Half-elf
A half-elf is a mythological or fictional being, born of an immortal elf and a mortal human. They are often depicted as very beautiful and endowed with magical powers; they may be presented as torn between the two worlds that they inhabit. Half-elves became known in modern times mainly through J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings but have origins in Norse mythology. A half-elf appeared in Lord Dunsany's 1924 book The King of Elfland's Daughter.
In Middle-earth, half-elves are the children of Elves and Men, and can choose either Elvish immortality or the mortal life of Men. The elf-maidens Lúthien and Arwen in Tolkien's works both chose mortality to be with the Men that they loved. Scholars have noted that this enabled Tolkien to explore several key themes, including love and death, time and immortality. As a Catholic, he believed that Men, freely choosing to let go, gain release from the world's limitations; whereas if they tried to hold on to life and material things, they would end in darkness. His Elves – except for half-elves – were unable to gain this release. In On Fairy-Stories Tolkien wrote that since men write fairy-stories, these concern the escape from death; and conversely that Elves would tell human-stories about the escape from deathlessness. Since their popularisation by Tolkien, half-elves have become widely known in role-playing games, and in turn in video games and spin-off films. The role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons features its own race of half-elves, including the character Tanis Half-Elven.
Norse mythology
In Norse mythology, a half-elf is the offspring of an elf and a human. Major examples include Skuld and Högni. Högni was a hero in Thidreks saga, born to a human queen when an elf visited her while the king was away. Skuld was a Danish princess, as told in Hrólf Kraki's saga. King Helgi, sleeping alone as he had not been invited to King Adils's wedding, let in a ragged person on a midwinter night. As she slept, he saw she was a radiantly beautiful woman dressed in a silk gown. She told him he had freed her from a curse and asked to leave. He asked her to stay and marry him, and she agreed. They slept together. She told him they would have a child, and asked him to visit the child the next winter at the harbour. The King forgot to do so, but three years later the woman, an elf, returned and left a daughter at his door. She told him that the child's name was Skuld, which means "what you should do". She said that the King would gain the reward for breaking the curse, but that the King's people would suffer as the King had not done as she had asked. She never came back, but Skuld was always angry.The scholar Hilda Ellis describes Skuld as evil, recalling that in the saga, Skuld used magic to raise an army against Hrólf, her half-brother. As quickly as Hrólf's warriors kill Skuld's men, they spring up, fighting more strongly than ever. Leading the fight for Hrólf, Bodvar Bjarki calls Skuld's men draugar, 'undead', saying "they are grimmest to deal with after they are dead, and against this we have no power." Ellis comments that Skuld is one of the Norse women involved in "everlasting battle" who share the names of Valkyries, females who guide the souls of the dead. She notes that Skuld is "said to be the child of an elf-woman", but that it is difficult "to decide how accurately the term is used", as its meaning shifts between the sagas and the Edda poems.
Högni too is "essentially a demonic character", his name connected to the German Hexe, 'witch', and to the English "hag"; the scholar Alexander Krappe sees his being the son of an elf as fitting in to that role, while his daughter Hildegund similarly has "certain magical qualities", such as awakening fallen warriors.
Lord Dunsany
Perhaps the earliest published half-elf in modern literature is the character Orion in Lord Dunsany's 1924 The King of Elfland's Daughter. The lord of Erl sends his son, Alveric, to fetch the King of Elfland's daughter, Lirazel, as his bride; the couple have a son, Orion. Lirazel, pining for Elfland, returns there. Alveric and his father search for her helplessly. Lirazel now longs for her mortal husband and half-elven son. The King of Elfland changes Erl into a part of Elfland, and the family live forever in a timeless realm.In 1977, two members of the folk rock band Steeleye Span created a concept album also named The King of Elfland's Daughter, inspired by Lord Dunsany's book. Christopher Lee appears as the narrator and the King of Elfland.
