I wonder if one of the reasons elves seem so contradictory (specifically on the going from wise & ancient to endearingly childish front) is that theoretically they never really lose their parents.
Obviously in reality in Middle Earth at least, they do (which would explain why Elrond, Galadriel, Celeborn & Thranduil for instance whose parents are either dead or unreachable are the grownups in Middle Earth).
But in the proper order of things even a grown elf, whether 100 years or 10,000 years old can always come back and tell their parents their worries and fears and hopes.
And that’s something that humans or even dwarves simply can’t comprehend because in the natural order of things their parents will always pass on and leave them as the next generation of adults.
(Related)
Feanor is the only elf in Valinor permanently without his biological mother…which definitely causes issues…
When his father dies as well it’s kind of unsurprising that he completely, snaps…
There is not nearly enough said about Tolkien's ability to encompass volumes into very short sentences. Mostly because, yes the man was a master of lush descriptions and certainly he loves to wax long and poetically about stars and trees and far green fields under the wind...
But the skill with which he can pack an emotional punch into a couple of words...
Consider the following
"Then Fingolfin beheld (as it seemed to him) the utter ruin of the Noldor, and the defeat beyond redress of all their houses; and filled with wrath and despair he mounted upon Rochallor his great horse and rode forth alone, and none might restrain him. He passed over Dor-nu-Fauglith like a wind amid the dust, and all that beheld his onset fled in amaze, thinking that Oromë himself was come: for a great madness of rage was upon him, so that his eyes shone like the eyes of the Valar. Thus he came alone to Angband's gates, and he sounded his horn, and smote once more upon the brazen doors, and challenged Morgoth to come forth to single combat. "
And the final sentence "And Morgoth came."
All of that imagery of Fingolfin coming upon Morgoth like a Vala himself and throwing down his figurative gauntlet and then the fallen Vala coming forth with just a three word sentence.
Or the entirety of the Duel of Sauron and Finrod (that is renowned) all gorgeous imagery, the Lord of Wolves against the disguised king of Minas Tirith...
"Reeling and foundering, as ever more strong
The chanting swelled, Felagund fought,
And all the magic and might he brought
Of Elvenesse into his words."
....
"The wolf howls. The ravens flee.
The ice mutters in the mouths of the Sea.
The captives sad in Angband mourn.
Thunder rumbles, the fires burn"
And the final line "And Finrod fell before the throne."
The brevity and the switch from Felagund to just Finrod, from the dwarf-given title to his Telerin-originated father-name as he falls defenseless to the reminder of the kinslaying is devastating in its simplicity.
There is a time for lush descriptions and a time for brevity, a time for gorgeous, expensive imagery and allegory and a time for literary simplicity and Tolkien knew it...
Since I spend far more time than strictly necessary thinking about the song duel between Finrod and Sauron I keeping coming back to one detail...
SAURON SHOULD HAVE FIGURED HIM OUT AS SOON AS THE DISGUISES FAILED.
"Then Sauron stripped from them their disguise, and they stood before him naked and afraid"
Sauron, Morgoth's lieutenant, and one of his spymasters somehow doesn't manage to recognize the golden-haired, incredibly powerful, shapeshifting elf that just had the nerve to fight one of the Ainur with a SONG. Nor does he make the logical jump that a group of elves that is very adamant that the Arafinweans not the Feanorians are ruling Nargothrond might have something to do with the missing king.
And Sauron is not stupid...he is a lot a things but we know he is highly intelligent. He is a deceiver himself, he is good at uncovering secrets and he made some excellent and crucial logical points not ten minutes earlier while leading the company into condemning themselves as not orcs. (The final test of course being the cursed vow that they would not repeat....more on that later).
And it's not accidental,
"Yet not all unavailing were the spells of Felagund; for Thû neither their names nor purpose knew."
So what does that mean exactly, Finrod like the rest had been stripped of all disguise? There are literally two golden-haired elf princes left at this point (and no offense to Orodreth but any with a shred of intelligence knows that this isn't him), the fact that there is a man among them offers further clues as should their association of Nargothrond. Finally, based off the way the duel is described
"For Felagund strove with Sauron in songs of power, and the power of the King was very great"
Sauron should have alarm bells of one of those Finwean brats going off in his head. And Sauron just breezes past every clue without even recognizing them as clues. It's not just that he can't put the clues together but the remnant of Finrod's secrets kept and trust unbroken is actively working to make him not recognize that the clues are there there at all. The closest that he gets is that "he perceived that he was a Noldo of great might and wisdom".
But never that he should recognize the Noldo of great might and wisdom and that the fact that he doesn't is very suspicious.
Granted I already loved Finrod...but the fact that he not only manages to keep his secrets and those of his followers as he is falling apart over the kinslaying and literally collapsing on the floor but sets it up so that Sauron thinks he has won, that the field is his and their secrets are his for the taking is extremely impressive.
