9 Popular Misconceptions About Elf Sex (And What Tolkien Actually Wrote On The Matter) by Lyra

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Chapter 1

The relative scarcity of material on the juicy matter of Elf sex has led to a great deal of speculation among fans and scholars of Tolkien's works. Where explicit statements are absent, people are forced to read between the lines and draw their own conclusions. Through the publication of the in-universe document "Of The Laws And Customs Among The Eldar Pertaining To Marriage And Other Matters Related Thereto: Together With The Statute Of Finwë And Míriel And The Debate Of The Valar At Its Making" (abbreviated to "Laws and Customs among the Eldar", also LACE, LaCE, or L&C) in Morgoth's Ring in 1993, new information has become available. But this information is coded in metaphors and allusions that have sometimes been oversimplified or plain misunderstood. Some of these misunderstandings have become wide-spread among Tolkien enthusiasts and are often treated as canonic fact. This essay will set out to explain the most popular, hopefully leading to a better understanding of what Tolkien actually said about Elf sex – and, sometimes more to the point, what he didn't say. So let's begin.

1. Elves don't have sex at all

In my early fandom days at the turn of the millennium, I often heard the opinion that Tolkien had intended his Elves to be better, purer humans. Accordingly, they didn't have sex. (Whether this assumption reveals more about people's idea of Tolkien's personality, or rather about their own prudishness, I will leave up to you.) When asked how there could be Elf children if nobody ever had sex, there were a variety of creative answers. For example, Elves could decide to have children and sort of get themselves pregnant by pure willpower, which also explained why there were so many elf-fathers with no known wives. Stands to reason they bore their children themselves (although Eru forbid that somebody actually wrote mpreg fic playing this idea out)! Another option I heard was pollination (so they sort of had sex, but it didn't require penetration or anything similarly physical). In the creative corners of fandom, this assumption has fortunately become rare, but it hasn't yet died out.

Well, we do not have to dig deep to find out that this was never meant to be true. It isn't hidden away in a letter or some obscure part of the History of Middle-earth. It's right there in The Silmarillion, albeit in an unexpected place: "For the Orcs had life and multiplied after the manner of the Children of Ilúvatar; and naught that had life of its own, nor the semblance of life, could ever Melkor make since his rebellion in the Ainulindalë before the beginning: so say the wise."[1] While Elves are not explicitly mentioned here, it is clearly stated that the Children of Ilúvatar – which means Elves, Mortals and (by adoption) Dwarves – all multiply in the same manner (and so, for that matter, do Orcs). We know how Mortals do it. Elves, if they have children, must have done the same.

2. Elves only have sex when they want to make babies

So far, so good. But if Elves – being better, purer and more noble than humans – need sex to have babies, then surely they only and exclusively have sex if they want a baby, right? They probably don't enjoy it much. They wouldn't do it more than once. Maybe twice. (Curufinwë Fëanáro, who lives in Formenos and has seven sons, is an outlier and should not have been counted.) That's what our good old Catholic author would've wanted, right?

Well, yes and no. When Morgoth's Ring was published, it turned out that Tolkien had actually written about this delicate matter. We learn quite a bit about Elf sex from LaCE, and one of these things is that "with the exercise of the power [of generation] the desire soon ceases, and the mind turns to other things" [2]. A revised typescript suggests that in some cases, especially in later Ages, Elves might lose "their power of generation" even if they never exercised it [3]. So yes, it appears that Elves turn asexual once they no longer want to have babies, or once they are so old that they should just leave the field to younger generations.

While we can certainly see Tolkien's Catholic mores at work here, it also makes sense from a world-building point of view. After all, Elves are (potentially) immortal. Even if only few of them are as fruitful as Finwë or his firstborn, you would very quickly end up with an overpopulated world. It makes sense, then, to give your immortals a limited timeframe in which they are sexually active.

While that time lasts, however, Tolkien explicitly says that Elves enjoy sex, although he has worded it in a somewhat more dignified manner: "The union of love is indeed to them great delight and joy", and they perceive their sexually active phase as "the most merry in life". As "in mortal count there was often a long interval between the wedding and the first child-birth, and even longer between child and child"[4], it is safe to assume that Elves had plenty of sex while the good days lasted. Within the framework of Elven marriage, sex is not merely a necessary evil reserved exclusively for procreation, but may also be enjoyed for its own sake. LaCE's attitude towards sex is, in this respect, closer to the Old Testament than to Catholic tradition.

