Did Tolkien's Elves Have Pointed Ears?

The answer is: Probably. Here's why.

"The Quendian ears were more pointed and leaf-shaped."

From the ETYMOLOGIES, written before LOTR:

LAS1- *lassë leaf: Q lasse, N lhass; Q lasselanta leaf-fall, autumn, N lhasbelin (*lassekwelêne), cf. Q Narquelion [KWEL]. Lhasgalen Greenleaf (Gnome name of Laurelin). (Some think this is related to the next and *lassê ear. The Quendian ears were more pointed and leaf-shaped than [?human].) The Lost Road, p. 409 paperback ed.

The ? before the word "human" means that Christopher Tolkien, editor of his father's manuscript, was having trouble reading his handwriting. However, in context, it's a reasonable guess, and even without that word we are left with the phrase, "Quendian ears were more pointed."

What IS a leaf-shape?

The phrase "leaf-shaped" is also important. There are many shapes of leaves. However, the term "leaf-shaped" in jewelry and many other fields tends to apply to a pointed oval.

Also consider Tolkien's favorite tree, the beech, or two other trees he often mentions: elm, birch. They have the stereotypical leaf shape.

Finally, notice the leaves in Tolkien's own watercolor paintings. They are shaped like beech-leaves. Here is one example; there are several others.

Did Tolkien change his mind?

William D.B. Loos, who cites the passage above, notes that in LOTR there are several place names and words which use the LAS- root for "leaf", while others use the LAS- root meaning "ear". So Tolkien had not ditched the idea of leaf and ear sharing some kind of connection.

Hobbit ears are "only slightly pointed and 'elvish'".

From Letters 27 as pointed out by Laitoste on M. Martinez's Tolkien pages:

"...Professor Tolkien says that,"[Hobbits have a] round, jovial face; ears only slightly pointed and 'elvish'; hair short and curling(brown)."

Again, "pointed" and "elvish" both refer to the same sort of ears.

Pointy-eared elves in Victorian paintings

Pointed ears, inherited from ancient Greek conceptions of nature spirits such as fauns and satyrs, are a staple of the elf and fairy illustrations which exploded during the Victorian period. This is exactly the tradition in which Tolkien began. His Eldar were originally fairies, gnomes, and "elfin". Gradually he drew away from Victorian fairy tradition and ennobled his elves. By how much? Did he change his mind about his elves' pointed ears? Well...

Pointy-eared elves (and hobbits) in Tolkien illustrations

They've been showing up ever since Tolkien's books were published: pointed ears on elves and hobbits. Hildebrant has them. Alan Lee has them. Many other artists have them. What is the one complaint Tolkien ever makes about the depiction of elves, and Legolas in particular?

Long afterwards my father would write, in a wrathful comment on a 'pretty' or 'ladylike' pictoral rendering of Legolas: 'He was tall as a young tree, lithe, immensely strong, able swiftly to draw a great war-bow and shoot down a Nazgûl, endowed with the tremendous vitality of Elvish bodies, so hard and resistant to hurt that he went only in light shoes over rock or through snow, the most tireless of all the Fellowship.'

~Christopher Tolkien, The Book of Lost Tales 2, p. 333.

But he doesn't complain about the ears.

Conclusion

True, it's hard to prove a negative. However, considering that Tolkien started out saying they were pointed, repeated it later, retained the linguistic leaf/ear connection in LOTR, and never complained at pointed ears in depictions of elves when he was nitpicking on other non-elven characteristics, it seems more likely that he never changed his mind, than that he changed it and never told anyone.

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