Ralph and the Pixie

Doc then ventured a question that he had wanted to ask for some time.

‘Why can’t you simply give up your Lore?’

‘In truth,’ the Thane replied, ‘we cannot give it up entirely. We Elves are more like to the Imps, and less like the other Faerie creatures, who live an eldritch existence, who are immune to the elements, and who are very much a part of the natural world. My friend, without Lore in some form, we are doomed, for we are not wholly Men, and we are not wholly Faerie.

‘And now, I have given you what answers there are to be had, as well as the questions which concern us, that none have yet answered. Having said that, I must now leave you.’

‘I may be an old fool for saying so,’ Finli told him, ‘but my unreasoning optimism tells me there is still room for hope.’

The Thane smiled. ‘Then I, too, must be an unreasoning optimist, for I leave to do battle with little else.’