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The White CouncilAge and Marriage among the EldarTolkien and Inklings Discussion |
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The White CouncilAge and Marriage among the EldarTolkien and Inklings Discussion |
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Posted by Cuiviar on August 15, 1999 at 08:31:08 In his essay "Laws and Customs among the Eldar", Tolkien states that elves married often at a young age, which would be around their 50th year. Also in Morgoth's Ring, the "Annals of Aman" states that Finrod (read: Finarfin) was born in the year 1230 of the Trees and then married Earwen in the year 1280 - fifty years after his birth. Except, I thought that one year of the Trees was approximately equal to ten years of the sun(I know that's not the exact figure, but it's in the ballpark). This would make Finarfin 500 years old. However, it seems unlikely that Tolkien would use tree years in his essay since he makes age and growth comparisons between men and elves, and such comparisons would presume a common measure of time. Yet, I have not seen any weddings of 50 (sun) year old elves: Elrond married Celebrian at about 3,600 years old; Idril did marry Tuor around her 500th year(which would relate to 50 tree years or so); on the opposite end, Dior married Nimloth when he was only 20 or so. My questions are: (a)are the "Laws and Customs" refering to sun years or tree years? ;(b) can the essay be counted as relaible information?- ie, being cited as "Aelfwine's Preamble" makes me think that it was an older work of Tolkien; (c) is the essay refering to common elves, and the marriage ages just tended to vary between the commoners and the royalty? ......................
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