3. Elven parents can influence whether or not they have a baby

But wait! you may now say. Why do Elves need to go through some kind of extreme climacteric in order to keep from overpopulating the world? They don't have a baby anyway unless both parents consciously decide to beget one, right?
Actually, no. The idea that some kind of conscious decision is involved in Elvish baby-making is highy popular, sometimes becomes a plot point in fanfiction, and is often trotted out by people who wish to defend Eöl against accusations of rape by pointing at Maeglin as the living proof that obviously, Aredhel wanted it too. But Tolkien never actually said anything along these lines.

There appears to have been a misunderstanding of two lines in LaCE describing the peculiar effort of begetting an elf-child. The first explains that "the Eldar say that in the begetting, and still more in the bearing of children, greater share and strength of their being, in mind and in body, goes forth than in the making of mortal children." [5] But this does not refer to any kind of conscious choice for or against the begetting. Rather it is an attempt at explaining why the Eldar rarely have more than four children: Part of their own being goes into the child. "The fëa*, though unbegotten, draws nourishment from the parents before the birth of the child: directly from the fëa of the mother while she bears and nourishes the hrondo*, and medially but equally from the father, whose fëa is bound in union with the mother's and supports it." [6] Quite literally, the unborn child sucks energy from its parents' spirits.

In the case of Míriel, this turns out to be lethal. "Strength that would have nourished the life of many has gone forth into Fëanor" [7], resulting in the unexpected and untimely death of Finwë's first wife. Is it likely that Míriel actively chose to pour forth all of her strength into her prodigious son, or even to conceive that son in the first place? The text does not suggest it. Instead, we see some of the Valar suspecting that it is a consequence of the Marring of Arda, while Aulë declares that it "must proceed from [Eru's] will directly". [8]

The second misleading line may be "For with regard to generation the power and the will are not among the Eldar distinguishable"[9]. But in its proper context, this line is meant to explain why Elves (apparently) lose their desire to have sex once they've produced their share of children: To them, sex drive and fertility are indistinguishable. In this, they clearly differ from mortals, who may continue to have an active sex life well after a woman's menopause. But the argument here is that Elves do not want sex if they don't also want children – not that they can determine whether or not sex leads to children by sheer willpower.

Another likely origin of this wide-spread fanon is the popular essay by Tyellas, "What Tolkien Officially Said About Elf Sex" [10]. Here, the author speculates that the celebration of the begetting day (rather than, as is common among humans in the Western world today, the birthday) suggests that "there was some parental will involved in the act of begetting", unless perhaps Elves had sex so rarely that it would be easy to remember the exact time at which it happened [11]. Due to the high popularity of Tyellas' site, it is entirely possible that her speculation was accepted so completely that at this point it is barely even recognised as fanon.

However, there are much more straightforward explanations for how the Eldar would know their child's begetting day. Firstly, the math involved is rather simple. An Elven pregnancy lasts 52 weeks rather than the mortal 38 (from conception): "A year passes between the begetting and the birth of an elf-child, so that the days of both are the same or nearly so, and it is the day of begetting that is remembered year by year." [12] In other words: Babies are generally born on their begetting day, just a year later.
Additionally, as we have just learned, conceiving and bearing a child is a considerable strain on the fëar of Elvish parents, both mother and father. Assuming that they begin to nourish their child's fëa right from the beginning, they would likely be aware of that sudden drain on their energy. (It may be argued that it is unlikely that a zygote or even an embryo – Elvish or otherwise – can actually have something as complex as a fëa at such an early stage. In a human pregnancy, the first neural activity takes place at five to six weeks (three to four after conception), and the first synapses – required for higher brain functions – do not form until 17 weeks (15 after conception). [13] Generously speaking, then, it would take at least one month until the Elven embryo has even the most basic brain infrastructure, and four until the actual fëa begins to develop.) Maybe it is this very connection of the parental fëar that helps the infant fëa to form, and those Elven scholars are right who insist that a child's fëa is as much shaped by the parents as is the body. [14]

