When Did Angels Become Fairies in Dresses?

Pretty much 99+% of the time you see a depiction of an angel it will be some skinny dude with long blonde hair in a dress playing a harp while he floats around on two wings of delicate white feathers.

Where are people getting this from? This bears absolutely no resemblance to angels, or ANYTHING in the Bible. Every angel I see in the Bible has talons, or a face made of lightning, or body parts formed from semi-precious metals and gemstones. And two bird wings? More like seven made of fire.

I was actually prompted to think about this because of the disgraceful manner in which elves are treated in the Peter Jackson films. Legolas should be able to benchpress a Ford Taurus and stand a foot taller than everyone in that movie...Orland Bloom = fail.

Puuuuure Imaginatioooon

The monsters in video games look more like angels, seriously.
I mean, granted, I haven't seen many angels but on the available evidence it just seems arbitrary to call these dress-men 'angels'. One may as well put rockets and antennae on a cat and call it an 'angel'.

LOL WAAT you do mean demons right? ..... Espicially now adays cough cough (adventure time)

Demons are angels, but we only see loyal angels (in the Bible). There is one angel I can think of that looks human. All the rest are made of lightning and gemstones and have four faces or something like that. Have you actually read the descriptions of God's angels? The most human looking ones have like seven wings and giant flaming swords.

Here's a link: http://www.whyangels.com/what_do_angels_look_like.html#.UO8o7OT-Oik

You haven't read The Lord of the Rings, have you? Hehe. Elves are meant to be fair and graceful. Orlando is a fairly accurate depiction.

I do agree with you about the Angels, however.

You haven't read the Silmarillion, have you? Elves are taller and stronger than humans, they're 'fair' in the sense that they're beautiful; but they are quite clearly described as powerfully built and large. They're patterned on Scandinavian elves, who are minor nature gods. The name 'elf' given posthumously was a way to promote a chieftan to the status of a pagan deity. There is no indication, anywhere in any LotR book, that elves are slightly built, and plenty to suggest their physical build and power vastly outstrips that of human beings. And the vast majority of them are black-haired and dark eyed.

Elves are agile, and that creates some notion of being 'lithe'; but that's mistaken because if you read they're also stronger, tougher, smarter and superior in basically every way to any human who ever lived.

Tolkein elves are not D&D elves. You're probably misinterpreting it due to your background of Anglo-American "elves", i.e. faeries. They were a bit fae in the Hobbit, much less in Lord of the Rings, and outright Ubermensch in the Silmarillion and Hurin's Children. Also, elves wear plate armor, not chain. In fact plate armor is superior in all ways to chain, the mainstream fantasy notion of chain armor as being lighter is sheer nonsense.

And Tolkein elves don't have pointed ears.

Your average elf is taller than a Numenorean, and Numenoreans are taller than most people in the same way Danes are taller than most Lapps.

If you want I can inundate you with dozens of articles supporting exactly my point. This is pretty uncontroversial in Tolkien scholarship.

Hm Ive never hear it put that way .. Hopefully one day ill get to see a handsome young man : ] (lol) thanx for the link

Legolas.

Elves aren't real. Angels and demons are. Interesting that you know so much about one but not the other. (That's just a comment, not a put down).

I don't know what exactly you're evaluating my knowledge of angels on. Not that I claim to know much about them, but I've certainly read their stories a number of times from the Bible.

Your posts on angels are mostly one liners. But your knowlege of elves is impressively large. That was all I was getting at. No offense intented.

Sometimes i like to dress up as a fairy.

When people stopped reading the Bible, and started trusting the local pastor to tell them what to think. Back in about 300AD, give or take.

I know that was the idea years ago, don't see this 'angels in robes' look much anymore..

ProgressiveNerdGirl, Tolkien's elves don't have pointed ears? Since when? I've never noticed that one. Also, John Howe is brilliant!

As for angels, yes, I've never cared for the awful BarbieTM Ken version of angels. No wonder many people think of angels as something not to be feared.

You missed seeing my wife's Christmas decorations...

Oh, none taken. I was just curious. I have to say there is a lot less source material to work with, though it's probably true that I've spent much more time on Tolkien than on Angelology.

Tintin said:
Nowhere in any document on Middle Earth, published or notes, does Tolkien ever mention or imply a pointed or extended quality to the elfin ear. They are described dozens of times, and not once does he ever mention this salient feature in any general or individual description. It's just assumed they have pointy ears because that's a common trope for faeries in north European societies.

Huh. What do you know? I learned something today. Cheers! By the way it's 'elvish', not 'elfin' when we're talking about Tolkien's elves.

Thank the Lord we don't have to worship angels as they are ministering spirits created by Jehovah in the beginning.

Folklore aside, the depictions of angels being fat babies with harps are the ones that grate my cheese. Angels are NOT fat babies playing harps! ugh......