, then I would definitely reserve a square or three for elves. Or to be more specific, elves and the criticism of them. It feels like a month doesn’t go by without some comment about automatically avoiding all books that contain elves, or how elves are so overdone, or can I make my elves different and not the standard tree-hugging Mary Sues. Elves often seem to be held up as the standard bearer of all that is tired and should be forgotten.

The truth is that elves are not in the majority of fantasy books but, thanks their prevalence in fantasy media, have been presented in a wide variety of different ways. My own very old school trad fantasy orientated reading lists would indicate maybe a quarter of books contains them. That may be on the high side. Looking through Goodreads’ top fantasy books of the 90s - https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1118.Best_Fantasy_of_the_90s - I’d say maybe five of the top 50 have Tolkienesque elves. If anyone has some complete data on the score, I’d love to see it and use it rather than my lazy eyeballing.

Of course, everyone will have their own idea of what constitutes overdone, but it seems rather unfair to put the elves there. Understandable, given how large they loom in fantasy’s history and in gaming, but not reflective of the reality of the book shelves we browse. Or at least, the ones I browse, and I feel like I’ve been around enough forums to have a decent idea of just how different they are to anyone else’s. Which is not very.

What are different are elves. There’s so many different types. I’ve seen them strutting the streets of Seattle with a ten in their hand and a gleam in their eye; I’ve seen them as feral near-animals roaming forgotten tombs in the icy wastes. They’ve been the most civilised of races and the least civilised, they’ve built great steampunk contraptions and they’ve relied only on magic, and they’ve ridden everything from stags and wolves to birds and lizards. Some have been insufferably noble and incorruptible; more have been willing to take their morning dump in your mouth just because. They’ve taught magic to mankind and they’ve killed mankind’s mages. They’ve been everywhere from outer space to deep under the earth and sea, they’ve worshipped everything from demons and their dead to nothing much at all. And I’ve seen them be completely mortal, completely spirit, and a few versions in between.

The baddest elf alive (/) - bad meaning bad and bad meaning good

In all the “How do I do elves but different discussions”, I’ve seen only three ideas that I’ve thought are truly out there. Everything else has been done somewhere. Which isn’t to say there are no new ideas out there, or that it isn’t worth trying to find them. Simply that attempts to make elves super-new need to step up their game. Maybe I’m being too demanding because I spend a lot of time gaming and there’s been a lot of really cool elf ideas there. But I really doubt I’m the only guy whose view of fantasy is as much coloured by Bethesda, Games Workshop and TSR as it is by Tolkien, Jordan, Martin et al.

But then, when we get down to it, I don’t really see why people feel such an aching need to reinvent the elf. Elves are awesome. They really are. They’re the stuff of fantasy itself - immortal and beautiful. Human plus. I can see why some hate that but, well, they’re wrong. What sort of hero can resist that some of bookmark to measure themselves against? What sort of fairytale doesn’t have a use for a people who have all the power and seemingly no price - of course, there’s always a price.

In fact, I’d far rather see people explore elves than reinvent them. How does immortality change a culture? How does it feel like to fall out with a brother you'll be seeing every Christmas for a good millennia or three? What must it be like being an elf among humans? Do they ignore the doughy ants, or bathe in the adulation, or do they feel like the girl in those really creepy examples of the worst of gamer behaviour? Do they feel under pressure to be perfect?

Well... maybe some of them do

Right now, it feels like fantasy is all about the exploration of the human psyche. Well, why not explore the elven psyche? Or use them to consider how humans think and act. They're the perfect metaphor for the 1% - or for all those high flying students trying not to go crazy. They're every cool kid clique you wish you could be part of (or not). That's even before you get into all the stuff about nobility mirrored, or the idea of being truly god-touched and driven to altruism, or responsible use of power. And everything else.

From that angle, if anything, elves are underdone. One of the great totemic clichés of fantasy has been left behind on the shelf. There's a lot of potential there for the writer who wants it. And sure, when they do, a lot of people will complain.

But not me. For me, giving the elves some page time is overdue.