Q: Could Half-elven Families Ever Become Fully Elven?
ANSWER: Although I still have a backlog of unanswered questions going back to 2017, I received this question the other day. I apologize to everyone else for bumping this question ahead of the queue. I’m just not sure how long it will take me to catch up to the questions submitted recently. A visitor to the blog wrote:
You say that all children of elves and mortals are by default mortal. So suppose there’s a half-elf somewhere who isn’t given any choice and is automatically mortal, and they marry an elf. Since this is another marriage of an elf and a mortal, their children are mortal. Then, one of their children marries an elf, and THEIR children have to be mortal, even though their ancestry is 7/8 elf. This isn’t that different from Arwen, so it still makes sense. But if one of their children marries an elf, and one of THEIR children marries and elf, and so on for generations, are we going to have people who are almost 100% elvish who aren’t considered one of them, or at some point are the Valar going to say “this is ridiculous” and try to do something about it?
The short answer is that the Valar had no say in the matter. Once the choice to remain mortal was made, all the descendants of the Half-elvenkind were mortal (as were the children of Aragorn and Arwen). While there was certainly “Elvish blood” in the family, the family remained mortal.
ofer middangeard monnum sended,’ begins an Anglo-Saxon poem that inspired the story of Eärendil and the Silmaril. Eärendil and Elwing were the first Half-elves to be granted a Choice of Kindreds, and it was because of their deeds, not their Elvish blood.
In 2012 I answered the question Are All Half-elves Given a Choice of Kindreds?. Now, I should point out this question has been debated time and again across the Internet. I’m sure we discussed it in the news groups in the 1990s. I’m sure it was discussed at fan gatherings throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In that article I quoted a passage from The Lost Road and Other Writings, Volume V of The History of Middle-earth. That’s a pre-LoTR text and thus not wholly consistent with the mythology of The Lord of the Rings. But there is nothing in LoTR to suggest that the child of an Elf-Man marriage is given a choice to which kindred they shall belong (by virtual of their being born of such a union).
The Choice of Kindred, as we may call it, was first granted to the sons of Eärendil and Elwing. Here I’ll cite from Appendix A in The Lord of the Rings:
Eärendil wedded Elwing, and with the power of the silmaril passed the Shadows and came to the Uttermost West, and speaking as ambassador of both Elves and Men obtained the help by which Morgoth was overthrown. Eärendil was not permitted to return to mortal lands, and his ship bearing the silmaril was set to sail in the heavens as a star, and a sign of hope to the dwellers in Middle-earth oppressed by the Great Enemy of his servants. The silmarilli alone preserved the ancient light of the Two Trees of Valinor before Morgoth poisoned them; but the other two were lost at the end of the First Age. Of these things the full tale, and much else concerning Elves and Men, is told in The Silmarillion.
The sons of Eärendil were Elros and Elrond, the Peredhil or Half-elven. In them alone the line of the heroic chieftains of the Edain in the First Age was preserved; and after the fall of Gil-galad the lineage of the High-elven Kings was also in Middle-earth only represented by their descendants.
At the end of the First Age the Valar gave to the Half-elven an irrevocable choice to which kindred they would belong. Elrond chose to be of Elven-kind, and became a master of wisdom. To him therefore was granted the same grace as to those of the High Elves that still lingered in Middle-earth: that when weary at last of the mortal lands they could take ship from the Grey Havens and pass into the Uttermost West; and this grace continued after the change of the world. But to the children of Elrond a choice was also appointed: to pass with him from the circles of the world; or if they remained, to become mortal and die in Middle-earth. For Elrond, therefore, all chances of the War of the Ring were fraught with sorrow.
The title “Half-elven” is only used of Elrond and Elros in this text, but there are other passages where its use is given to Dior or Elrond’s children. Being a Half-elf doesn’t in any way confer immortality upon one. While it’s not clear what happened to Eärendil (and Elwing) in this version of the story, in the older texts (and Christopher Tolkien’s adaptation as presented in The Silmarillion) they were rewarded with a similar choice. But Eärendil and Elwing were forbidden to leave Aman (or, rather, to set foot in Middle-earth again). Luthien became mortal and so was no longer permitted to sail over Sea. She died and experienced the same fate as all Men.
Only Elrond and Elros were given the fullest choice. Elrond could have stayed in Middle-earth until he faded. Elros could have remained among the Elves but instead he chose to be mortal. Elrond’s children had to choose by the time he left Middle-earth (although in his Letters Tolkien says that Elladan and Elrohir deferred their choice – presumably as a result of grace extended to them for their deeds against Sauron).
