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Originally Posted by Huinesoron
Can confirm this (I Have My Books With Me(TM)). So once again we run afoul of Tolkien's inability to write as far as the tale of Earendil.
hS
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I suppose that the age (pardon pun) of materials at 1937 makes the shorter version of the Decree less gender bound.
But, as a niggling thought that keeps coming up, and contrasting The Hobbit's development alongside, (as an exemplar of how we write, in a non-linear temporal sense) we have materials clearly about the 1st age now, in the Professor's head, when he began LotR. The Hobbit's Rivendell full of Elves, must have been a haven for the First Born, in the author's head.
The point, then about the Decree of the Pereldar involves a collision of three major literary Canon matters: 1. his Silmarillion materials and lifelong love of First Age Heroism, a point about Unwin rejecting a manuscript, 2. The Hobbit, a "Bedside Story" and the matter of the Ring, as, it seems from Letters, 'no Evil Artefact', Rivendell, Elves, and 3. LotR's compilation, under pressure from Unwin to produce, after the Hobbit. The point goes to 'that which is implicit, not explicit' but clearly inferable or even Canon though absent from things written. Letters, for example, about the Hobbit, don't map onto when things about the mythology were encoded. The example generalises. For example, Ring Lore came later, if my memory cells recall right. Noteworthy, Glamdring and Orcrest somehow found their way to a Troll home, as noted by Elrond in the Hobbit. Were the swords the spoils of war from Rhudaur and Arnor? Or Fornost, or even from the Five Wars of the first age. It's a messy overlay on First Age heroism. The shortening of the wording of the Decree implies the Professor wanted to widen the pool of blood of Edain permitted in Eldar immortality.
Is there room, then, (the point going to that which the author left tacit, rather than explicit) to get a better theory, than just speculation, that might suggest the Elvish (c.f. human habitations, aka Dol Amroth) populations had quite a bit more Human bloodlines in them than we know? Are there Elves in the Westernesse who have bloodlines from the First Age, such as events like Elurid and Elurin? Did Gilmith the offspring of Mithrellas and Ivriniel die? Or did they make their way to Mithlond? There was transport that occurred between Mithlond and Edhellond and at the least we knew that.
It follows from extending meaning of the Decree to have room to infer 'descendants' after a date. As a birthtime forwards, rather than bound to nomenclature of surname, or parenting. For example, the 'first cousin of Elwing born 2000 years later who had a half-elvish offspring', as a point of conjecture.
I also interpreted the Choice of the Pereldar as becoming active, again, should for example Elladan and Elrohir have offspring with Elves. Such children are still the Descendants of Elros and Elrond. Doesn't the Decree empower the child, not the parent to define their Destiny, no small thing, given how Mandos houses Spirits. Isn't it a question about Spirit migration, and don't the Children of Illuvatar commune with the Valar during life?