tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2410716623228444076.post1214474702314979279..comments2024-03-14T06:20:59.015+00:00Comments on The Notion Club Papers - an Inklings blog: What makes Men better than elves? Bruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2410716623228444076.post-21343828376181990562021-08-16T08:46:09.363+01:002021-08-16T08:46:09.363+01:00@Andrew - I agree that Tolkien did not think throu...@Andrew - I agree that Tolkien did not think through the implications of his statements on fertility - especially of dwarves - https://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2021/01/dwarves-are-biologically-not-viable.html <br /><br />But wrt to elvish fertility, this can't be the ultimate causal reason why men replaced elves, because Tolkien could easily have made elves more fertile. He did recognize that the more fertile (e.g. middle Men of Rohan) would replaced the less (high men of Gondor) - but that is just a mechanism, reflective of something like vitality. <br /><br />There are lessons, of course, for the modern collapse of The West. The chosen subfertility of the West is a major proximate reason for our decline; but it is the reason/s behind, and leading to, the chosen subfertility that is the true causal reason/s for our decline. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2410716623228444076.post-1029551898202574202021-08-16T08:16:55.523+01:002021-08-16T08:16:55.523+01:00I always assumed that it was in part because men h...I always assumed that it was in part because men have more babies. An elf like Galadriel might live for thousands of years and have just one child. Not so for typical men. So regardless of who was "better", there's a natural attrition at play here. That dynamic is even more pronounced among the dwarves, who reproduce even with even less enthusiasm than the elves.Andrew M. Baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12606675886229313577noreply@blogger.com