As far as I know,
Tolkien never directly said anything about
Elvish ears. I believe the closest he comes is in Letter 27 to the Houghton Mifflin Company about how
Bilbo Baggins looked:
I picture [Bilbo as] a fairly human figure, … fattish in the stomach, shortish in the leg. A round, jovial face; ears only slightly pointed and ‘elvish’; hair short and curling (brown).
And Tolkien goes on to say in this letter that
Bilbo obtained boots – shoes, as it were – at
Rivendell, which he discarded again at Rivendell on his way home. (I mention it because I had never noticed it before, and found it searching for ears. I remembered the remark about the ears; fortunately for me, Letter 27 is on page 35 of
Letters, not page 235, where I would never have found it. Perhaps you would like to start a thread on that, too? I expect we could get quite a ruckus stirred up over Bilbo in boots!)
Elvish eyes, however, Tolkien mentions several times. When
Frodo and Bilbo leave
Arwen and
Aragorn in the Hall of Fire in Rivendell,
…it seemed to Frodo that Arwen turned towards him, and the light of her eyes fell on him from afar and pierced his heart.
And
Gollum mentions them as well when
Sam & Frodo bind him with the Elvish rope given to them by
Galadriel:
They visits
Elves, fierce Elves with bright eyes. Take it off us! It hurts us.
In “The Riders of
Rohan,”
Legolas’ eyes are mentioned several times: they are bright, keen, and piercing.
In
The Silmarillion, Tolkien writes,
Fëanor grew swiftly, as if a secret fire were kindled within him. He was tall, and fair of face, and masterful, his eyes piercingly bright and his hair raven-dark; in the pursuit of all his purposes eager and steadfast.
In “Of the Return of the
Noldor,” when the
orcs attacked Fëanor and his sons upon their landing in Mithrim, he writes,
...the light of
Aman was not yet dimmed in their eyes...
Many times the
Valar and
Maiar are mentioned as having particularly piercing, bright, or unendurable eyes to look upon, but perhaps that is another matter.
A more extensive list of Elvish eye-references – and
Númenórean (or Dúnedain) eye-references (almost always “sea-grey”) – could be easily compiled. But perhaps the reference to the “ears only slightly pointed and ‘elvish’” will suffice? At any rate, what Elves – and
Men, apparently – first notice is the difference in the eyes.
Perhaps he imagined most folk wore longer hair?
When Elvish eyes are smiling,
Sure, 'tis like the morn in Spring.
In the lilt of Elvish laughter
You can hear the angels sing.
When Elvish hearts are happy,
All the world seems bright and gay.
And when Elvish eyes are smiling,
Sure, they steal your heart away.