So that is how they should know when to celebrate the begetting day, even if they were somehow unable to subduct one from the birth year. It is by no means necessary for them to get an active say in whether or not to have a baby, and it isn't suggested by the author, either. If the sad case of Míriel is any indication, Elves cannot even choose how much strength they give to or withhold from their unborn child. If they wanted to avoid having one, they would have to observe menstrual cycles (whatever those may look like for Elves), use contraception, or celebrate the "union of love" in ways that do not lead to pregnancy - just like mortals might do.

4. Elves die when they're raped

I have already mentioned the thorny topic of Eöl and Aredhel. Just what did Tolkien mean when he wrote that "it is not said that Aredhel was wholly unwilling" [15]? We can't be certain. Some fans are quick to refer to LaCE in defense of Eöl. Doesn't LaCE state that Elves who are raped die at once? Doesn't Aredhel's continued existence prove, then, that she must have been willing?

No and no. Firstly, LaCE does not actually say that. What LaCE does say is the following: "But among all these evils there is no record of any among the Elves that took another's spouse by force; for this was wholly against their nature, and one so forced would have rejected bodily life and passed to Mandos." [16; emphasis mine]. Not merely "another", but "another's spouse" - a clear difference that appears to get overlooked surprisingly often. In other words, Elves die of rape when they are already married... to somebody other than the rapist. Aredhel, as we know, was unwedded when she left Gondolin. Nothing in LaCE suggests that an unmarried Elf would die from non-consensual sex, although one would hope that it nonetheless remains "a very wicked deed in the eyes of the Eldar" [17]. Marital rape, likewise, remains a grim opportunity. Neither the existence of Maeglin nor Aredhel's survival (at that point in the story) are any indicators of her willingness.

In fact, if we adhere to Tolkien's idea that the greater part of the Quenta Silmarillion was written by a scholar from Gondolin [18] – the city of Aredhel's brother Turgon! - it is easy to see why he would want to declare Aredhel "not wholly unwilling". Willingness plays an important role in Eldarin marriage, as I will show. If Aredhel had been wholly unwilling, she was not wholly married. That would make Maeglin illegitimate. Under normal circumstances, the chronicler might not have been too bothered about that. But Maeglin is, at this point, the only male heir of Turgon the king, well-honoured and trusted, even offered the position of regent while Turgon rides into battle. Pengoloð has nothing to gain by casting doubt on Maeglin's legitimacy. For political reasons, he must present Aredhel as willing enough to enter marriage with Eöl, changing her mind only later.

5. Elves can't have premarital sex (because sex automatically makes them married)

But how can Elves even have illegitimate children? If Elves have sex, they're automatically married, right? Wrong!

To be fair, this is indeed the impression one can get from reading the earlier sections of LaCE. Here, the Eldarin marriage ceremony is described in some detail, and the text concludes that "these ceremonies were not rites necessary to marriage; they were only a gracious mode by which the love of the parents was manifested, and the union was recognized which would join not only the betrothed but their two houses together. It was the act of bodily union that achieved marriage, and after which the indissoluble bond was complete" [19]. Nonetheless, a look at the later pages of the document paints a somewhat more complex picture. The later discussion of the "Statute of Finwë and Míriel" clearly states that "marriage is chiefly of the body, but it is nonetheless not of the body only but of the spirit and body together, for it begins and endures in the will of the fëa", and later, more emphatically, "marriage resides ultimately in the will of the fëa" [20; emphasis mine]. So there we have it: the nebulous fëa plays an important part in the bond of marriage. It has to be willing to enter into the union.

This may seem surprising, but it is in fact wholly compatible with the earlier description of Elvish marriage. For even in the paragraph that describes marriage by sex (rather than a formal ceremony), there are further ingredients necessary to complete the indissoluble bond: "blessings exchanged and the naming of the Name" [21]. Presumably, this formal exchange of blessings, and moreover the naming of Eru (something that Elves apparently do only when they intend to make a vow unbreakable), serve as external signs of the fëa's agreement to the union. This is the underlying meaning of "for love or at the least by free will upon either part" [22]. Forced marriage or involuntary marriage by rape would then be impossible, unless the fëa is somehow cheated. While incarnated, this is a possibility: "Living, the fëar can be deluded" [23]. Eöl's enchantments may fall into this category.

