I would assume that were Elves to get so sick that they died, they would be 'reborn', as they cannot leave the circles of the world. Perhaps given this, there is little need to mention sickness as happening to them. I think more information on this can be found in Morgoth's Ring which explains the 'rebirth' concept extensively.
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Originally Posted by Mithalwen
It is possible that these deaths are plot devices rather than representative examples of the health of the populations of Middle Earth
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I think this could indeed be the case, as illness is so rarely mentioned throughout the books except where it does drive the plot. With the sickness of Faramir, Eowyn and Merry it certainly does drive the plot along, particularly as it is in the Houses of Healing that the former two meet. And there are surprisingly
few deaths of major characters in comparison to 'real world' war. Though, we simply do not know what happened to the milieu of ordinary peoples in Middle Earth and why they did or did not get sick and die. It reminds me of the question posed not that long ago as to why there seemed to be no graveyards in The Shire.
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Originally Posted by SpM
On different note, I have always thought it rather ironic that Elves, being the only race that do not seem to indulge in the pipeweed habit (cf Legolas' views on the habit at Isengard), are also the only race that would be immune to its potentially harmful consequences. Then again, there seem to be no recorded instances of pipeweed-related deaths in Middle-earth and the healthy lifespan of most Hobbits would seem to suggest that pipweed in Middle-earth has somewhat less potentially harmful consequences than its real-life counterparts.
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This has made me laugh! Perhaps it is why Gandalf was such a keen smoker; after all, did he know that it could not kill him? He certainly seems to have retained the habit even after his fall and rebirth. Or perhaps Pipeweed is that elusive non-harmful type of tobacco that some of us dream about? Or, like Bill Clinton, did they just not inhale?
