Elven genetics

[Legolas]

Mortal.

The original decree was that any being with any amount of blood was mortal. A decision to be immortal would've been the departure from how things had "naturally" occurred before - not a decision to be mortal.

Tolkien:

Arwen was not an elf, but one of the half-elven who abandoned her elvish rights.

[Lhundulinwen]

Wow! This has gotten deep fast! Good job, y'all.

In defense of the southern part of the U.S., young'uns is our brand of poetic speaking. Maybe ME elves would say something more ME eloquent, but I'd be just fine with Elrond saying, 'Get up here, young'un! We gota boat to catch!' (or something similar) . But maybe that's just my southern fried version.

On the genetic end, my mom has blue eyes and my dad dark brown. I have a hazel color, but depending on my future husband's genetics I could easily have blue eyed or brown eyed children. My brother has the same color as my dad's. So, I would think hair would go the same way. Arwen's children probably had different shades of hair color, but basically the same color family. But, in ME, regular genetics wouldn't apply, as has already been said. But for the sake of arguement, that's my take on it.

[Orcrist]

Here's another good question. Are the children of a union of an elf and a man mortal or immortal? I think it says somewhere that Aragorn and Arwen's kid was mortal. It also says that Dior, son of Bren and Luthien, was mortal? Why? Is there any other referance to the children of an elf and a man? I would guess that the human genes are dominant over elven genes. Heck, Elves might not even have genes. I know this isn't what you're talking about now, but I just thought I'd mention it.

[Legolas]

Are the children of a union of an elf and a man mortal or immortal? I think it says somewhere that Aragorn and Arwen's kid was mortal.

Seems you missed the conversation altogther - Arwen was not an elf. She was half-elven - and was granted a special choice by Eru as to which race she was to share her doom with. This choice was given to seven people only - Earendil/Elwing's family, only because of Earendil's great deeds. Earendil and Elwing, their sons Elros and Elrond, and Elrond's children Elladan, Elrohir, and Arwen. They were *not* elves - they were half-elven.

This is an often discussed/confused concept, which is why this site has provided a full explanation here .

All other half-elven beings (of which we know only two other instances) are mortal by the fact that they have some mortal blood (Dior and his sons, and the line of the Princes of Dol Amroth). These are the only other occurrences.

[Saraphim]

I slept through most of Biology class. Hey, it was first period.
But I did copy my notes from my friend, so I know the basics of the basics of the basics of genetics.

First of all, I know that the term 'half-elf' is kind of a blanket term to describe beings with both human and elven blood. But technichally, Arwen was 'three-fourths-elf' (three of her grandparents were elves; only one human).

Elrond passed on dark hair, which overrides light hair something like 80% of the time. Arwen's 'midnight sheen' or whatever is just a literary description of her beauty. She may have had a sort of light sheen to her dark hair, but that's because she was the Undomiel and all of that, and supposed to be beutiful.

Most likely, Arwen would have carried her children for 9 months. Because a) He children were mortal, and b) so was she, technically. They would also, most likely, have had dark hair, because the 80% thing I mentioned earlier would be up to something like 99% with Aragorn's dark hair in the equation.

[Voralphion]

(three of her grandparents were elves; only one human).

Actually only two of her grandparents were full elves, (Galadriel and Celeborn), and her other two grandparents were half-elven, (Earendil and Elwing).

[Saraphim]

Ah yes, I'd forgotten about Elwing. So Arwen must be something like ten-twelfths-elf.

Correct me if I'm wrong (I probably am). I'm terribly bad at fractions.