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I was thinking about this topic for awhile now and the same problems arise. In the lord of the rings movies the wood elves who are supposed to be in tune with nature have metal weapons, but if they are such nature lovers how did they get metal? The first answer would be they dug it up them-selves but that's unlikely because they would have to dig-up their own land and harm some of their nature. The second one is that they would trade with the dwarfs in Erebor but if that were true then they would use dwarfish weapons but it shows them wielding typical elvish weapons.

Whats your theory?

To be honest, I'm not sure Tolkein Wood Elves are as naturally-in-tune as, say, the WE in Warhammer (who harness nature spirits in battle and use nature magic a lot), so they wouldn't think too badly on the processes needed to forge metal. They are at one with nature in that they use it to make their cities, and make use of what it has to offer, but it's not like they feel pain when trees are chopped down or anything. If anyone, it's the Ents that fulfil that role as Guardians of the Wild or whatever.

The Hobbit describes Wood Elves as 'more dangerous and less wise' than High Elves, suggesting that their defining traits are that they are more warlike/uncompromising and less concerned with knowlesdge than their High Elf relatives, so it's that rather than any affinity with nature that sets them apart. I'd almost go so far as to say they are only called Wood Elves by the non-Elven races of Middle Earth as they prefer to live in woods, rather than anything else.

Tolkien's Wood Elves (or Silvan Elves) are not really more in tune with nature than other Elves (such as Sindar or Noldor). They are just called wood elves because they live in the woods. Like all elves, they are of course very fond of nature, but they do not take it to the extreme seen in some other works of fantasy. They have no problems about mining and other forms of industry and they seem perfectly fine with chopping down trees for firewood for example.

 Iron_Captain wrote:
Tolkien's Wood Elves (or Silvan Elves) are not really more in tune with nature than other Elves (such as Sindar or Noldor). They are just called wood elves because they live in the woods. Like all elves, they are of course very fond of nature, but they do not take it to the extreme seen in some other works of fantasy. They have no problems about mining and other forms of industry and they seem perfectly fine with chopping down trees for firewood for example.

What he said. Don't go by flanderised Warhammer elves, or even the Jackson films.

Here's an explanation of the different types of Middle-Earth elf, from the POV of the elves themselves. Aye, it's complicated. And here's which types make up the 'wood' elves. In a nutshell, the elves that stopped at the misty mountains during the ancient westward migration (and some of those that never started) and lived in and around the Greenwood. (Later Mirkwood) Though what further complicates it is that other elves who went further, over the misty mountains and blue mountains, before stopping in forests there, are called the grey elves...

In fact, given the nature of some of their most famous cities and fortresses, it'd be easier to call most of them 'cave elves'.

With wood elves being able to talk to trees I wouldn't say it is too far to assume they have some means of ceremony and or tradition of 'asking' the trees to lend themselves to the protection of their race, in return when said elves die they give their bodies back to the earth from which they acquired the means to make their weapons, almost like a trade.

As for lord of the rings ones, I don't think the lotr wood elves respect the forest so much as they do safeguard and use it for their own saftey.

Tolkien's wood elves are not what others would call wood elves.

They're not little forest faeries. They're elves who just happen to live in a very large forest. Their capital is built underground, and they're more than capable stone masons.

Remember that Elves were the first race. They developed metal working long before the Dwarves and Men walked. Even before they returned to Middle Earth.

The elves of Lothlórien could be considered 'Wood Elves' as well. The backgrounds of Celeborn and Galadriel is a little bit murky on whether they could be considered 'Wood Elves'.

I think Celeborn and Galadriel are definitely Calaquendi and not Silvan.

Galadriel's of the Noldor (deep elves) so Calaquendi, yes; but the most concrete origin for Celeborn is Sindarin. (grey elves) Though most if not all of the galadhrim in Lothlorien are Nandor or wood elves.

(Blimey, wikipedia really is a wonderful resource for useless information)

On the subject of different types of Elves, I think this rather interesting article on Thranduil and his ancestry and relations with the other elves (hint: he doesn't really give a damn) might be worth a read: http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2014/10/24/73617-the-many-faces-of-thranduil/

Mmmnot what I'm getting. Thranduil estranged or separated himself and his people from other elves: it's not an uncommon occurence in the fictional history of M-E elves. I don't think that absolves them of classification or 'ethnicity' tho. In fact it kinda reinforces the divisions.

