The Evolution of Elves

"I think,” my daughter Maria announced, “goblins should be green.”

We had just attended a play based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and I was arguing that the goblins’ normal, human skin tones were correct. “You see,” I told her, “in Middle Earth, goblins are just degenerate elves.”

THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:


Rebecca Sicree writes from Boalsburg, Pennsylvania. She and her family attend Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church in nearby State College. She and her husband Andrew have ten children, six of whom are now adults.

A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door

  • Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
  • Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Subscribe (Print + Online)

Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.

Subscribe (Online Only)

Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.


bulk subscriptions

Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.

Transactions will be processed on a secure server.


more on Christmas from the online archives

11.6—November/December 1998

Rediscovering Advent

by Thomas S. Buchanan

21.10—December 2008

Savior in a Manger

Early Christian Teaching on the Incarnation & Redemption by Patrick Henry Reardon

35.6—Nov/Dec 2022

The Prince’s Peace

on the Divine Promise Fulfilled by the Child of Bethlehem by James M. Kushiner


more from the online archives

28.1—January/February 2015

Altered Matrimony

on State Impositions & Church Acquiescence by Stephen Baskerville

19.1—January/February 2006

As If We Were to Be Immortal

on Death & Seven of the Last Words of Socrates by Graeme Hunter

24.1—January/February 2011

Sanger's Victory

How Planned Parenthood's Founder Played the Christians, and Won by Allan C. Carlson

calling all readers

Please Donate

"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand

"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor

Support Touchstone

00