Either way, once the fëa has agreed to the marriage, there is no going back. So even if Elves later change their mind, they cannot sever the "indissoluble bond" of marriage. Not if their husband threatens his half-brother at sword-point. Not if their husband turns out to be a control freak who refuses to let his wife return to her own family. Not even if one of them dies.

6. Elves don't have (or want) extramarital sex

That is the problem that Finwë faces after Míriel's death, and it is solved only because Míriel agrees never to be reborn: "Plainly an end [of the marriage] can be made only by the ending of the will; and this must proceed from the Dead, or be by doom. By the ending of the will, when the Dead are not willing ever to return to life in the body; by doom, when they are not permitted to return. For a union that is for the life of Arda is ended, if it cannot be resumed within the life of Arda." [24]

It may well be argued (and is indeed being argued by the Elves involved in this debate) that the Dead might simply agree to end the will, rather than forego re-birth within the life of Arda. But Mandos thinks otherwise. He continues to explain that "the union of bodies in marriage is unique, and no other union resembles it" [25]. Note that he does not say here that no other union is possible! It's just not the same thing. While this is at no point made explicit, Finwë's very specific difficulty may be that he wishes to openly marry Indis. Perhaps he could simply have taken her as a secret consort while his marriage to Míriel is in abeyance. (While the word does not appear in the later wordlists, the Gnomic lexicon actually features a word for consort, hauthwaid [26].) But as king, Finwë needs to lead by example. If he wants to "bring forth many children into the bliss of Aman" [27], he must do so openly, within the bonds of an officially approved marriage. Like Henry VIII in British history, Finwë causes an upheaval by refusing to be satisfied with a juicy affair and insisting on marrying a new wife.

The truly interesting bit about Finwë's desire to marry Indis, however, is not his motivation nor the outcome; it is the desire itself. After all, if the Eldar are "by nature continent and steadfast" [28], unable to love (romantically or sexually) more than one person, Finwë should not even be able to fall in love with Indis. But somehow, Finwë finds it in his heart and spirit to love another. "It is unlawful to have two wives, but one may love two women […] Love of Indis did not drive out love of Míriel", Finwë points out to Vairë after his death. [29]

And he does not seem to be the only one. Although his case is the only one recorded in any detail, LaCE mentions that "if a 'permanent' marriage was in fact broken, as when one of the partners was slain, then they did not know what should be done or thought. In this matter they turned to Manwë for counsel, and, as is recorded in the case of Finwë, Lord of the Noldor, Manwë delivered his ruling through the mouth of Námo Mandos, the Judge." [30; emphasis mine] "They" are unnamed Eldar, suggesting that this question arose more often than The Silmarillion lets on – when partners had been slain in Cuiviénen, perhaps, or died during the Great March. Mandos concludes his judgement with the observation that the question of remarriage "reveals to us that death is a thing unnatural" [31]. But perhaps it is rather the idea of eternal monogamy, of a permanent marriage which even death does not part, that is unnatural?


7. All Elves are straight

In this context, it is interesting to recap what the Elven fëa can – and cannot – do. It can nourish an unborn child, but it cannot decide to what extent. It cannot determine whether to have one in the first place. It can decide to enter into marriage, but it cannot end marriage by its will, even if the body that consummated the "union of love" is dead and destroyed. Nor can it decide whom to love in the first place.

