Tolkien teve um uso muito inconsistente, ele capitalizou várias coisas em diferentes momentos e parecia ter a consistência que se esperaria do inglês antigo. Isto tem provado uma luta contínua para que Christopher e os editores tentem criar alguma consistência, como observado em "O Senhor dos Anéis: Companheiro de Leitor" .
Com relação às palavras que começam com Elf- / elf-, Hammond e Scull tinham o seguinte a dizer sobre o assunto.
In 1975 Christopher Tolkien advised Allen & Unwin, regarding a list of sug-gested emendations to a reprint of the 1974 Unwin Books edition of The Lord of the Rings, that in words such as dwarf-candles, elf-fountains, and goblin-barkers the first element is used attributively and is properly in lower case. ...
Of this second group, most appear to be specific names or titles, or to refer to specific groups, e.g. Elven-rings denotes the whole body of rings made by the Elves of Eregion, and Elven-smiths refers to those particular Elves; and on this basis we emended one instance of elven-folk in Appendix F ('the Elven-folk of Mirkwood and Lorien') to Elven-folk.
The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion
O primeiro grupo é minúsculo (isto é, elf-) e o segundo maiúsculo. Lista completa abaixo, 1 Isto nos dá uma pequena visão que nos permite não fazer com que o capital pareça ser usado para nomes / títulos / grupos específicos neste caso e que o minúscula é usada quando um objeto pertence a uma das raças.
Uma análise posterior feita pela H & S sugere que Tolkien preferiu usar a capital para Elf ao falar sobre a raça como um todo (embora a análise fosse especificamente para "Elf-friend").In our analysis of the various editions of The Lord of the Rings the capitalized spelling Elf-friend was found to be Tolkien's clear preference ('friend of the Elves', of the entire race), rather than elf-friend, which had also appeared. Two instances of the latter form were emended to the former in the edition of 2004.
ibid.
Parece evidente que Tolkien tinha preferências de como ele gostava de usar seus capitais, mas até ele era culpado de aplicá-las inconsistentemente:
in a check copy of the second edition Tolkien wrote: 'Elvish as a separate adjective should always have capital (as English French etc.)'. Thus one finds Elvish character, Elvish knife, Elvish smiths as well as Elvish language, Elvish speech, etc., but elvish minstrels, elvish robes, etc. as well, capitals and lower case about evenly divided in occurrences.
ibid.
Tolkien apresenta uma regra definitiva sobre o assunto, independentemente de ele mesmo ter aplicado isso consistentemente. Em uma correspondência com Allan e Unwin, ele disse o seguinte:
The capital should be reserved to cases where Orcs (etc.) are referred to as a race, a kind, or in some generalised sense. There will of course be marginal cases - no doubt also definite inconsistencies within the general scheme. Thus the foreword (written later) should have Orcs . .. and Hobbits.. .. The same applies to Dwarves, Elves, Wizards. But on the whole I would strongly suggest leaving the text as it is in this respect - and certainly if in any doubt.
ibid. citing: Tolkien-George Allen & Unwin archive, Harper Collins
Tolkien, no entanto, tinha pouco interesse em editar as inconsistências, e quando ele fez o projeto, ele deixou várias lacunas ou erros "intencionais", como afirmou meu Christopher Tolkien em uma correspondência privada com a H & S e em uma carta de Tolkien para Allen & Unwin, escrito em outubro de 1967:
However much my father desired to achieve consistency at every level of his work, from capital letters to the dates of dynasties, he was bound to fail. He didn't go in for steady, meticulous, plodding reading (re-reading) of his texts; rather, his eye lit upon things that struck him, & he made a hasty note in the margin. His life was a perpetual battle against time (& tiredness), and for a world-class niggler (as he cheerfully recognized himself to be) this was a perpetual frustration. But he 'niggled' on a grand and noble conception, & indeed its coherence in fine detail is a part of its power
ibid. in private correspondence with Christopher Tolkien
Personally I have ceased to bother about these minor 'discrepancies', since if the genealogies and calendars etc. lack verisimilitude it is in their general excessive accuracy: as compared with real annals or genealogies! Anyway the slips were few, have now mostly been removed, and the discovery of what remain seems an amusing pastime! But errors in the text are another matter.
ibid. citing: Tolkien-George Allen & Unwin archive, Harper Collins
Embora a carta acima declare que ele não pretendia fazer alterações, ele fez algumas antes do lançamento da segunda edição.
1
Of similar kind are forms in elven- : elven-blade, elven-blood, elven-boat, elven-bows, elven-brooch, elven-cake, elven-cloak(s), elven-eyes, elven-fair, elven-fingers, elven-flowers, elven-glass, elven-grey, elven-hoods, elven-light, elven-maids (excepting the poetic 'An Elven-maid there was of old', Book II, Chapter 6), elven-mail, elven-princeling, elven-rope, elven-runes, elven-script, elven-sheath, elven-ship(s), elven-skill, elven-song, elven-strands, elven-sword, elven-tongue, elven-tower, elven-voices, elven-white, elven-wise (but compare 'the Elven-wise, lords of the Eldar', Book II, Chapter 1), and elven-work. In Tolkien's usage these are clearly in the majority compared with capitalized Elven-folk, Elven-home (as a place name), Elven-kin, Elven-kind, Elven-king(s), Elven-lady ('the Elven-lady', lady of the Elves, i.e. Galadriel), Elven-latin, Elven-lord(s), Elven-lore, Elven-rings, Elven-river (i.e. the Esgalduin), Elven-smiths, Elven-speech (but compare elven-tongue), Elven-stars (poetically), Elven-tears (poetically), Elven-way ('the Elven-way from Hollin'), and (the) Elven-wise.