Nowhere in this text (or anywhere in The Lord of the Rings) does it say that Dior was anything other than mortal. He was born to mortal parents. And yet some people argue that because he became King of the restored Doriath (in The Silmarillion) he must have been granted a choice of kindred, or inherited the immortality that Luthien no longer possessed. There is no precedent for that in the pre-LoTR texts of the 1930s. Dior was born mortal and as a mortal he ruled the Elves of Doriath, even though he was called Thingol’s Heir. There is a brief text in Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth that says people of Half-elven heritage (specifically Elros and his descendants) possessed a natural proclivity for longer lifespans than other Men. But they were still mortal. So Dior could have seemed very elf-like in his youth, and he didn’t live very long anyway. It’s not like the Elves were guaranteed long, happy lives in the Wars of Beleriand anyway. So many Elves were slain in the wars there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that many of them were quite young when they died.
The real difference for Dior was that his soul went wherever the souls of men went, and did not remain in the Halls of Mandos, awaiting release.
Returning to The Lord of the Rings, we have the story of Imrazôr the Númenorean and Mithrellas. She was the Silvan Elf, one of Nimrodel’s people, who married a mortal man. She bore him two children and left them with their father when she went to sail over Sea. Mithrellas’s descendants remained mortal, were never given the Choice of Kindred, and ultimately led down to Prince Imrahil and his daughter Lothiriel (who married Eomer).
The Choice of Kindred was only bestowed upon a special few as a reward for their great deeds against Morgoth. Tolkien doesn’t explain why Elrond and Elros were included in the reward, but they were. Elros’ choice was irrevocable and led to the downfall of the Númenoreans, who all remained mortal, and each of them were only permitted to make the choice once. But any who chose to become mortal forever bound their descendants to mortality.
The Choice of kindred had nothing to do with the fact that someone had Elvish blood. It was only a special grace extended to a single family of Half-elves, Eärendil and Elwing. Suppose Eärendil and Elwing had another child in Aman after the First Age. That child would be born to Elven parents (immortal), not to mortal parents. Hence, that child would only be an elf and unable to choose to become mortal (without performing some great deed comparable to that of Eärendil and Elwing).
Elwing’s brothers also died as mortals. They were never given a Choice of Kindred. It’s unfortunate that role-playing games created this tradition where Half-elven children can always choose to be “or mortal ways” or “of elven ways”. That tradition appears to have crept into the circles of Tolkien fandom, and it has created much confusion and discord. There is simply no textual basis for assuming that generations of intermarriage between Half-elves and Elves should produce, according to Tolkien’s mythologies, an Elf. It just didn’t work that way.
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Have you read our other Tolkien and Middle-earth Questions and Answers articles?
How did Elrohir and Elladan, or for that matter Galadriel herself, learn they would or would not be permitted to travel the straight path? The sons of Elrond delayed their choice, but what method was used to convey to them that they even ‘could’ delay their choice?
To add to Pierre’s answer, Tolkien explained in one of his letters that Elladan and Elrohir deferred their choice. In THE ROAD GOES EVER ON Tolkien included some notes about the Elves. He mentioned there that Galadriel proudly rejected an offer of forgiveness by the Valar at the end of the First Age. Hence, the song she sings for the Fellowship explains how the weight of years wore upon her. She was trapped in Middle-earth and unable to join her people in Aman. Of course, all that changed when she rejected the Ring. She knew immediately she had finally earned pardon.
The question about Elladan’s and Elrohir’s fates have been answered. They were allowed a delay, but still had to chose.
As for Galadriel, she was included in the Nòldor ban from returning to Valinor, although she did not commit kinslaying. She followed the group because she had a great desire to rule her own kingdom.
When she refused the ruling ring, the ban was therefore lifted and she could return.
Thanks for this; it is indeed one of those items of “fan lore” that people trying to figure out the rules of the worldbuilding always seem to misinterpret.
It’s also significant that Elves and Men are conceived as of being biologically the same species. The difference is spiritual, one of fate, rather than being genetic. So in other words it doesn’t matter how much “Elven blood” one might have because there’s actually no biological difference; it’s still blood (and genes) of the same species.
What about the situation of Tuor (a mortal man) & Idril Celebrindal (Turgon’s daughter). Tolkien provides scant detail about this, but it appears Tuor was eventually permitted to join with the destiny of his wife’s elven kindred due to their joint struggles against Morgoth; presumably by a special decree of the Valar? -in hindsight also justified by the achievments of their offspring?
Tolkien abandoned the idea. Christopher Tolkien left it in THE SILMARILLION as a “mannish” tradition. The conversation between the Numenorean king and the emissaries of the Valar (in “Akallabeth”) only speaks of Earendil having been granted immortality, not Tuor.