The latter fact is established early on in LaCE. "Nonetheless among the Eldar, even in Aman, the desire for marriage was not always fulfilled. Love was not always returned; and more than one might desire one other for spouse. Concerning this, the only cause by which sorrow entered the bliss of Aman, the Valar were in doubt. Some held that it came from the marring of Arda, and from the Shadow under which the Eldar awoke; for thence only (they said) comes grief or disorder. Some held that it came from love itself, and of the freedom of each fëa, and was a mystery of the Children of Eru." [32; emphasis mine]

Is this line relevant to determine (if it needs to be determined at all) whether any Elves could, canonically, be homo- or bisexual? I think that it is, because it tells us that love does not always conform to the strict mores of Elven marriage laws. It is entirely feasible that same-sex love would be among the "rare ill chances or strange fates" that do not follow the "natural course of life for all the Eldar" [33]. Unfortunately, Tolkien never just outright says that gay Elves existed. Our lives would be a lot easier if we had some statement along the lines of "Findis never married, for she loved nissi rather than neri", or maybe something like "Fingon and Maedhros are my Achilles and Patroclus in every respect". Sadly, such statements do not exist (or if they do, they have not been made available for us).

But neither – and this is the important point – does Tolkien explicitly rule out homosexuality in Middle-earth. Likewise, much though he rails in his letters against divorce and second marriage [34], he never mentions homosexuality. The only thing that appears to be implicitly ruled out in LaCE is transsexuality: "For the fëar of the Noldor are of their nature male and female, and not their hrondor only. […] The identity of person resides in the fëa; […] though the body is more than raiment and the change of body [after rebirth] will certainly have effect upon the reborn, the fëa is the master, and the reborn will come to resemble their former self so closely that all who knew them before Death will recognize them" [35]. In stating that the fëa determines the shape of the body, it is strongly suggested that gender identity and the assigned sex of the hroä are never at odds among the Eldar.

Other than that, we are free to assume that "strange fates" include queer ones. To be sure, the Eldarin society sketched in LaCE would not allow for same-sex marriage. "Marriage […] is achieved by bodily union, and its first operation is the begetting of the bodies of children, even though it endures beyond this and has other operations"[36]. Says Mandos. But as has been shown, marriage and sex are not the same thing. Elves who cannot marry under the restrictive norm of heterosexual monogamy – because they love more than one person, or a person of the same sex – may nonetheless find love and ways to delight in the "union of love", much as humans did before same-sex marriage was legalised in their countries, and still do where this is not the case. They might even exchange blessings and call upon Eru, whether or not their society accepts the resulting bond.

Some may argue that, since the Elven sex drive is bound to the power of procreation, people who do not wish to procreate might not actually have a sex drive (putting them safely on the asexual spectrum, an orientation that itself doesn't fit the narrow lines of "straight" sexual behaviour). On the other hand, since the desire is said to cease only after the power of generation has been exercised [37], these people might in fact enjoy bodily union for longer than those who exhaust themselves by begetting, bearing and bringing up children. For that matter, even lawfully married couples might on occasion turn to variations on sex that do not bear the risk of begetting a child that, perhaps, one is not yet ready for. (Or they might simply be curious.) While the context in which the "union of love" is mentioned implies that it involves a nér putting his punt(i)l into the pukka of a nís, this is never made explicit, leaving plenty of room for interpretation – and other practices.


8. LaCE is universally applicable

Just how normal is marriage according to the rules laid down in LaCE, anyway? "Marriage, save for rare ill chances or strange fates, was the natural course of life for all the Eldar" [38], we are told. But how rare are these ill chances or strange fates, really? Let us take a look at all the Eldar (i.e., Elves that departed on the Great March to Valinor, whether or not they arrived or later returned to Middle-earth) named in the index of in The Silmarillion. Note that their spouses are not always named, and that in many cases, the marriage can only be deduced from the existence of children.

Married:
Angrod = Eldalotë [39]
Aranwë = Unknown
Aredhel = Eöl
Caranthir = Unknown [48]
Celeborn = Galadriel
Curufin = Unknown
Dior = Nimloth
Eärwen = Finarfin
Elenwë = Turgon
Elrond = Celebrían
Elu Thingol = Melian
Elwing = Eärendil
Fëanor = Nerdanel
Fingolfin = Anairë
Finwë = Míriel; = Indis
Guilin = Unknown
Idril = Tuor
Ingwë = Unknown [40]
Lenwë = Unknown
Lúthien = Beren
Maglor = Unknown [48]
Mahtan = Unknown
Olwë = Unknown
Orodreth = Unknown
Thranduil = Unknown

