I think any race that lives forever would have a much lower sex-drive, inasmuch as procreation is a way to achieve a sort of immortality. If you already had it, the desire for children would lessen, at least on an instinctual level. I picture elves as being so interested in everything around them that they could keep themselves busy for millenia until "the one" suddenly walked in. Patience must be in their blood. On the other hand, as a human, whenever a girl walks by, I get immensely distracted. Pretty much the same said of Dwarves (who live ~250 years): only about a third of men marry, and not all women marry, though there are fewer women than men, but many dwarves simply can't be distracted from their crafts to notice or pursue a mate. No wonder the race is dying out! Men and Hobbits, I think, procede in a way much more familiar to us.
Also, the setting and style of the book is one of a medieval legend, and so obviously the love mentioned is of the chivalrous and epic sort, like those good medieval romances (though, the only ones I can think of are Arthurian, and those are all a bit sketchy...). The style is one that does not talk about the details of the romances, but I'm sure if you were well versed in medieval romances you could pick up with phrases meant "then they had sex" and which phrases didn't. I haven't a clue, but I'm sure Tolkien would, and would have used similar "code" if he needed too. So if Tolkien seems not to mention it, maybe it's just a mixture of style and setting, and not prudishness, lack-of-interest or something like that. Even if he was sex-obsessed, I think his dedication to the story and the style would keep it out of the story. His an innocent world as far as love goes--Sam and Frodo, Gimli and Legolas, Aragorn and Arwen. I think that's rather nice, and not unbelievable, either.
Went on a bit there...I think it's late... [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]
And now I realize I didn't notice the 2nd page!
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Rather, I think what's really at work in this whole thing is a kind of mentality akin to the courtly romances of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. I see more courtly romance in Beren and Lúthien, Aragorn and Arwen (and Elrond?), than modern Catholic theology.
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Exactly what I was thinking/trying to say. Time for this Dwarf to sleep...
[ February 16, 2003: Message edited by: Dain ]