Decorations:
Drape the room with fabric and scarves. Set out candles, plants and flowers, bonzai trees, and elegant swords and knives (could be paper wall decorations). You might decorate a wall as a forest or as the enormous Menoa tree.
Music:
Enya, South American folk music, Andean pan pipe music
Activities:
Elven Forest Dance: Dance to pan pipe music while waving scarves or old sheets ripped into strips and painted with vines, leaves, and flowers.
Rimgar: Oromis instructed Eragon in the ancient art of the Rimgar, the Dance of Snake and Crane. Do Sun Salutations (similar to Rimgar) or Tai Chi. Or invent your own set of motions to greet the morning and train your mind and body.
Darts: Elves are renowned for their physical prowess. Practice your skills with a game of darts (use safety darts).
Tea Ceremony: The elves have rituals for many facets of life. One is their tea ceremony, performed between close friends and family as a way to affirm connections and share special moments. Create your own tea ceremony, including the ancient language blessing:
Atra esterní ono thelduin,
Mor’ranr lífa unin hjarta onr,
Un du evarínya ono varda.
May good fortune rule your destiny,
Peace live in your heart,
And the stars watch over you.
Tattoos: Apply temporary tattoos of the yawë symbol.
Crafts:
Birds: Birds are sacred symbols to the elves, generally representing peace and long life. Elven family crests often include birds, chosen for their perceived qualities. A heron, for example, may represent watchfulness, stealth, patience, cunning, and/or the quality of having long legs or being tall. Create your own bird with paper, markers, and feathers, and give it to a friend. Another idea is to fold paper cranes.
Flower Note Cards: Because the elves love plants and nature, giving flowers to someone is considered a great compliment. Arrange small flowers between pieces of paper and set under books until dry. This may take several weeks, so plan ahead if you’ll be making notecards at a party. Arrange the flowers on blank notecards and cover with contact paper.
Paper Flowers: Elves have the power to mold themselves and their environment in artistic ways. In Eldest, Arya shows Eragon a flower that Faolin created for her. Make bouquets of tissue paper flowers with pipecleaner stems and give them to a friend.
Sword: Elves are superior craftsmen. Rhunön is acclaimed for forging the Riders’ swords, imbuing them with magical strength. Design and draw an elven sword of your own. Or craft and decorate one from cardboard.
Islanzadí’s Miniature Garden: One of Queen Islanzadí’s prized possessions was a miniature garden that she started soon after Arya was born and had nurtured for nearly a century. Using materials such as gravel, twigs, small rocks, sand, foil, moss, and tiny pinecones, build a miniature garden in a shallow bowl or tray. Use foil to simulate streams, moss for hills, and small pinecones for trees.
Fairth: Eragon attempted to reproduce Arya’s beauty in a fairth. In doing so, he captured his feelings for her as well. Although the elves’ magic exists beyond our world, you can craft a fairth image of your own. Think, for a moment, of a person, place, or event in your life that makes you feel a strong emotion. Choose an image that represents it and mold it into a fairth of your own. Form the fairth with white modeling clay on a piece of cardboard or waxed paper set on a cookie sheet. Press the edges up around the outside in an oval shape to make a frame, then form the image inside. Dry or bake the fairth, as appropriate for the material, and then paint it.
Food:
The elves are vegetarian. They savor the varied flavors offered by the plant world and delight in offering plates of food with contrasting colors and textures.
Jasmine Tea: Serve cups of warm jasmine green tea in decorative cups.
Forest Salad: Serve green salad topped with marinated beans and other items.
Walnut Patties: Grind a cup of toasted walnuts in a food processor until small chunks still remain. Add 2 cups of cooked rice, an egg, and seasonings, such as onion powder, dried or fresh parsley, thyme, salt and pepper. Pulse until blended but still chunky. Cook in batches by dropping spoonfuls of mixture into a thin layer of hot oil in a nonstick frying pan and cooking on both sides until brown.
Arya’s Ambrosia Drink: Blend milk (dairy or almond) with strawberries, almonds, and honey to taste. Add a touch of almond extract, if desired.
Elven Seed Cake: Serve small squares of lemon poppyseed cake along with hot cups of tea.
