Heil Elrond!

Elves, at least the ones from high fantasy, display a very interesting mix of stereotypes. Excluding the commercial cookie making Keebler elves and the unpaid laborers that Santa employs, Elves are usually tall, pale and fair haired, as well as blue eyed. They are also almost always the oldest race in any world that they happen to be in, and usually hold this fact over the other races that they interact with. In Tolkien’s Middle Earth, Elves keep to themselves and find the other races tiresome. And, despite the fact that the two most powerful elves in middle Earth are of mixed decent, Elrond and Galadriel, there remains a huge stigma within the Elven community of mixing with or even entertaining the idea of interracial relationships. This emphasis on racial purity, along with their claims of ancient decent and their physical appearance, one could certainly make the connection with Fantastical Elves and the not so fantastic Nazis.

This comparison becomes even more accurate when we look at the elves from the video game Skyrim, especially the high Elves. In the game, the world is locked in a standstill, caught in the aftermath of a race war that threatened all of humanity, led by the High Elves, or Aldmeri Dominion. They see themselves as the superior race, and as such should hold dominion over all the other inferior races. Either that, or simply kill all those races seen as ‘beneath.’ In the game, your interactions and relations with the Aldmeri Dominion are colored by the race that you play as, either they like you because you chose to be a high elf, or they hate you because you are literally anything else.

This is, however, not the only stereotype applied to Elves. They are also seen as being intensely close to nature, and somewhat technologically behind the times. They also have a tendency to be hated by all of the other races. In The Witcher, the Elves are somewhat like the Native Americans, they have lost their homeland and live on reservations, and can fight back only using guerrilla hit and run tactics.

There is a pretty big difference between Nazis and Native Americans, I think that’s universally known. But, the difference, as it turns out is made up by Elves.