Drunk Elves

[Wolfie65 1275xp 0]

In LotR , Gimli and Legolas engage in a drinking contest, in which Gimli ends up falling off a chair unconscious, while the only effect on Legolas is a slight tingling in his fingers.

In The Hobbit, Bilbo is able to free the Dwarves because the Elves guarding them are asleep, dead drunk. I think Thranduil better have a word with those guys because they must have quaffed absolutely MASSIVE amounts of veritas in order for that to happen, thusly allowing the Hobbit burglar to spring his 13 employers…..

[athelstane 708xp 0]

Three things come to mind:

a)  The wine is much stronger than the beer, maybe a form of Port, especially made for the Elves?

b) The elves are used to drinking large quantities of beer and the dwarves are not?

c)  The makers of LoTR didn’t know/care about the lore enough to research the matter when they decided to include this incident?

I’m leaning towards c)

[limburger]

If it hadn’t been for Bilbo’s ring they would never have been able to catch the elves partying outside and they’d been dead long before coming close to the location where the elves were living.

Who would be stupid enough to get in there and steal things ?

As such the guards had literally nothing to guard against.
That’s why they could afford to drink themselves silly.

I’d imagine that Legolas wasn’t really drinking because he was on an important mission for his people at that time. Dwarves are used to waking up drunk so they don’t mind as much.

Also :
(1) the plot needed to happen
(2) it was a funny interlude

• This reply was modified 4 weeks, 1 day ago by limburger.

[bvandewalker]

Probably either:

a. Your comparing normal elf guards to Legolas which is like comparing regular ninja to Chuck Norries and Bruce Lee in action movie land.

b. Elves likely roofy their own wine  so they can actually get drunk, duh.

• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 3 days ago by bvandewalker.

[Wolfie65 1275xp 0]

An Elf is an Elf, as far as we’re being told by the lore, they are all functionally immortal, so there shouldn’t be any significant difference between ‘regular’ Elves and the son of the King in terms of boozing.

The wine seems to come from Laketown, which is why they return the barrels. How Laketown produces wine in an area as cold and gloomy as it seems to be remains a mystery. Maybe Laketown wine is imported from much further south, like Gondor.

[pagan8th 14164xp 0]

The wine is imported if I recall correctly, from the area around the Sea of Rhun.

[athelstane]

Most medieval (and hence middle earth ales?)  were probably quite weak until learned men such as monks got involved.  Gimli might have been reared on weak ales, like a session IPA, c.3%-4% ABV  or Crouch Vale Brewers Gold  a Woodford’s Wherry (I’m licking my lips just typing these).

So although he’d developed a tolerance for these weaker beers, Gimli isn’t in the same league as Legolas who might have spent his life drinking something akin to the ale brewed in this world by monks, e.g. a Chimay or a Birra Nursia Extra, which weigh in between 8-10% ABV.

 

• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 3 days ago by athelstane.
• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 3 days ago by athelstane.

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