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Ithilwen · 04-06-2002, 12:34 PM

Mhoram, I think that while "Laws and Customs" is interesting, it is at considerable variance with the rest of Tolkien's work, particularly as regards to the age at which Elves marry and bear children. In addition to the cases you cited, consider Elrond - he's born aboout 50 years before the end of the First Age, yet he doesn't marry and have children until the beginning of the Third Age - nearly 3000 years later! And Galadriel was hundreds if not thousands of years old when she married Celeborn and had Celebrian. Indeed, I find the whole concept that a longeval people would quickly marry after reaching adulthood a very odd one - what's the rush? That they would lose the desire to produce children within a (by elven standards) relatively short time following their marriage is less troublesome, but exactly how is this accomplished? Do Elven couples simply lose interest in sex, spending the rest of eternity together but celibate? Do they experience a sort of menopause? And if so, can this happen to an Elf who delays marriage too long, resulting in infertility even after the union takes place? Or is the development of gradual infertility somehow triggered by the act of marriage or sexual intercourse itself, and if so, how? How could beings whose physical bodies otherwise remain youthful experience such a change?
Regrettably, I think that much of "Laws and Customs" simply can't be made to fit with what we know of Elvish marriage and reproduction as portrayed in the Sil and LoTR. This is one essay I think Tolkien would have had to either revise considerably or discard, had he lived to complete his works - remember, it also contains the idea (later abandoned) that Elves' spirits are reborn into their children, which we know Tolkien later rejected.
Perhaps I should apply for a grant to study these mysterious aspects of the physiology of Elvish reproduction! Although arranging transportation to my subjects' home country might be a problem these days - I don't think that the College of American Pathologists has any magic boats lying about. Too bad [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img]

04-06-2002, 12:34 PM	#3
Ithilwen Animated Skeleton Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: western Arda Posts: 41	Mhoram, I think that while "Laws and Customs" is interesting, it is at considerable variance with the rest of Tolkien's work, particularly as regards to the age at which Elves marry and bear children. In addition to the cases you cited, consider Elrond - he's born aboout 50 years before the end of the First Age, yet he doesn't marry and have children until the beginning of the Third Age - nearly 3000 years later! And Galadriel was hundreds if not thousands of years old when she married Celeborn and had Celebrian. Indeed, I find the whole concept that a longeval people would quickly marry after reaching adulthood a very odd one - what's the rush? That they would lose the desire to produce children within a (by elven standards) relatively short time following their marriage is less troublesome, but exactly how is this accomplished? Do Elven couples simply lose interest in sex, spending the rest of eternity together but celibate? Do they experience a sort of menopause? And if so, can this happen to an Elf who delays marriage too long, resulting in infertility even after the union takes place? Or is the development of gradual infertility somehow triggered by the act of marriage or sexual intercourse itself, and if so, how? How could beings whose physical bodies otherwise remain youthful experience such a change? Regrettably, I think that much of "Laws and Customs" simply can't be made to fit with what we know of Elvish marriage and reproduction as portrayed in the Sil and LoTR. This is one essay I think Tolkien would have had to either revise considerably or discard, had he lived to complete his works - remember, it also contains the idea (later abandoned) that Elves' spirits are reborn into their children, which we know Tolkien later rejected. Perhaps I should apply for a grant to study these mysterious aspects of the physiology of Elvish reproduction! Although arranging transportation to my subjects' home country might be a problem these days - I don't think that the College of American Pathologists has any magic boats lying about. Too bad [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img] __________________ And thus it came to pass that the Silmarils found their long homes: one in the airs of heaven, and one in the fires of the heart of the world, and one in the deep waters.