Population Growth

[Curandir]

yet another thing that has always bugged me was the general population of Elves. I know they reproduce like everyone else, but there is that problem of immortality. With the death rate at nearly zero, why wasn't ME overrun by elves. I'd think you could hardly turn around and not see one. In the back of my mind I think JRR talked about this problem somewhere, but I can't remember where.

[Shanamir Duntak]

They reproduced like everyone else, but their lifestyle led them not to bear too many children.

They only had a child once a couple hundred years...

[Sister Golden Hair]

Also, it seems that there was always a war of some sort going on except during the Long Peace. Finrod tells Andreth in the Athrabeth that the Elves do not wed, or bare children in times of war, and it seemed to be time of war more often then not in the First Age.

[Manwe Sulimo]

Shanamir: even one every couple of hundred years would mean lots of kids over the ages, one in a millenium would seem more fitting, really...

the first age is one thing, but there were lots of elves left in the second and third age as well, you know...

[Fat middle]

i cannot remember what's the source for this, but i've read somewhere that with the pass of the years elves were going less and less fertile.

i think this is congruent with the progressive "fading" of the elves. as they interacted with the material world they were transferring part of his spirit to it.

[easterlinge]

THe Elves seem not to reproduce very much. This is fatal in case of the Royal Lines. Among humans, Kings are obsessed about getting an heir, 'cos they know thry're motal.

Elves Kings dawdle about it, so that their lines die out pretty quick,

[Curandir]

thinking about Tolkienian reproduction, has anyone ever read of an Dwarfish woman? I think I remember reading that the women never really stray far from the home, and elves and men have a hard time telling them from the men.

[Shanamir Duntak]

The worst is the actual tought that Dwarf women could grow beard!

Or else, how could they be mistaken with men?

My theory: they look like the youngest dwarves, those who still have got no beard.

[Ñólendil]

Also the Elves were waning because of the sailings into the West. The majority of the Noldor returned to Aman (or at any rate Eressea) after the overthrow of Morgoth, and many of the Sindar also. This continued on gradually (even among non Sindarin/Noldorin peoples), and at the end of the Third Age most of the Noldor that remained and (again) many Teleri left. I personally believe that by 120 of the Fourth Age all the High Elves had left.

As for Dwarvish women, I too could not bring myself to believe they had beards. But even young Dwarves have beards, and so do Dwarvish women. The is said in The Peoples of Middle-earth and (apparently) one edition of The Silmarillion.