Marital status unclear:
Annael
Beleg
Círdan
Denethor
Ecthelion
Edrahil
Elemmirë
Gelmir son of Guilin
Gelmir of Dorthonion
Ereinion Gil-galad
Glorfindel
Rúmil
Saeros
Voronwë

Never married:
Aegnor
Amarië
Amras
Amrod
Celebrimbor
Celegorm
Daeron
Finrod Felagund
Finduilas
Fingon [41]
Gwindor
Maedhros
Maeglin

We've got 25 married couples, that is 51 people (due to Finwë's second marriage); 48 of them are Eldar (of whom 11 are unnamed wives). Of 14 Elves, their marital status is unknown (Finwë's daughters, Argon, Elmo, Pengoloð and most of the Lords of Gondolin are not listed because they did not make it into the final Silmarillion). 13 definitely never married (again, Nellas is excluded because she does not appear in The Silmarillion). I left out Eluréd and Elurín because they die too young.

This means that the majority of Elves are indeed married (either 64 %, or 83% if we assume that all the "uncertain" cases are in fact married and it's just never mentioned). But 36% or even just 17% are quite a significant minority. That's one in five (or three, if the Elves of unknown marital status are unmarried) Eldar! That's not the negligible kind of "rare" and not the unheard of sort of "strange".

When we look at the House of Finwë, the "rare" fates become even less rare. For a guy who fathers as many as six children (according to LaCE [42]), Finwë has a surprisingly small number of great-grandchildren. That's because eight of Finwë's fifteen grandchildren never even marry. Among the remaining seven, only five exercise their power of generation, each one single time. Three out of the resulting five great-grandchildren marry and beget children of their own. This means that half of Finwë's grandchildren and 40% of his great-grandchildren suffer a supposedly rare strange fate!

In some cases, we know exactly what that strange fate is. Finrod's relationship with Amarië is torn apart in the Flight of the Noldor [43]. (It has been brought to my attention that they might have married by the 5th Age, when LaCE was written. This is true, and would raise the percentage of lawfully married Eldar to 67%. Thanks, Grundy!) Aegnor loves a mortal woman, Andreth, but doesn't dare to act on it [44]. Maeglin falls in love with his cousin Idril, who does not love him back [45]. Celegorm tries to wed Lúthien, but Lúthien has other ideas [46]. Finduilas falls out of love with Gwindor and in love with Túrin, but Túrin is preoccupied [47]. But what of the others? What of Celebrimbor, who must be roughly 2300 years old when he meets his grisly end? Surely he had time and opportunity enough to find love. What of Maedhros, who "appears to be unwedded" [48]? What does that even mean, "appears to be unwedded" - sloppy wording, or is something more hiding behind it? Is he in fact wedded, but it is not visible in his eyes and audible in his voice, as LaCE leads us to expect [49]? Or is it the other way around - does he have the eyes and voice of one married, but no lady to account for it? It remains tantalisingly unclear. Or what of Fingon? Many Elves in The Silmarillion might in theory be in relationships that Tolkien just never bothered to mention. But in Fingon's case, Tolkien actively decided against one. At one point he played with the thought of making Fingon the father of Gil-galad, and later – when Gil-galad had become Orodreth's son – he gave Fingon a wife named Meril and two children named Ernis/Erien and Finbor. But then he struck them from the genealogical table, noting that Fingon "had no child or wife" [50]. What strange fate did Tolkien have in mind for a heroic, handsome and highly eligible guy like Fingon, then?

Arguably, the House of Finwë is not representative of the entirety of the Eldar or even the Noldor. Nonetheless, they demonstrate that the rules laid down in LaCE are not as imperative as the text likes to pretend. In fact, for pretty much every "law and custom" introduced, The Silmarillion provides an exception to the rule. Elves marry only once in life – yet Finwë does it twice. Seldom is any tale told of deeds of lust among them – but Eöl and later Maeglin apparently don't know that, and Celegorm might also be motivated by more than politics. Marriage is the natural course of life for all the Eldar – but at least the fifth part of the known Eldar don't follow it for one reason or another. The Eldar are not easily deceived by their own kind – yet this is what appears to happen to Aredhel. Elves are by nature continent and steadfast – but Finwë can neither wait for Míriel to recover, nor be content with what he has when she decides not to return. Elven men are more skilled as smiths and sculptors while women exhaust their creative powers in the bearing of children – yet Nerdanel is an accomplished sculptor and metalworker [51], in spite of giving birth to more children than any other Elven woman on record. Eldarin parents don't have more than four children – yet Finwë fathers six, and his eldest son seven. [52]

