LOTR headcanon - elf hair bowstrings

"To Legolas she (Galadriel) gave a bow such as the Galadhrim used, longer and stouter than the bows of Mirkwood, and strung with a string of elf-hair." Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 8

So, according to this video, you don’t actually need to have long hair to make a bowstring; clumps of shorter hair will also do just fine.

My interpretation of Tolkien’s sentence is that all elf bows use elf hair as the string, and the main difference between the Galadhrim bow to Legolas’ original Mirkwood bow is that it was longer & stouter because it was presumably made from mallorn tree wood.

( headcanon )

(Also crossposted to Tumblr)