What do Elves (not) eat? (Part 2)

NB. For some odd reason I could type no further in the original post “What do Elves (not) eat?” Is there a maximum length for posts in WordPress? If anyone knows how to solve this problem please let me know.

Why do Elves not eat meat? (Again – I have not fully confirmed this. But read closely those parts of The Lord of the Rings set in Imladris/Rivendell and Lothlorien.) Because even though they first awoke “by the starlit mere of Cuivienen”in Middle Earth they (Elves) belong to the Blessed Realm. There are the Eldar who never left Aman. Eldar who left Aman and came to Middle Earth (and their descendants). And Elves (Moriquendi) who either refused the Great Journey or never entered Aman. There is a sense in which Elves (who dwell in Middle Earth) represent and to an extent carry with them (the light of) the Blessed Realm. The “way Arda once was and is supposed to be”. Dare we say “unfallen creation”.

And – by extension – the other Races who (sometimes) eat meat (with some interesting possible exceptions) are children of Middle Earth. Not the Blessed Realm. Dare we say “fallen creation”. Not that those Races who eat meat are necessarily evil. But they cannot avoid (altogether) and their lives and cultures are to some extent touched by the brokenness of Middle Earth.

(Footnote – nowhere in the chapter “In The House of Tom Bombadil” is there a reference to eating meat. Although one must note that his diet includes dairy products. The same is true for Beorn in The Hobbit)

Observe how often servants of Morgoth (and later Sauron) eat meat. Not just the flesh of animals hunted or raised for food – but even the flesh of Talking Creatures. When Felagund and his companions (including Beren) are imprisoned in Tol-in-Gauroth: “From time to time they saw two eyes kindled in the dark, and a werewolf devoured one of the companions” (“Of Beren and Luthien”, in The Silmarillion [London: Allen and Unwin, 1977], 172). Of the beast Carcharoth who guarded Angband: “[Morgoth] chose one from among the whelps of the race of Draugluin; and he fed him with his own hand upon living flesh” (op cit., 180). Of the fall of Fingolfin, High King of the Noldor: “And Morgoth took the body of the Elven-king and broke it, and would cast it to his wolves” (“Of the Ruin of Beleriand”, op cit., 154). The winged beasts which carry the Nazgul were fed by Sauron with “fell meats” (I have apparently lost/misplaced my copies of The Lord of the Rings which have been with me since high school - do not have exact reference).

What then is the role and significance of (eating) meat in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien? At the very least there may be some similarity with one of the reasons given for fasting in the Orthodox Christian tradition: to remind us that we live in a fallen creation.