I would like to hear your thoughts on the possibility of elves going into heat and what that could mean for them anthropologically and spiritually and genderly
now THIS is the kind of discourse i like to invite, tyvm!!!
okay so, this was all the result of a very silly conversation with @caracalliope in which we were contemplating a) Tolkien's atrocious maths which included female elves being pregnant variously for either 9 sun years or 144 sun years and b) the biological fact that Elves only have children when they are happy, sort of like inverse pandas and it got me thinking, because the way Tolkien describes the "time of the children" makes it sound ALMOST like its some sort of biological imperative that nevertheless, Elves can switch on and switch off at will:
For instance, after maturity one of the Quendi could marry and at once enter into the “Time of the Children”. But they could postpone marriage; or within marriage postpone the “Time of the Children”. Either because they were otherwise occupied in pursuits that absorbed them; or because they had not found a “desired spouse” (or as Men say “fallen in love”); or for reasons of prudence or necessity imposed by circumstances, as in times of trouble, wandering, and exile. - IV Time Scales, Part I: Time & Ageing in Nature of Middle Earth
And this little aside, from a footnote to the above passage:
The ‘desire’ for marriage and bodily union was represented by √yer; but this never in the uncorrupted occurred without ‘love’ √mel, nor without the desire for children. This element was therefore seldom used except to describe occasions of its dominance in the process of courting and marriage. The feelings of lovers desiring marriage, and of husband and wife, were usually described by √mel. This ‘love’ remained, of course, permanent after the satisfaction of √yer in the “Time of the Children”
In addition to the switching on and off implied above, it also very much implies that the Elvish imperative to have sex links to the desire to have children, per Tolkien.
However, Tolkien's own protestations re. the "Time of the Children" only ever happening in times of peace isn't entirely true, considering >8000 children are born on the Great Journey (admittedly all at Atyamar, though) & also the torrid amounts of sex that appear to have occurred in Cuivienen in order to um multiply the Elves as quickly as they did.
From another footnote (to the infamous disastrous expense) at the end of this same chapter we have:
...In fact, the act of union does take longer and gestation a little longer – it [gestation] occupies a löa or sun-year in Middle-earth.
But the production of children expends a very great amount of physical and spiritual energy; the desire for the next act is therefore at the Elvish rate, and when we speak of a 3 year interval we thus mean 432 years.
...But the act of procreation not being one of growth until the union of the seed and being under full control of the will does not take long – though it is longer and of more intense delight in Elves than in Men: too intense to be long endured.
And finally, this weird little tidbit in which Tolkien implies that if the Elves don't have sex, their body remains healthier longer:
Postponement of the fulfilment of marriage affected the length of time in which the hröa remained in full vigour of maturity. For the use of these bodily powers absorbed, relatively to Men, more of the corporeal vigour of the Quendi, and more also (though in less degree) of the “youth” of the fëa.
THEREFORE, I propose that Elvish heats probably look like the following:
The Elves go into heat more often when they are relatively safe and happy - this state of "happiness" may require the pure "safety" of Valinor (and in this regards, relocating the Elves to Valinor can be viewed much in the light of a somewhat successful but also ethically fraught ex-situ conservation breeding programme), but for some Elves it may require independence over safety
This also explains why when the world was young, the Elves had more children, because their spirits were younger and happier and unburdened by the griefs of Arda Marred and they could go into heats and have the kind of sex needed to bear children more often. Because the world is older and more Marred, they stopped having heats that frequently in Middle Earth :( though we don't know about Valinor :D
Elf sex is not exactly linked 1:1 to having children, but the frequency of sex during "the Time of the Children" makes the likelihood of having children that much more possible because of both the frequency and intensity with which they are joining their spirits together, therefore creating the conditions under which a new baby spirit might be created
The Elvish lifespan follows a mix of intense sexual activity & the mutual sharing/joining of spirit, followed by spells of inactivity. The spells of intense sexual activity last for somewhere between years to centuries.
These heats are probably not actually controlled, but have more to do with natural conditions
It is possible to suppress sexual desire during the heat, but the willpower required is not insignificant (and why in times of war, the war serves as enough of a distraction as to you know, kill their libido)
The Time of the Children is probably the most indelicate euphemism Elves have for this period of their lives & also the most untrue
What this means anthropologically, spiritually and genderly is:
The Eldar probably are really weird about people who marry later in life in Valinor because it implies they are unhappy and since this is a perfect land, their unhappiness in a land of perfection is a sign of Marring
Someone definitely started a weirdo sex cult about semen retention to achieve immortality & this melded with Feanorian Elf Nationalisms in some very weird and interesting (derogatory) ways*, considering the disproportionate number of divorces that seem to have taken place during that exile.
Some enterprising Elf probably supplanted this with Elf gooning as the means to achieve maximum immortality i.e. edging oneself but never quite orgasming as a means of disciplining and overcoming heats and therefore, retaining all one's vitality and spirit for oneself
At least one group of Elves - and my money is on the Noldor for this - are highly preoccupied with the right and scientific way for fulfilling heats and also the healthy amounts of heats an Elf should have, which means there is a certain generation of Elves that can and will ask the most intrusive questions about one's sex life known to literally anyone, including about the frequency and the strength with which Elf partners are joining their spirits
However, because they are in Valinor and following the Valar, who do not have sex, this is cloaked in also the most flowery of euphemism to do with tides and seasons and the blessings of Yavanna, the knowledge of one another and such
Speaking of knowledge through fucking: Fergie's London Bridge is basically a canonical description of how Elf Sex works here
Since the joining of spirits is also serious life and death business, there probably is a side industry in like, assessing the compatibility of one's spirits like elf astrology
The Vanyar almost certainly are trying to encourage Elves to surrender the body (heats) and instead elevate the spirit through worship of Manwe and Varda, the ideal marriage (of minds and not bodies) and probably are inventing musics to sublimate this
However, because every action has an equal and opposite reaction, if Song underpins this world and shapes it, as does the expense of spirit, some Elves have almost certainly tried to invent a) a music you can fuck, b) a music that incorporates sex during heats to achieve a kind of spiritual and physical awakening or c) a music that can probably warp some part of the world briefly while you have Elf sex in a heat to it (maybe you need an orgy for that tho, idk)
My gender thoughts here remain fundamentally the same even without the question of heats entering into the picture, though I bet those Elves are getting weird in various directions about who should and shouldn't be fucking to preserve their vitality.
*I know in my heart that it is true that Maedhros is a practitioner of it in one direction (abstinence makes you stronger bodily & spiritually) and Maglor is a practitioner of it in another direction (seeding yourself as far and wide as possible makes you stronger because you never fuck enough to get too attached & therefore accidentally expend too much of your spirit)
