Tar,I wasn't trying to say that witnesses were required for marriage(although I think they would be, in more conventional situations). I was trying to point out that giving one's word seems to have been much more of a serious thing in Middle Earth than it is in our modern world. (Feanor and sons, for example. They didn't go back on their word, no matter how much they hated what they had to do.) If this was the case, then witnesses wouldn't have been an absolute necessity, since the partners weren't likely to go back on what they were promising each other. Sorry if that was a bit ambiguous.
As for hobbits and marriage, I seem to remember having read something, somewhere about the Mayor officiating at Shire weddings. I can't find this quote for the life of me, so I may have just dreamed it up. Does anyone know if such a passage exists, and what book it's in if it does?
And on a rather unrelated note, I just realized that my earlier post could be read as advocating pre-marital sex. In point of fact, I'm staunchly opposed to sex outside of marriage. Just for the record [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] .
Mari
__________________
The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.
--G.K. Chesterton
|