In short, the text itself invites us to question the universality of the laws and customs described. It is not indended to be taken entirely at face value. At any rate, one should take such modifiers as "rarely" or "seldom", as well as sweeping statements about the "nature" of "all Eldar", with a grain of salt or two. In human history, ancient Roman philosophers postulated that a good Roman practiced sexual restraint and virtue, married for life, had sex only to produce children and express affection for their spouse, and did not turn outside marriage for sexual pleasure [53] – does that sound familiar? But naughty graffity, the ubiquity of brothels in Roman cities, and shocking stories about sex orgies or about the sexual prowess – or licentiousness – of famous Romans (take the scathing characterisation of Julius Caesar as omnium mulierum vir et omnium virorum mulierem, "every woman's husband and every man's wife" [54]!), tell us that not everybody managed (or even wanted) to emulate these ideals. Similarly, LaCE is not meant to show us a perfect picture of reality, but rather an ideal of Eldarin society as perceived by - or presented to - the chronicler.


9. LaCE is a trustworthy source

The chronicler, incidentally, is not even a member of the society he depicts. LaCE is not presented as the work of an Elvish scholar, but of the mortal seafarer Ælfwine who comes to Tol Eressëa either in the sixth [55] or eleventh [56] century CE. This cannot be stressed enough: LaCE is written by an outsider from a wholly different culture, literally millennia after the events of The Silmarillion have happened.

Sure, there are some advantages to an outsider's account. He may be more neutral, less tempted to paint things in a flattering light than an insider might be. He may be able to dig deeper and question the information he is presented. But at the same time, he has no personal experience of everyday life in the culture he is writing about. He has only just learned the language. He is dependant on his informants to answer his questions truthfully, and on himself to think of the right questions and interpret the answers correctly. It is unlikely that he will manage to get it all right.

We have to remember, therefore, that we are glimpsing Eldarin culture in LaCE through the lense of a mortal, medieval Christian observer [57]. Ælfwine's cultural background and his personal bias are bound to colour his account. He may be tempted to believe everything he hears without digging deeper, or simply not think of alternatives that don't fit his world view. He may idealise his hosts and refuse to notice things that don't go well with this idealised image. He may also simply misinterpret things. For a man from a society where children are born aplenty but often die young, where remarriage is reasonably common because people are killed or die of diseases or in childbirth, the small but long-lived Eldarin families with their focus on continuity must be quite puzzling.

The Eldar may in turn not be entirely truthful with him. They may notice that their guest finds some topics shocking or challenging, and henceforth avoid mentioning these things. They may wish to depict themselves as better than they are, thus limiting their responses to the ideal rather than reality. They may feel that the details of their sex life are, quite frankly, none of Ælfwine's business. In her commentary on "The In-universe Authorship of LACE" [58], Independence1776 has listed further reasons both the Eldar and Ælfwine may have for hiding or neglecting potentially distasteful, embarrassing, confusing or otherwise unsuitable information. Additionally, even with the best of intentions on all sides, the very presence of outside observers is prone to influence the people that they interact with and the results of their studies – a dilemma that sociologists and anthropologists were already aware of in Tolkien's time, and struggle with to this day [59]. Finally, we need to ask how much information Ælfwine's informants themselves have. Were they there for the Darkening of Valinor, or is their own view limited to the culture of the Noldor on Tol Eressëa in the Fifth Age? LaCE acknowledges that "there are indeed [...] other differences that have been established by custom (varying in place and time, and in the several races of the Eldar)" [60]. These are not discussed in LaCE at all. Furthermore, LaCE clearly does not apply to Cuiviénen-era Elves, or to the various groups of Avari. It also bears mentioning that many aspects of Elven "nature" are presented as coming from Námo Mandos - himself not a member of the cultural group he describes, nor even a member of the same species.

