The Trickster's Consort

[littlemanpoet]

Eruanna:

This lack of children is an interesting point. Apart from human and hobbit children are any mentioned? The ents are unable to reproduce because of the disappearance of their entwives. The elves seem to have had their children long ago and no 'new' offspring seem to be around. I remember reading that elves could delay reproduction in times of war/trouble; but is there something else here? The elves, knowing that they will soon be gone, are no longer 'investing' themselves in Middle-earth, there is no future for them there. The dwarves seem to have very few females. Although we have 'son of...'etc, they are all adults and no actual children are mentioned. Tom and Goldberry have 'retired' into their own little world of the forest and surrounding area. Perhaps, as Lalwendë says, representing nature, they have no need to reproduce. There is also the question that being immortal there is no urge to 'leave behind' a family for posterity, but then that theory doesn't work for the elves. Are the older races of Middle-earth heading for eventual extinction? Is it truly Man's time?

davem:

So, the positive dyad seems not to reproduce, & children are absent from their world, while the negative dyad (the female aspect of it at least) reproduces almost uncontrollably but consumes its young...

This reproduction issue fascinates me. Everything that is evil seems to spawn at an incredible pace .... as long as the will of a sufficiently puissant evil power stands behind it. Everything that we associate with "Faerie" - Elves, Ents, Dwarves, Tom & Goldberry - either have no offspring or have ceased to issue. Only Man continues. This "death of Faerie" was one of Tolkien's themes, was it not? So I suppose, then, the Galadriel-blessed year of 1420 was a last gasp of Faerie before it began to dissipate in the Fourth Age?