Why do elves have pointy ears?

I blame Arthur Rackham. Pointy-eared Elves are an artistic convention of fairly recent vintage, as far as I can tell. Pointy ears on supernatural beings are not new. Depictions go back as far as the Classical era, when the god Pan and his satyrs w... read more

Pointy-eared Elves are an artistic convention of fairly recent vintage, as far as I can tell. Pointy ears on supernatural beings are not new. Depictions go back as far as the Classical era, when the god Pan and his satyrs were depicted with pointed ears, along with other animal features such as horns and tails. read more

Pointy ears have become associated with elves in Victorian literature of the 19th century. Popularization of the pointed ears as an attribute of elves has been attributed to the works of J. R. R. Tolkien and their more recent big screen interpretation, though the status of elvish ears as canon is not universally accepted by the Tolkien fandom. read more