Yes, I figured I'd blame it on the Victorians, too. But where did they get it? My guesses were some Victorian costumer's idea for Midsummer Night's Dream. Or, (more of a reach) King Midas and his ass's ears, and by extension some foggy connection to their interpretation of the cult of Dionysus. But that seemed a reach, even for Victorians. Yes, Mouldy, my 13 year old is quite the fangirl as well. At least they both have good taste in, er, the visual arts. Now, here's some LOTR trivia her friends probably don't have yet. In a collection of essays called Meditations on Middle-Earth (Karen Haber, editor, St Martin's Press, 2001)(not a bad read, by the way), there is an interview with Greg and Tim Hildebrandt, the illustrators. In the interview, Greg said that there's nothing in Tolkein about having pointed eard. Tolkein said they have "sharp ears", but he didn't say pointed. that was the Brothers H visual interpretation. (I'm paraphrasing rather than quoting). They also told a bit about working with Lester Del Rey, an expert on Tolkein. Apparently they're responsible for the pointed ears on hobbits. And for Legolas' blond hair as well. ("...we painted him with blond hair and dressed him in light colors. Lester looked at it and said, "No, he has dark hair..but leave it!")