He loses the battle to keep their disguises and they are imprisoned but the rest of his song...it all rings true. They do resist, the chain snaps and Beren is freed. And all that against a Maia described as "a sorcerer of dreadful power, master of shadows and of phantoms, misshaping what he touched, twisting what he ruled, lord of werewolves; [whose] dominion was torment."
*Regardless of what most Tolkien adaptions would have you believe, golden-haired elves appear to be in extremely short supply outside of Valinor. The house of Finarfin, Thranduil and Glorfindel being some of the few in Beleriand/Middle Earth through three ages of the sun. By the time Finrod is taken, Angrod & Aegnor are dead, Glorfindel is in Gondolin (and it's unlikely that Sauron would have known/cared about him then...though he will later), Thranduil may or may not be born yet and is aggressively not Noldo, and Galadriel is a woman. That leaves Finrod and Orodreth as likely suspects.
**The Oath
There are several layers here. Honestly this reads like early Christians being asked to sacrifice to the Roman Emperor. And given that Sauron later starts actual human-sacrifice to Morgoth I feel like that is intentional on Tolkien's part. Even the method of execution feels very "thrown to the lions-ish" just with werewolves. You cannot even pretend certain things like publicly disavowing God without making yourself an apostate. Even in the field of espionage and undercover work there comes a point when you have to draw a line, to say this far and no farther can I go to keep my cover. Given the importance of oaths and curses and how binding they are they CANNOT take that oath.
They cannot even feign to take it without irrevocably changing themselves and putting themselves even further into Sauron's power. Notably, and while he does take them prisoner and torture them their minds remain free and it seems clear that every single one, from the youngest unnamed one to Edrahil makes a conscious choice to take being eaten alive (Tolkien doesn't really dwell on the horror aspect of this but if you think about it longer than three seconds it gets really dark and those unnamed elves are every bit equal in courage to more lauded heroes like Glorfindel and Fingon) over betraying their king, Beren and the city they that has cast them all aside.
Anyways, this is one of those oaths that as Tolkien would say "none should take" even if the consequences lead to being wolf-kibble.
*(quotes are from the Silmarillion and the Lay of Leithian)
These are personal opinions/ideas but a fair number of them are extrapolations of canonical texts.
I don’t think Finrod is an especially gaudy elf (I have a hard time imagining any elf as gaudy actually) They like the stars and jewels remind them of the stars but I have never heard the night sky called garish and I think that even the most jewelry obsessed of elves probably still manage to be tasteful.
He likes beautiful things (he probably as a collection of silver and gold strung harps somewhere) but he is not possessive...he absolutely loves descending on friends and family with armloads of gifts. Then stands around hoping they'll like what he found/made for them. It's mostly endearing...Galadriel used to give him a hard time about it but after he dies she just desperately misses it.
I think he loves light (even a bit more than the average elf - Tolkien makes such a brutal point of him dying in the dark) and Nargothrond is a city of lights. I think he hangs lamps all over the city and there is an ever changing kaleidoscope of light and shadow dappled across the high ceilings and polished floors.
I think he loves the water and probably wears a lot of blue and green and grey but not much white (white reminds him too much of Alqualondë) he likes red but even Valinor he didn't wear it much because it usually led to pointed comments from Feanor about a Vanya in a Noldo's clothing.
Most of his sculptures are probably closer to Bernini than Michelangelo. And there is probably at least one hall that resembles a carven forest with trees rendered in stone, so life-like that you expect them to sway in the wind and the acoustics are mind-blowing. He likes going there when it is empty and working out new melodies.
I think the Teleri/Vanyar side come out more frequently than his people like, why can't his heart just be undivided Noldo...his amilessë is "The Noldo" isn't that supposed to be prophetic? Things would be so much easier, but he also loves having this un-Noldo side, he likes his weird and varied interests and he knows people say sharp and unkind things about it but he actually finds he doesn't mind being considered a little mad. Especially once he comes back to life.
He finds metaphysical and philosophical wandering just as fascinating as literal wandering. It’s like the intellectual Vanya side got mixed up with the Telerin wanderlust side and the results are vaguely terrifying. He is relentlessly curious and soaks up lore and knowledge and linguistics like a sponge. When he was very young he used to pester a couple of the more approachable Maiar with the dreaded questions of “why” and “how”. When he got older and had so far not been struck by lightning or anything he moved up the ranks and started talking to Nienna and Ulmo and Vaire and on one memorable occasion Manwë and Varda. It’s one of the reasons he clings to his respect of the Valar in Middle Earth (see the Athrabeth).
He tries desperately to be calm and in control and he mostly succeeds on the outside. Everyone seems to rely on him being a peace-maker and with Angrod, Aegnor and Galadriel as siblings not to mention the rest of his kin he can't really afford not to be. Not to mention he is at a severe disadvantage age-wise against the likes of Thingol, Fingolfin and Maedhros. He needs to be taken seriously as a leader. So he makes himself a diplomat...he already likes meeting new people and talking...how hard can it be?
