On elf children

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Raynor

They would wed in their fiftieth year and would generally have no more than four children; their time of generation was in their youth or early life, within a short space of years after they were married. I will look some more on other legends, such as the 144 First Elves or the march to Valinor, perhaps I can find something interesting about the rate of their population growth.

My goodness, this sounds like elves engaged in sexual intercourse solely for procreational purposes. Or do you suppose that their fertility was magically--opps, artistically--stimulated by the marriage vows and then ceased once the correct number of children were produced? Or perhaps elves through their great gifts of arts and crafts actually perfected natural forms of family planning? Could an elven woman control her ovulation through osanwe?

Or was Eru simply more restrained in what he allowed of elven population growth than what he allowed of the hobbits or of men in later ages?

EDIT: Opps, just saw Valier's other thread. Still, I think this topic might lend itself to a slightly different perspective than that thread? Perhaps Estelyn can merge them if she thinks my post belongs on the other thread?