A consideration of Laws and Customs of the Eldar

[clotho123.livejournal.com]

Title: A Consideration of Laws and Customes of the Eldar
Rating: Teens - (because L&C discusses rape)

Note: OK, I started out to try and draft some ideas on how Laws and Customs can be regarded a semi-reliable source, given than chunks of it  were contradicted later by Tolkien.  Somehow that turned into a bit of pseudo-academia treating Tolkien's texts as the historical survivals he liked to present them as.

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Comments

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that was fun! And some very plausible speculations too!


I've always dealt with that text in much the same way, treating the inconsistencies as reflecting a confusion of the customs of different groups of Elves in different places and times (the Valinorean environment being completely different from the Middle-earth one, of course customs would change in response).

I always rather assumed that the death-after-rape thing was voluntary, since Elves have greater control over their bodies than Men do.

[clotho123.livejournal.com]

Thanks, it was fun to write

[hhimring]

Well done! It not only takes account of the way social customs have to fit with their cultural environment, but even leaves room for the theory that at least some bits might be somebody's wishful thinking rather than actual observation. That element is very characteristic of examples of this kind of text in RL and, given the contents of Laws and Customs, I think is a necessary caveat!

[clotho123.livejournal.com]

If you regard the texts as 'historical' then I certainly think there would be some wishful thinking (also some unfounded innuendo!)

Thanks for comenting