Why Are ELVES The Best Archers? | Lord of the Rings Lore

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My mood improves a bit when I turn on YouTube and hear, “Build me an army worthy of Mordor.”

The reasons are: 1. Very tall and strong. 2. Eagle like vision. 3. Naturally more skilled (coordination) and flexible/agile when compared to other races. 4. Better and magical bows and sometimes even arrows. 5. Better senses. 6. More stamina for trainning. 7. More time for trainning. 8. Part of the culture.

The Elven skill I would like to learn the most is Elven baking.

The Eleven wisdom and healing powers are hard to beat. Being somewhat farsighted makes them nearly perfect. Such a being Tolkien gave us will never be heard of again. 12:38

Here's an element worth considering. Tolkien was a very well educated Catholic. Thus, he would have been quite familiar with Just War theology. Moreover, as someone who fought in both World Wars and was certainly traumatized by his experiences in the trenches of World War 1, he would have had a personal stake in learning about Just War theory. Why is this important when it comes to Elven archery? Well Just War theory states that not only should War only be fought for Just reasons, it should also be fought using Just Means; and there was a huge debate in the Middle Ages whether use of Bows, whether Long or Cross, were morally suitable weapons because their range and the potential that they might cause injury to non combatants. Longbows were judged as slightly better than cross bows. Now, return to Tolkien. The only times we see Elves fight, with the exceptions of the "Kinslayings" (which are always condemned) is against the forces of Sauron or Morgoth. So, their causes of Wars are just. Moreover, their accuracy with the bow (and it's always a longbow) implies that they are incredibly unlikely to hit non-combatants. Just War theory in action....

It is kind of obvious why archery is a big part of their culture. In the earliest days of their race, they needed bows and arrows to hunt. At first for necessity and then later for sport. It was the first "weapon" they ever created. It was a skill to be learned by all to survive and thanks to Morgoth, it was needed as an effective means of defeating your enemy.

"Praised be the bow of Galadriel, and the hand and eye of Legolas!" Great summary of elven archery.

I really enjoyed this episode. Getting into so many topics to answer one question shows the complexity and sagacity of Tolkien’s universe. As an amateur musician all of my life, the concept of being able to hone my craft over a thousand years is fantastical. And then being able to do this with several pursuits is ever more awesome.

They say that learning a new skill for ten thousand hours makes you Very good at it. Imagine thousands of years

I also wonder if archery helps them maintain their immortality by staying farther away from their enemies. And i dont even necessarily mean for themselves, but because of the elves low birthrate. I think it would be harder to maintain their population if all elves loved swordsmanship more than archery. I realize that elves are also amazing at swordsmanship, but i think we would still see much fewer elves if they hated ranged weapons. So it makes sense from a societal perspective as well

Would love a proper RPG set in middle earth. The replay would be as strong as Skyrim. Imagine the main storyline being something similar to the fellowship traveling around in a group to complete missions. Stealth hobbit playthru, archer elf playthru, warrior gondorian playthru, mage istari playthru or master craftsman dwarf playthru.

Another great video bud.

I have my own take on Elvish eyesight. There is a VERY deep science related to Eyesight which can be researched by anyone who wishes to delve into it. Human Trichromatic Eyesight Typically in the real world humans have a "Trichromatic" eyesight. Trichromacy or trichromatism is the possessing of three independent channels for conveying color information, derived from the three different types of cone cells in the eye.[1] Organisms with trichromacy are called trichromats. The normal explanation of trichromacy is that the organism's retina contains three types of color receptors (called cone cells in vertebrates) with different absorption spectra. In actuality the number of such receptor types may be greater than three, since different types may be active at different light intensities. In vertebrates with three types of cone cells, at low light intensities the rod cells may contribute to color vision. Elvish Pentachromatic Eyesight However, I strongly believe from a scientific point of view that Elves have "Pentachromatic" eyesight. Pentachromacy describes the capability and capacity for capturing, transmitting, processing, and perceiving five independent channels of color information through the primary visual system. Organisms with pentachromacy are termed pentachromats'. For these organisms, it would take at least five differing ranges of wavelengths along the electromagnetic spectrum to reproduce their full visual spectrum. In comparison, a combination of red, green, and blue wavelengths of light are all that is necessary to simulate most of the common human trichromat visual spectrum. One proposed explanation for pentachromacy is a retina containing five distinct types of cone cells with differing absorption spectra. In actuality the number of cone cell types may be greater than five as different types may be active at a specific intensity or range of intensities for a given wavelength of electromagnetic radiation. Basically, because Elves have 5 types of colour receptors in their eyes, as opposed to Human's 3 receptors, they can distinguish subtle shades of colour MUCH more readily and thus be able to spot these variations more easily and quickly. This allows them to quickly acquire a potential target against a backdrop that a human would struggle to notice such as a forest, or any other material backdrop etc. They would be able to spot movement much more quickly and also be much more accurate in their aim as a consequence. The theory of having much more time to perfect their archery craft is very valid for technique but target acquisition and aim would be enhanced dramatically due to their keen sensory perception as argued above...

