The White Council

Re: Age and Marriage among the Eldar

Tolkien and Inklings Discussion

: : : Doubtless this has occured to some-- what about the : barren-ness or relative infertility of the Elven race? After : all, living thousands of years, most Elves only have one or two : offspring. So what's up with birth control? : : Naturally these questions have not been deeply explored by : JRRT. : : Nevertheless, let me hazard one extrapolation for the board: : Elven sex was a rare event, occuring no more frequently than : pregnancy among the Second-born. : : Perhaps one of the consequences made by Elves who became mortal : would be to become sexually active as the Second-born...

I think more would have become mortal then, with such incentive;-)

: Maybe. There was obviously no pre-marital sex, since 'bodily : union' was the true bond of marriage. And Tolkien states that it : was common for married elves to live in separate places at times. : This probably gives us a bit to think about in terms of Feanor, : however, with his 7 children (although I beleive Amrod and Amras : were twins); his "spirit of fire" seems to have extended into his : sex drive as well as other things. : To back-up your statement another way, an elf would have a : greater control of his hroa/body than would a man; an elf would : be ruled mainly by his fea/spirit, that is to say, by his true : nature, and not by bodily desires.

Somebody once said something in the order of "he who is in control of his desires is a slave of his reason".

: In this case, I would : extrapolate that there were not any fat elves either, since : excesses in behavior of all forms tends to derive from the : immediate wants of the body, not of the spirit.

: ......................

What do you mean? excesses like waging unending war on Orks or on a demigod, labour for months to make artifacts, singing and dancing around night and day? Do not give me any theory about how wants of the body drives people to excesses, desires of the mind are as bad or worse. Nothing personal, I just disagree, not on the "no fat elves either" part though and for the same reason. I just think elves behave as extremely as men in many cases. :-) Palle