Tolkien's Middle-earth
In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, the Half-elven are the children of the union of Elves and Men. Of these, the most significant were the products of couplings between the Eldar and the Edain. Three recorded unions of the Edain and Eldar generated descendants: Idril and Tuor; Lúthien and Beren; and Arwen and Aragorn. The first two couples wed during the final part of the First Age of Middle-earth, while the third married at the end of the Third Age. The third couple descended not only from the first two couples, but also from the twins Elros and Elrond, who chose mankind and elvenkind respectively—thereby severing their fates and those of their descendants. In Appendix A of The Return of the King, Tolkien notes that by the marriage of Arwen and Aragorn "the long-sundered branches of the Half-elven were reunited and their line was restored". The second union was the only one of the three marriages in which the Elf involved did not become mortal; instead Tuor was joined to the Elves. In all these cases, the husband was a mortal Man, while the wife was Elven.Beren and Lúthien
The first of these was between the mortal Beren, of the House of Bëor, and Lúthien, daughter of the Elf Thingol, king of the Sindar, and Melian, a Maia. Beren died in the quest for the Silmaril, and in despair, Lúthien's spirit departed her body and made its way to the halls of Mandos. Mandos allowed them a unique fate, and they were re-bodied as mortals in Middle-earth, where they dwelt until their second deaths. Their son Dior, heir of the Sindarin kingdom of Doriath and of the Silmaril, was thus one-quarter Elvish by blood and one-quarter Maian, and half-human. He was killed while still young, when the sons of Fëanor sacked Doriath. Dior's wife was Nimloth, a Sindarin Elf, and with her he had three children, Elwing and two sons.Tuor and Idril
The second marriage of Men and Elves in the First Age was between Tuor of the House of Hador, another branch of the Edain, and Idril Celebrindal, an Elf, though half Noldorin and half Vanyarin in ancestry. Their son was Eärendil. After the fall of Gondolin, Eärendil also escaped to the Mouths of Sirion, and married Elwing who was also half-elven. They had twin sons, Elrond and Elros.Aragorn and Arwen
Uniquely, Eärendil and Elwing, together with their sons Elrond and Elros, were granted their choice of fates: to be counted as Elves or to be counted as Human. Should this Choice not have been granted, they, like all other Half-Elves, would have been automatically mortal. Elros chose to be counted among mortals, and became Tar-Minyatur, the first king of Númenor. He finally took his death at the age of five hundred. The descendants of Elros were not given this choice, but their lifespan was several times that of ordinary Men. In later times the Númenórean kings, descendants of Elros, regretted their forefather's choice, and this helped lead to the Downfall of Númenor. Elrond chose to be counted among the Elves, joining the court of Gil-galad until the end of the Second Age. He also founded Rivendell in the Second Age. He married the Elf Celebrían, daughter of Celeborn and Galadriel, and sailed into the West at the conclusion of the War of the Ring. The children of Elrond were also given choice of kindred, and therefore Arwen could choose to be counted among the Edain even though her father hoped she would accompany him to Elvenhome in the West. But she chose otherwise, marrying Aragorn II Elessar, king of the Reunited Kingdom, at the start of the Fourth Age, and bringing noble elvish blood into his dynasty. He ruled for 120 years, choosing to die at a great age for a man, but while still in full health. She died alone at the age of 2,901 years, grieving the brevity of her mortal happiness.Line of the Half-elven in Middle-earth
Other lines
According to "the tradition of house" mentioned in The Lord of the Rings, the line of Princes of Dol Amroth originated from the union of Imrazôr the Númenórean, a Prince of Belfalas, and Mithrellas, a Silvan Elf and companion of Nimrodel, an Nandorin Elf from Lothlórien. They had two children: a boy Galador and a girl Gilmith, though it is said that Mithrellas later vanished in the night. Galador, according to this tradition, became the first Prince of Dol Amroth. Tolkien initially worked on a genealogical table linking Imrazôr's children with Imrahil, but eventually abandoned it. The claim of elvish heritage figures in the perception of Prince Imrahil among the people of Minas Tirith, illustrated by the following line of dialogue: "Belike the old tales speak well; there is Elvish blood in the veins of that folk, for the people of Nimrodel dwelt in that land once long ago". Legolas, an Elf of Mirkwood, believed as much about Prince Imrahil's alleged heritage upon meeting him during the events of The Return of the King. He remarked that "long since the people of Nimrodel left the woodlands of Lórien, and yet still one may see that not all sailed from Amroth's haven west over water", though the matter is probed no further.In The Hobbit reference is made to a rumour among Hobbit folk that a Took ancestor of Bilbo Baggins had long ago taken a "fairy" wife, but the allegation is immediately dismissed as a simplistic explanation for the sometimes atypical behaviour of the Took clan. Even if hobbits have some elvish blood, however, they are "endearing rather than frightening", unlike other half-human hybrids such as Dracula.
In The Book of Lost Tales, the young Tolkien originally intended Eärendil, then spelled Earendel, to be the first of the Half-elven. Early versions of The Tale of Beren and Lúthien had Beren as an Elf. The earliest version of the tale of Túrin Turambar had Tamar, the character Tolkien later renamed Brandir, as a Half-elf; Tolkien mentioned this in a way that implied he did not consider Half-elven descent especially remarkable at the time he wrote that story.