True, the elven realms by the Third Age do tend to be fairly insular, with Rivendell, The Grey Havens, Mirkwood and Lorien not really having that much interaction. I got the impression Thranduil was even more insular than that, though, as it mentions how his father, and later himself, basically cut off their borders 'in order to distance himself from the intrusion of Galadriel and Celeborn into his lands.' Given that, at least in the films, there's clear evidence of communication between Lorien and Rivendell, I think it's fair to assume that, compared to his fellow Heads of Elven State, he's far less concerned with anything beyond his own borders, be it elf, man or the fate of Middle Earth itself. This comes across a lot in the film, but I have to say I didn't realise it was that strong in the original source.

And yeah, I agree it does reinforce the divisions between WE and HE, and even between the elves of Mirkwood and the Galadrhim.

Don't forget that a lot of metals occur naturally in nature without needing smelting...Native copper, alluvial gold, meteoric Iron. Couple that with being able to follow an ore seam through a naturally occurring fissure not being particularly invasive and trade (through intermediaries) with dwarfs and metal should turn up without too much trouble.

There are very very few High Elves in Middle Earth in the Third Age, the only high elf race to remain were the Noldor, and the branch of those who did so were all but extinct.

Most elves are 'wood elves' with exception of the Sindar, who as Grey Elves are more Sea Elves. Elves in middle Earth fear the sea and avoid getting close to the shore, because if they hear the sea they feel the call to Valinor.
Legolas faced this fate by traveling with Aragorn to southern Gondor.out of need.

So in practical terms most elves are wood elves. Why? Two reasons really.

The first is that woods provide concealment. and concealment is a prerequisite to long term survival. Elves cant defend their borders by attrition, they can only defend their borders by stealth. In each case the Enemy has troubles finding the elves, though Sauron had a reasonable idea where the Grey Havens and the Mirkwood realms were he never found Rivendell or Lorien at all. For the most part being in deep woodland helped with that.
Should an elven settlement be properly located the Enemy would throw as many orcs as it as it would take, many orcs would die and the process might require several campaigns over several years but orcs replace their losses elves don't so any casualties are acceptable so long as some elves die. This form of warfare known by the elves as the Long 'Retreat' is the reason why the elves only commit to battle by ambush and with complete surprise.
Rivendell is defended exclusively by magical concealment and therefore did not need an excessive number of trees, we were never told about the defences of the Grey Havens, but Cirdan had the Ring of Fire for a time and there is no reason to suggest that the Grey Havens were not also magically secluded.
Mirkwood had no specific magical defence, and in this we might see the origins of the twin defence of building an elven city both underground and in a forest. All the gatesd would have been masked one way or another. There are precedents to this, the gates of Gondolin were so concealed that one could pass within a few feet of them and no know they were there. Still Morgoth was able to find Gondolin, once he knew which area to begin a search. Hence the need for concealed gates in controlled deep woods so that any search would be continually harried - without cost in elven casualties - until the raiders give up, or are annihiliated.

The second reason is woodland has an essense of the eternal, while trees change and grow there is a continuance to them, a forest remains the same more or less over the course of centuries. Those lands touched by the mortal races change, and the elves regret the change, especially as the pace of mortal life is too fast for elven comfort.
Consequently elven cities, while they existed were built in remote areas mostly for protection but also for cultural isolation or in the times before the rise of man.

Despite the attachment to forests these elves have no problems lighting fires and building forges, or harvesting timber. Trees are important to the elves, but not in a way that dominates cultural thinking as with the Warhammer wood elves. That being said I could however see that any elves living alongside the ents would become similar to the Asrai over the course of time; but for some reason elves and ents never really cohabited, perhaps to prevent this, but I think because the elves left them alone out of respect. Treebeard asked even Galadriel if she had seen any Ent-wives, strongly implying there was no prior contact between them, though Galadriel knew what she was speaking to, something even more ancient than her.