The New Notion Club Archives
Advertisement
The New Notion Club Archives
Tolkien - Father Christmas Letters - 004

The quirks of the Red-Elves irk Father Christmas while they work.

The Red Elves of the North Pole named by themselves Taitacárë (in Late Quenya "Makers of Toys") or Carnedhili ("Redfolk") were the last and youngest kindred of the Quendi to dwell in Middle-earth. They dwelt in later ages, even as late as the Seventh Age, within the far land of Ringli, the "North Pole," and there spoke a Quenya dialect known as "Arctic." They may have been descendants of the Elves of Evermist and the Lossidil. Yet their advanced tongue and unique demeanor, as well as their persistence and age, suggests another identity; some have theorized that they were, in fact, a confederacy of younger Elves, children, youths and Elves less than a millennia old, who, fleeing the wars and catastrophes at the close of the Fourth Age, came to the Uttermost North, where they established a peaceful and neocratic society.

They had many crafts, and were skilled engineers, but no practice pleased them more than that of toy-making; their children received of their parents toys of life-like form, which could speak, move, and act as their users desired. Such toys outclassed even the play-things of the Dwarves of old, and the Red Elves continued to produce these things unto the Sixth Age. It was at this time that these Elves encountered and interacted with Daddy Nöel. That sacred individual was an enigmatic creature; Men identified him as an Airër of the Sixth Age, a holy Man responsible for good deeds close to Eru; but the Elves, to whom he ministered, believed him to be a Spirit of Arda, and they acclaimed him their chieftain and followed him. Henceforth, the Red Elves aided Father Christmas in his practices and deeds, and in his tradition of providing blessings and protection, in addition to plenty of Elven-toys and foodstuffs, to those children of Men who were faithful to the ways of Iluvatar and believed in the tales of old.

Advertisement