CotF are NOT Elves/Wood-walkers, they are WATER-WIZARDS.

[Oil_Blood_Water]

Elves are a staple of fantasy. So, then, why no Elves in ASOIAF? Elves in LOTR and many other fantasy series have some degree of immortality and are closely entwined to the Wood/Earth magic. Many elves live among the wood, including the Elves in LOTR and the Bunny-women (Viera) in Final Fantasy.

The Children of the Forest share almost no traits with traditional wood-elves in literary fantasy. We don't even have any evidence that the COTF LIVED in the Forest and those who have tried to find their dwellings and homes have failed. You would think that if the First Men were chopping down so many trees, they would have found a few COTF villages or treehouses. 

1. The name "Children of the Forest" is itself a misnomer - they were given that name by the First Men, that is not what the COTF called themselves. Their real name seems to be the Ifequevron - which is NOT a Dothraki word. The Dothraki do have their own word for the Ifequevron, which translates from the Dothraki language as "those who walk in the woods" (Wood-Walkers.) Someone that Walks in the Wood, does not necessarily live in the wood or control the wood. I.e. in the first book when the Rangers of the Nights Watch are attacked in the Haunted Forest by the Others. 

2. It's simply misleading to call them "Forest" beings, since these "children" have displayed an amazing ability to control WATER (SEA) and WIND (STORM), but less ability to control Wood/Earth. We've seen very little "Earth-magic" from the Ifequevron/COTF.

BAD ARGUMENT: The COTF carved Weirwood Faces and made magical Weirwood Bows though! 

Carving faces into trees is NOT an example of Earth Magic, neither is carving well-made weirwood bows out of those same trees. The primitive all-human Summer Islanders have extremely well-crafted bows made of some mysterious wood called Goldenheart also. They may have taught the COTF how to make these premium, superior bows.

http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Goldenheart

Considering Pagan people known as Dievdirbys in Lithuania carve the faces of their pagan deities into trees, I'm forced to conclude that in the case of WEIRWOOD FACES - the COTF are not the original creators. 

Weirwood carvings could have easily been done by the pre-First Men settlers of Westeros (who also built the labyrinthine-base of the Hightower in Oldtown and the first 50-foot wood tower.) The Hightower was, after all, also made of Wood. 

http://www.mytrips.lt/files/2010/06/12/routes_img/img_168.jpg

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FOCQGBdG_PM/maxresdefault.jpg

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3. After his expedition into the Far-East past YiTi, Corlys Velaryon wrote of carved trees, haunted grottoes, and strange silences at the Kingdom of the Ifequevron. Grottos are usually underwater caves or caves that are partially submerged when the tide comes in. Keep that in mind as you read what happened to Gorne and Gendel's wildling host:

4.

Quote

According to story, Gorne, a King-Beyond-the-Wall, discovered the way three thousand years ago and led a wildling army along the path to successfully evade the Night's Watch. However, they were attacked and killed by forces from Winterfell when they reached the far side. His brother,Gendel, attempted to return north of the Wall via the same path, but he did not know it as well as Gorne and became lost in the caves. The descendents of Gendel's folk are said to still be sobbing beneath the hills in their attempts to find a way out.

-ASOS, Jon Chapter 3

The Wall is mentioned several times to "Weep" implying that it leaks water occasionally. Weeping and sobbing are more or less the same thing and imply a rise in tide/water height. 

I suspect that GORNE'S WAY (the hidden subterranean (earth) cave system that Ygritte tells Jon about) is probably a GROTTO and not simply an easy way into Westeros under the wall. The Weeping of Gendel's folk is probably a story that Wildlings tell their children to explain why the caves periodically flood and are not dry even though they are not exposed to snow or rain.)

When snow and ice melt (water) from The Wall, combined with the Tears (Water) of Gendel's host, it sinks into the ground/soil (earth) and FLOODS Gorne's Way, thus it is a grotto and this watery-labyrinth is difficult to traverse unless it is low-tide. The safest time to traverse the Wall or Gorne's Way is actually on the absolute coldest days when the water would be frozen and not flooding into the underground cave systems. (It must be slightly warmer in these cave systems below a certain depth as Bran hears the sound of moving rivers in Bloodraven's Cave/Grotto.)

5. COTF can supposedly cause tsunamis (water) and create huge walls of ice (water.) 

The Ibbenese created a 233-Foot-tall Wooden-Wall that is as wide as The Ice Wall.
If the COTF were such masters of Earth/Forest, why not make a Wood-Wall like the Ibb? 

Quote

 

Ib retains a modest foothold on Essos even to this day, on a small peninsula surrounded by the sea
and defended by a WOODEN WALL almost as long as the Ice Wall of the Night’s Watch, if not a third as
high, a towering earth-and-timber palisade bristling with defensive towers and protected by a deep
ditch. Behind the earthworks, the men of Ib have built the town of New Ibbish to rule over their muchdiminished
domains, but sailors say that the new town is a sad and squalid place, more akin to Ib Sar
than to the thriving city that the horselords reduced to ruins.

-The World of Ice and Fire, Ib Section

700 FEET / 3 = 233 Feet High. Possibly higher if you take into consideration the "deep ditch." 

The "Horselords of the South" (Dothraki) and their conquest parallels the conquest of the First Men who also brought Horses to Westeros (House Ryswell's sigil is even a Horse.) 

 

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Why do we call them the Children of the Forest when they very clearly are CHILDREN OF THE TIDES (or DEEP-ONES, a type of Lovecraftian Human-Sea-creature hybrids?)

[evita mgfs]

Welcome to the Forum.  Great first post.  In TWoi&F, Martin [or whoever] says that the CotF possess water magic powers, so I do think your fine analysis has validity.

Arya is the Stark that Martin associates with water, and her future powers may involve harnessing these powers in an effort to assist her greenseer brother.

Good Work!

[Oil_Blood_Water]

Someone prove me wrong plz. I want to keep thinking the COTF are friendly elf-like wood creatures :3 

[Dorian Martell]

I have been referring to the Children of the Forest as "Not-Elves" for quite some time. I'm not too sure about the "Wood Walker" and "Water Wizard" though  

[Tormund'sMember]

They've never struck me as elves, personally. I've always thought that they're more of a nod to Tolkien, and the Drúedain in Middle Earth. 

See: http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Drúedain

and for their real-world inspiration:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_man

[The Fattest Leech]

It never struck me that they were elves. It's pretty clear they are a race unto themselves. 

Not every element responds the same way. Each is morphed and shaped and used to the advantage of its primary makeup. Water bends and freezes. Wind blows and knocks things over. Wood is mailable but rooted. One of its best qualities is the information it collects with age. 

We don't yet know where or if the continents connect, even still, travel without conquering is possible and so is sharing information. In the real world we have many links and proof and Japanese sailors visited the western South American coast. And not just pottery, but breeding as well. 

There are references to the CotF being associated with wood. Here is a little something I put together for references. 

 

[The Ice Wolf of Loki]

Aren't the Valyrian's the "elves" of aSoIaF?