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Originally Posted by Folwren
I don't understand. What do you mean, 'it does conjur up some strange mood dampening images if they made sure to say their 'blessings' before'? The fact they have to go through the ceremony is mood dampening?
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No, not the fact of a ceremony, it seems that Tolkien is saying they did not have to have a ceremony at all, that the very act of sleeping with someone formed a marriage, so long as they mentioned the names of Varda, Manwe and Eru as they got on with it. I'm of course speaking from a Western, modern, sex-outside-marriage-is-OK point of view, not as an Elf, and would find such a thing not very appealing.
However, this is one of those instances where we can find Tolkien's Catholicism, as to sleep with someone is (was?) very much taken to be a declaration of consummation of a relationship, and if I am not mistaken, at one time non-consummation of a relationship was acceptable reason for a fully endorsed divorce? I think Henry VIII divorced Anne of Cleves quickly for this very reason.