Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-8209010-20140808055445/@comment-24590102-20140811145035

The whole pointy eared thing encompasses elves, pixies and a myriad of other fictional humanoid creatures in both medievalist and futurist flavours of the fantasy genre. I suspect that, with a little digging, you'll find woodcuts and sketches from earlier periods (i.e. pre-dating the Twentieth Century) and it is possible that the concept is hundreds of years old.

I would suggest that the concept is an element of fantasy which is psychologically driven and is drawn from common experience of dogs. When "man's best friend" is paying attention it points its ears and this animal gesture is such a familiar aspect of life in human culture that, dare I say, it is taken for granted.

Returning to fictional humanoids with pointed ears, it is not hard to imagine that this form, represented in the art, is a reference to the same attentiveness which is so clearly communicated when dogs point their ears. This is carried with great strength in numerous Star Trek scenes when Spock, Tuvoc or T'Pol look right at another character and exclaim, "Fascinating!" Likewise, elves, pixies and other pointy-eared denizens of more traditional Medievalist forms tend to be of an inquisitive nature which, in turn, dictates very attentive behaviour when relating to other characters in the plot. Again, I think the pointed ears carry this notion of attentiveness and, possibly, inquisitiveness from the human experience of canine behaviour and may, at times, extend into a reference to that certain human emotional need to be paid attention.

Beware! I haven't surveyed the literature on this one and I probably am not the first person to have made this connection. One of the other questions on this thread has an answer in the peer-reviewed literature of the last century - but I forget the author. If the name comes to me, I'll post back the reference.