Nice work dude thanks

When you have ten thousand years to learn a craft you get really good

Blacksmithing… I would want to learn Elven Blacksmithing!!

going off of my own experience before the video- id have to say that elves are resistant to the negative physiological changes that archery concurs. 1) my shoulders are offset with my left being higher than my right, and my back and shoulder musculature is asymmetrical with the right traps being smaller allowing it to contract further and the left deltoid muscle groups being more striated than the right. maybe their bodys can accomodate the whatever hypertension issues occur from this. 2) my grandpas caritlidge in his shoulders wore down almost completely (admittedly this was in part due to various opioids as well), maybe their shoulders and cartilidge are more resistant or regrows like rodent teeth and maybe bone spurs dont occur 3) i developed a schwanoama tumour from bow hunters syndrome on my sympathetic nerve on the right side of my neck. bow hunters syndrome occurs from twisting or torsion of the neck (primarily from archery lol) that results most commonly in the form of a bone spur developing, or in my case and one other in the form of a schwanoama tumour. perhaps elves are more resiliant to this. 4) whilst im going blind and have a bad astigmatism and shoot without my glasses (my anchor point is a mole by my earlobe so the string always catches my glasses so i shoot without) maybe much better vision would help lol. on top of that, maybe elven brains are better able to judge physics and arcs or can determine what variables can determine whatll mess up your arrows flight. 5) whilst ive been shooting since i was three (and i have had to stop due to the bowhunters syndrome and my resulting surgery) and am now 21, i cant but help imagine that being 500+ years old without medical conditions that would force you to stop could mean a weeee bit more practice time edit to add after the video: the gains you get out of a better bow that has equivelent power stroke and draw weight doesnt reallyyy make that much of a difference (but at the same time for energy output efficiencys sake it absolutely does lol), what really makes a difference in your precision and accuracy as an archer (outside of gadgets like stabilizers and sighting systems, i shoot tradditional however) is the quality of your arrows. the difference between my fibreglass arrows and my carbon arrows is insane. also, a lot of years practicing would result in better muscular endurance and it can be assumed anyways that elves have better muscular endurance innately, so they can remain in a fight longer more effectively. as far as dwarves are concerend, it really comes down to the ballistic output of their bows. assuming their bows have the same draw weight as elves, which i dont think is unreasonable to assume honestly, they would be more hampered by having a much shorter powerstroke than elves, which reduces the ammount of energy the arrow can acquire from the bow and string from drawn resting. equally we can assume elves have bows of higher draw weights. theres people stronger than me that cant shoot as heavy a bow as me or for as long because ive been doing it for my life (i mean not anymore but yk) where a more efficient bow design comes into play is in that there would be more of the bows energy transferred into the arrow, less vibration of the limbs, less elacticity of the string, and perhaps elves invented bows with a riser cut out to center. i also imagine that whatever magic whatever allows for their bows to be strung indefinately without losing power. AHEM.

Elves have great hearing sight and smell……. But we’re still caught off guard as the hobbits barrelled down the river..

I did once watch a YouTube video of an archer (Human) that shoot like an Elf (or Legolas). I couldn't remember the title of the video.