Why Are There No Elf Children in the Lord of the Rings?

108 year pregnancy. Hell on earth.

The mother's spirit actually does go into her child when she is pregnant. Feanor drained his mother. Usually, the mothers are busy raising their child and recovering from the drain, which is one reason why elves take so long to procreate. But unfortunately in Feanor's case, he drained his mother so much that she was unable to recover and died. It takes a long time to heal and recover from things even in Valinor. Like thousands of years. Elves also don't marry and most certainly do not have children during times of war. In rare cases where elves do marry during war, they forsake tradition and do a very quick vow and bind themselves. But they wait to have children until it is safe to do so. Since pregnancy is very hard on the mother especially with her spirit going into her child, it would be too dangerous during times that would risk their lives and their child's. (Also, elves die easily of a broken heart, so the death of a mother and especially a child would be too much). In LOTR, it was during a time of war, which would make since why there are no children around. In the Hobbit, they're probably there, but since the story is focused somewhere else, there is really no need to add children in. Another thing to factor in, by the time of third age, the elves were fading. The magic and power that kept them strong was pretty much gone. They had to start leaving for the Undying Lands. This could possibly have dramatically reduced the number of children being born since they didn't have enough strength and will to do so.

Considering the nature of elven marriage, Eol forcing Aredhel to marry him sounds like sacrilege. And the act of crime too.

I wouldn't be surprised if a lore explanation is that the elven children are kept in the most protected areas. Due to their low reproductive rate, i am sure losing children would likely be a catastrophic thing to happen. likely, unlike the adults, the children don't have the option to come back or something

I spent my life studying the culture of tolkiens elves and this is 100% accurate! Well done!!

I think the reason there are no elven children is linked to the issue of the elves fading while men grow stronger. Perhaps they're not having kids anymore at all, and that's part of the problem. They no longer have any desire to create new life in Middle-Earth, as their souls are drawn irrevocably to the West. Or maybe they even can't... some design of the Valar to bring an end to gather them all back to Valinor.

It’s also just a statistical problem: if humans live to roughly 100, then (very roughly) 10% of humans should be under 10. But if elves live to, say, 10 thousand years old, then only one-tenth of 1% of elves would be under 10. Elf children are just statistically more rare than human children.

The elven marriage is beautiful, and a symbol of its true meaning.

I always thought that the elves forewent with bearing children since the beginning of the third age because of their wanting to return to Valinor and that the world had grown too bitter for them to ever want to raise a family is such a world of dispair. A lot of the elves at the end of the third age were survivors of war of the previous ages and would not want to go to another war, thus their reluctance in the last war of Middle-Earth was fought almost entirely of Men, except when defending their homelands. I don't know if that was my own belief or that was implicit in Tolkien's writings.

When I thought about the question the first thing that came to mind was the time of the elves was ending so no children had been born. I would think that if the higher powers were telling me that it was time to come home, not allowing more children to be born would be a sign.

They’re probably playing with the Ent wives in an epic game of hide and seek.

Apparently there are exceptions to the marriage rules. The Dark Elf Eol "took" Turgon's sister, Aredhel when she stumbled into his region

So elves have the same gestation period as a elephant or a whale. I don't think I could handle being pregnant that long.

Elves are immortal, except for violent death. Procreation would've quickly led to a population explosion.

Elrond was a half elf half human child, all grown up. But I think it was mentioned that they were leaving Middle Earth at the time of the war of the one ring. Maybe even by Bilbo’s time they had been leaving or secluding themselves from Middle Earth. Maybe by the time of Frodo the children had been sent away. And even though they were not mentioned by Tolkien there may well have been some children in the Wood Elf kingdom and Lothlorien. Tolkien never said they did not exist there.

So, basically, the elves are us before the ´fall’.

Just imagine how adorable Legolas must have been as a little elf. (Like the physical comparison to a human 5 yr old)

Judging by trouble caused by young Galadriel and young Elrond, I understand the hesitancy to have elf children.

Elf lifesycle is actually pretty interesting

well, elves just "happen" to fall in love and marry appropriately according to their own social standing - even Eol was a kinsman of Thingol - you can have "inter-racial" marriages among elves but you never see "inter-rank" ones - nobility only ever marries nobility... high-nobility only marries high-nobility - but we are told by the text that elves marry only "for love" so this happening is depicted as "purely coincidental" - that they repeatedly "just happen" to marry their 2nd or 3rd cousins of similar social standing...