The Necessity of Elves
No fantasy world would be complete without elves. Lovers of the fantasy genre are quick to recognize them by their most iconic features: pointed ears, charm, and long life across a variety of stories that can be traced back to fairy tales told generations ago.
Fans of The Witcher and The Lord of the Rings can quickly point out the similarities of Sapkowski and Tolkien’s take on elves. Beyond the pointed ears, both races have an acute association with magic, though the origins of that association differ. The elves of The Witcher likely arrived on The Continent from another world, bringing with them an otherworldliness that lingered in the form of magic. The elves of LOTR are simply blessed with longevity both as individuals and as a race, which has afforded them time to create technology far beyond the comprehension of other shorter-lived races, causing them to associate it with magic.
Both versions of elves sport a proficiency with bows that spark both renown and infamy, likely because elf eye site is rivaled by none. Fans of these stories never deny Legolas’s talent for killing orcs, or the fell twpt of the Scoia’tael gray-feathered shafts (I’m still mourning my boy Applegat, may he rest in peace). However, both of these killers are viewed in a highly different light in their respective narratives. The elves of LOTR are on the side of The Fellowship and therefore on the side of good. The Scoia’tael are misled murderers who oppose Geralt and other human protagonists. That Legolas kills so many orcs is a good thing; that the Scoia’tael ransack Cintra, Ciri’s home, is horrific.
Man and Elf
The narratives of The Witcher and The Lord of the Rings closely follow the relationships that elves have with other races of their respective worlds. The elves of LOTR are revered by the other races that exist in middle-earth. Just knowing elvish marks one as a learned and cultured individual. Elvish art, technology, and culture are celebrated and even venerated in some instances. By contrast, the elves of The Wticher are outcasts, at least where humans are concerned. In The Witcher, elves have been on the losing side of a conflict ever since the human race arrived (or more accurately, evolved). The trouble being that although humans have shorter lifespans than elves, they multiply much, much quicker. Human invasion pushed the elves further and further east, where finally they took up residence in the Blue Mountains.
The differences in how elves are received by other races make up the primary differences between Tolkien and Sapkowski’s elves. Another notable difference is how elves relate to the dwarves. In The Witcher, the dwarves, who also suffer at the hands of humans, align themselves with the elves, most notably in the emergence of the Scoia’tael. As a result, elves and dwarves are more or less lumped into the single category of “nonhumans.”
Dealings With The Dwarves
In LOTR, no such alliance exists because “nonhumans” outnumber the humans. Elves and dwarves are seen as completely disparate entities with their own cultures, languages, technology, and territories. Lumping them into one group just does not make sense. These differences are interesting because they speak to the political conflicts that these authors lived through. Sapkowski wrote The Witcher not long after the Russian occupation of Poland ended, but before the last of the Soviet troops had left. Within this time the political climate in Poland was tense, which may have contributed to Sapkowski’s narrative of occupation and oppression.
By contrast, Tolkien was writing not long after WW1, which he himself fought in. Although he strictly told his readers not to project real-world political conflicts onto his works of fantasy (internally represses memories of Rings of Power), one can reasonably assume the many war narratives within his works may have been based on his personal experience.
Race and Warfare
LOTR conflicts hardly feature any occupational narratives, which heavily contrasts Tolkien’s experience in England during WWI with Sapkowski’s experience in Poland during the Russian occupation. Rather, Tolkien’s work focuses more on the conflict between the forces of good and the forces of evil, rather than racial conflicts, which is what The Witcher focuses on. Many have made the argument that Tolkien’s conflicts are inherently racial, seeing that the forces of evil are made up almost entirely of orcs, goblins, and other “undesirable” creatures. However, I would make the argument that creatures such as orcs are more akin to irrational monsters such as trolls or giant spiders than they are to humanoid races. But alas, I think that’s another essay for another day.
Non-human races are an important part of fantasy not only because they contribute to the worldbuilding of the story but also because they reflect how humans interact with beings who are different from them. At the end of the day, you can’t have a fantasy story without non-human races, least of all elves.