Few character races are as indelible as the elf (save for maybe the dwarf). The elf has a wide reaching empire through the realm of fantasy stories; a tall humanoid with pointy ears, a forest dweller, slightly magical with heightened senses, and a master with the bow and arrow. But for all their useful additions to any group of adventurers, one question has always bothered me: are elves virgins?
So first off, we need to establish a few important facts about elves, the most important of which is their extreme age. Lord of the Rings (LotR) mythology says that elves, while they can be killed, are still technically immortal. Even non LotR canon that does not explicitly indicate immortality tends to making elves nigh-immortal, living for mulitples of centuries (i.e. still a very long time). And, like a number of other immortal races, elves remain roughly ageless (in human standards), keeping their same youthful looks, energy, and stamina, both physically and mentally. Therefore, we can make the assumption that elves may remain sexually vital, in at least reproductive terms for the vast duration of their either very long, or potentially endless lives. This is a very important point, because most other immortal or near immortal races are indicated to be incapable of reproduction; vampires (most universes, at least) and even the Highlander-universe immortals are all explicitly stated to be incapable of spawning children either among themselves or with normal humans. Now, if we assume that a single elf then is capable of living millenia (or forever), is capable of producing progeny, and is capable of producing said progeny for a comparatively long time, then we run into a very serious problem with the elven population over time.
In a normal species, reproduction is limited by the time it takes to come to sexual maturity (puberty) and then on the back end by gradual march towards death. Among humans, the lion's share of the bell curve for reproduction is focused between 16 and 51 (the average age of the last period for a woman and the onset of menopause). This is taking an average life expectancy of the modern human being 67 years of age. But part of what keeps our population stable is the ratio between death and birth rates. Too high on the death side, and the population declines in size, but go the other way, and the population grows. However, in the case of elves, when you have a death rate that is effectively zero (excepting any major wars), even a single birth causes the population to grow. If allowed to reproduce ad libitum, the elf population would grow exponentially, because a single elf mother could mother hundreds of elflings during her life, if she reproduced once per year. Allowed to deal with itself, the elf population could easily blossom and take over the world in a few hundred years, because they reproduce so readily with no deaths to offset the population growth. (Just look at what happened when rabbits were introduced in Australia – a small warren of 12 European rabbits were released in 1859, and within 10 years 2 million could be shot or trapped annually without making any change in population size.)
Now the Elves, given their longer lifespans and their reported wise natures, would no doubt have realized the potential their race has to completely dominate any planet they are on. Four elf mates can double themselves every two years, and they can do that forever. Given that elves don't want to drown out every other species (effectively killing their own species in the end due to overcrowding), elves would have undoubtedly made certain stipulations about mating (probably a maximum of one or two children per couple, like that Christopher Lambert movie Fortress) this is because the elven culture is always portrayed as wise and self-aware. But given that even small increases can almost permanently change the demographics (given that a new addition will never actually leave), what is more likely is that Elven leaders would hold a very tight hold over reproduction. For one, given that any new elves will have to become permanent members of the gene pool, the Elven high council would undoubtedly approve any mating to ensure that only the highest quality of new elf was being produced. In fact, look at the scene again from Helm's Deep when the elf army shows up to back up the Fellowship and humans, and tell me that those hundreds of elite and identical looking soldiers are not the result of controlled breeding and eugenics. Additionally, since LotR elves at the very least never die unless there is war, reproduction would likely only be approved after some elves died, or when the leadership decided it was time to increase the size of the population. (On the plus side, the massive casualties at Helm's Deep meant that there was a lot of state-dictated elf boning going on.)
So, back to the original thesis; given that Elves who are following the society-approved mandates cannot reproduce without state approval, and even then only if they meet certain genetic criteria for reproduction, and taking into account the dearth of available birth control methods (excluding Orc-skin condoms and pulling out), any attempt to copulate among elves, is a risky business, especially if it ends up in conception. (Think about how pissed Hugo Weaving was at Liv Tyler for falling in love with Viggo Mortensen in Fellowship. He's not mad because she's going outside of the race – he's mad because she is diluting a carefully constructed ΓΌber-elf genetic makeup as well as potentially producing offspring that could potentially live forever, and offset the entire population balance of Middle-Earth.) Given the potential penalties for screwing with that, the only sensible solution for a wise elf is to avoid sex altogether, meaning that Legolas, and potentially nearly every elf seen in any fantasy story is likely still a virgin.