I think he and Arafinwë are reflections of each other in a lot of ways, Finrod gets the proud, headstrong side of Finwë in a way that his father alone does not. So Finrod spends a lot of time and effort trying to be more like his father and manages fairly well on the surface. he is not a hypocrite...but pride takes time and patience and experience to overcome. He generally does a good job of catching himself but every now and then he sounds rather patronizing.
Arafinwë on the other hand sometimes wishes he was a bit less horrified by conflict and he does his best to seem sure and confident and in charge...but inside he absolutely detests even friendly conflict. Because of this most people think that Finrod and Finarfin are more like twins than father and son because they both hit a sort of happy medium on the surface.
But underneath, Finrod is all wild explorer and passionate adventurer, he wants to know things and discover everything and he is never happier than wandering somewhere no one has ever been before (either intellectually or otherwise) with nothing but his eager mind and his songs. Finarfin is never happier than when his family is safely asleep in the same house and he can go star-gazing with Earwen.
I think he is one of those odd people that has a foot firmly planted in in both the material world and the spiritual world and that is mostly a good thing. It gives him ridiculous amounts of control over illusions and songs for one thing. His illusions started off as party tricks and art and then he realized the espionage potential in Beleriand. It also makes him a little eldritch and terrifying but he usually keeps that side well hidden.
Do we know when Nargothrond’s entrance way was named? Did Orodreth start calling them the Doors of Felagund as he was punting the murder cousins out of them?
(Galadriel has passive aggressive down to an art and I’m pretty sure Finrod is just as good when he feels petty…I just like the idea that the Arfinweans all have a savage streak that mostly expresses itself verbally. Like they will fight like demons in battle if they need to but the angrier they are the more likely they are to call you an idiot in 3 different languages and increasingly archaic language. If you really push them they might curse you in iambic pentameter. Everyone tries to ignore the fact that they have this in common with Feanor even if his default veers towards is linguistically and literally stabbing you).
Nothing else ever quite beats that feeling you had when you first started reading the History of Middle Earth and discovered that Aragorn started out as a shoe-wearing hobbit named Trotter….
Oh the lofty origins of the great House of Telcontar
I was thinking today about how long Tolkien's stories have been a part of my life. And I realized that I cannot remember a time before Tolkien. My dad fell in love with his stories when he was a teenager and so naturally passed one of his favorite stories on to his children.
He read the Hobbit aloud to us once we were old enough and even before I could read I remember flipping through David Day's Tolkien Bestiary.
I remember looking with fascinated eyes at Smaug's jeweled waistcoat in the glorious full-color picture of the burning of Laketown or the silver and gold of Telperion and Laurelin.
One of my oldest memories is looking through the section on the Gwaith-i-Mírdain cuddled up next to my dad and discussing very seriously the danger of forging the rings of power and why Celebrimbor thought it was a good idea.
Even my mom who has never read them and isn't very big on fantasy gets the jokes and the quotes we toss around.
But it's not just the memories, it's the impressions that loom so hugely in the mind of a child, honor and tragedy and sorrow and above all hope. I found something new to treasure each time I reread Tolkien.
In middle school I pretended I was crossing the Helcaraxë whenever I was stuck on a longer or more strenuous hike than I wanted to be on. If Galadriel could cross the Grinding Ice then Nienna knows I could struggle on a mile further uphill.
I tried setting Tolkien's songs to folk tunes that I loved at some point in high school and I sang them when I was sad and happy and tired and confused about what I wanted to do in life.
My senior yearbook quote was "above all shadows rides the Sun and Stars for ever dwell: I will not say the Day is done, nor bid the Stars farewell" and it felt right. Because even when it's hard to believe that things will right themselves, when it is most hopeless I needed to remember that there are things that evil will never understand or touch. And good heavens did I need that reminder in high school and college.
It occurs to me that the shape of my life, the people fictional and otherwise that I look up to, the virtues that I value would not be what they are without Tolkien's writing.
He may never know how deeply he touched the minds and hearts of generations that he never saw but I would be a different person than I am if one young British soldier in WWI had been killed with so many of his friends. If he had never developed the fantastic imagination that served him so well, if publishers had continued to turn down his writing, if he had been a bit less pushy about fairy-tales and the beauty of sub-creation.
The Sun and the Moon are a single fruit and a single flower of Laurelin and Telperion.
That’s right, a single fruit and a single flower of those trees are the brightest objects in the sky. The Calaquendi walked around under those trees for thousands of years. Saying High Elves have piercing or bright eyes is like saying that Morgoth hurt Feanor’s feelings...
In Lothlorien, the Fellowship is staring into the eyes of a woman who was able to look at hundreds of suns and moons and still see. The fact that Aragorn (and Legolas) were able to hold her stare on that level alone is amazing.
Even just in-universe their eyes are insane, to be able to see despite that and still see and see well at night indicates a range of vision beyond what most modern day telescopes can handle. Throw physics into the mix and the Calaquendi are walking around and reveling in an electromagnetic ocean.
Now try not to think about the fact that Feanor caught that kind of light and bottled it....