It is not necessary to dismiss LaCE entirely. After all, it is the only in-universe document about Eldarin conventions concerning marriage, family life, occupations, death and rebirth that we have. Tolkien didn't update it after the publication of The Lord of the Rings, nor did he write anything remotely comparable. We cannot go to Tol Eressëa and question or observe the natives ourselves. But it is important to remember that LaCE is neither comprehensive nor fully reliable. As readers and moreover as writers, we have to decide for ourselves what information to believe, what information to qualify, and what to ignore outright. We have to keep in mind the bias and the motivations of the in-universe author. As the contradictions listed above and the chosen mode of transmission suggest, Tolkien himself didn't intend for LaCE to be read as a 100% factual document, but as an account that is as reliable – or rather unreliable – as any real historical or ethnographic account. It is up to us, then, to figure out how to put the pieces together. Fortunately, it is not a real ethnic group that is getting misrepresented or misinterpreted. For that reason, fans can ultimately use the material as they see fit. If they want to lean on LaCE to underline their personal preferences, however, it helps to pay attention to the exact wording, the context in which the information is presented, and the loopholes presented by the author himself.

Chapter End Notes

*fëa: spirit (Q); hrondo, later replaced by hroä: body (Q)

Sources
-[1] The Silmarillion, "Of the Coming of the Elves"
-[2] [4] [5] [9] [12] [19] [21] [22] [28] [33] [37] [38] [49] [52] [60] Morgoth's Ring, The Later Quenta Silmarilion (II), "Laws and Customs Among the Eldar"
-[3] "Laws and Customs Among the Eldar", Footnote 11
-[6] [13] "Laws and Customs Among the Eldar", Of Re-birth and Other Dooms of those that go to Mandos
-[7] [27] The Silmarillion, "Of Fëanor"
-[8] [20] [23] [24] [25] [29] [30] [31] [32] [35] [36] [42] "Laws and Customs Among the Eldar", Of the Severance of Marriage
-[10] [11] http://ansereg.com/what_tolkien_officially_said_abo.htm
-[14] Michael S. Gazzaniga, "Facts, Fictions and the Future of Neuroethics". In: Judy Illes (ed.), Neuroethics: Defining the Issues in Theory, Practice and Policy. Oxford University Press, 2008. 142
-[15] [45] The Silmarillion, "Of Maeglin"
-[16] "Laws and Customs Among the Eldar", Footnote 5
-[17] The War of the Jewels, "Quendi and Eldar", Author's Note 9
-[18] The War of the Jewels, "Quendi and Eldar"
-[26] Parma Eldalamberon 11, "The Gnomic Lexicon".
-[34] Humphrey Carpenter, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letters 43 and 49
-[39] The Peoples of Middle-earth, "The Shibboleth of Fëanor", The Names of Finwë's Descendants
-[40] Morgoth's Ring, The Later Quenta Silmarillion (II), "The Earliest Version of the Story of Finwë and Míriel"
-[41] [50] "The Shibboleth of Fëanor", The Parentage of Gil-galad and Footnote 35
-[43] The Silmarillion, "Of the Noldor in Beleriand"
-[44] Morgoth's Ring, "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth"
-[46] The Silmarillion, "Of Beren and Lúthien"
-[47] The Silmarillion, "Of Túrin Turambar"
-[48] The Peoples of Middle-earth, "Of Dwarves and Men"
-[51] Morgoth's Ring, The Later Quenta Silmarilion (II), "Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor"
-[53] Martha C. Nussbaum & Juha Sihvola (eds). The Sleep of Reason: Erotic Experience and Sexual Ethics in Ancient Greece and Rome. University of Chicago Press, 2002. 299-300
-[54] Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vitae Caesarum, Iul. 52
-[55] The Book of Lost Tales 1, "The Cottage of Lost Play", Commentary on 'The Cottage of Lost Play'
-[56] [57] The Lost Road, "The Lost Road", (iii) The Unwritten Chapters
-[58] http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/archive/home/viewstory.php?sid=1913&chapter=1
-[59] M.S. Schwartz & C. Schwartz Green. "Problems in Participant Observation". In: American Journal of Sociology 60 (4), 1955. 343-353

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