Okay, this has always kinda bothered me...

How come in the Hobbit the elves are these manically singing jolly people, and then in LotR they're...well, they still sing and stuff, but they're more serious? Did they suddenly become depressed or something???

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"I'll tell you truly: I value my thought and work terribly, but in essence - think about it - this whole world of ours is just a bit of mildew that grew over a tiny planet. And we think we can have something great - thoughts, deeds! They're all grains of sand." - Levin

I think it might be because The Hobbit is supposed to be a children's book, generally a happy, fun adventure story. So the Elves would naturally be more jolly - forgive my use of a very un-Elf-like word, please - in this simpler children's story then in The Lord of the Rings, where the whole fate of Middle-earth and its peoples is at stake. Wouldn't you become much more grave and serious if this happened to you?

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Ditto to what Anie said. Plus, in The Lord of the Rings it mentions that some of the Elves sing and laugh all of the time, but those are only some of them. So I guess those are the ones we saw in The Hobbit. And, if you remember, the Wood Elves weren't like that, only the ones at Rivendell.

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^
yeah exactly. In LotR we get to see the more serious elves most of the time whereas in the Hobbit we get to see the laughing and singing elves. And also in LotR Sam says that some of them do still laugh and sing.

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That's what I was referring to. Some of them are very merry, yet others are sober and sorrowful.

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Ok, that makes sense. It just seemed kind of weird when I first read the books.

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Heh. I actually changed my sig. Wow.

"I'll tell you truly: I value my thought and work terribly, but in essence - think about it - this whole world of ours is just a bit of mildew that grew over a tiny planet. And we think we can have something great - thoughts, deeds! They're all grains of sand." - Levin

Ditto. I thought about it for a while before I came up with my explanation.

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*nodnod*
The whole Middle-earth stands on the brink of destruction-perspective isn't the most jolly and happy.... time for a bit of seriousness.

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Very well said, Ea. I can't consider many people thinking happy thoughts about it, unless said person is Sauron...

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yeah, that was a really unhappy and dark time. There weren't many reasons for being happy at all.

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Well, besides Bilbo's Birthday party, that is.

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well yeah. And the ending has some quite happy parts as well e.g. the time in Minas Tirith after the War of the Ring.

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Yeah, it does. But if you go forward a few years, it's bittersweet. Frodo leaves, Gandalf leaves, and the Fellowship is finally broken. But....it's still a really happy section of the book, too.

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yeah, that's why I said, that only parts of the ending are really happy, because the very ending of the book as a bittersweet mood in my opinion.

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Which I like. I like the bittersweet ending. If it was a happy ending, it would seem too perfect.

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Yes, me too. I can only agree. A happy ending just would be too perfect. But the bittersweet ending shows that sacrifies have to be made in order to achieve something as great as what has been achieved in LotR.

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