What sources did you use for your post on Fingon, Maedhros, and the amputation? Because, medically speaking, a lot of it is wildly incorrect. Plain wrong, biological inclinations or not. (Particularly the part about cauterization and infection.)
The main sources used for that post were from Wikipedia and its corresponding sources, several noted medical journals and the compiled general knowledge of both a nearly-graduated medical student and a biology student well versed in human anatomy.
Might I stress, however, that this was a hypothetical scenario of a hypothetical and realistically impossible situation, including fictional characters who while analogous to humans, are not in fact subject to the same laws and stresses of biology. Elven biology is never discussed in much detail by Tolkien, so we have hereby pieced it together from probably headcanons and divergence from human traits where we felt it appropriate.
If you would like to volunteer for me to suspend you off a mountain for a few years and then amputate your hand in a hurried, unprofessional manner in the name of absolute medical accuracy, then please do let me know, and humbly I will correct whatever ‘wildly incorrect’ mistakes you feel that we have made.
To address your particular concern: we maintain that Elves cannot or do not contract serious infections of the blood or bodily tissues without aid from external poisons. If it were proven otherwise, Maedhros would have died of blood poisoning long before Fingon were ever able to reach him. As to the act of cauterization, yes it was a very simplified view that we presented here, but nonetheless we feel that it is sound given the implied medical advancements of Elven society at the time.
So in short, anon, I’m sorry that you feel that we were inaccurate. But to our minds we presented a fair and well-reasoned argument within the bounds of plausible headcanons and what little canon we have. And if you would like to write a counterargument out in full then by all means, be my guest.
