crosspost: on Elrond's title (or lack thereof) [Sep 2016]

[anghraine]

This post ended up being deeply frustrating, because it got a response that was so inane I didn't even bother arguing with it, but that person turned out to have enough followers that it just kept getting reblogged with their Elven superiority nonsense. So most of the 200+ notes on Tumblr are just ... that. I still stand by my original post, though!

An anon on Tumblr asked:

I only just realized now, after like a bazillion years, that while Elrond is referred to as the lord of Imladris, he is never referred to as Lord Elrond (not in Of the Rings of Power in the Silm either), only as Master Elrond. So if "lord" is a correct description of his position, why such a modest title? IDK I thought I'd go to you with these thoughts to see if you want to make anything more of them, bc you have written some other thoughtful thoughts in this vein before.

Well, I think there are a few things going on.

But first of all, you’re right that Elrond is a lord in the social and political sense—Rivendell seems like it’s more or less on a par with Lothlórien, and Celeborn and Galadriel are called ‘lord’ and ‘lady.’ Like Galadriel, Elrond bears one of the rings of the ‘Elven-kings under the sky.’ And Elrond’s daughter is the Lady Arwen. Her very name means noblewoman.

Incidentally: her second name, Undómiel, is a clear reference to her cousin Tindómiel, first princess of Númenor. Tindómë is morning twilight, undómë evening twilight; thus, Morningstar and Evenstar, paralleling the two women’s positions with regard to their people. Elladan’s name was translated by Tolkien as ‘Elf-Númenórean.’ And Elrohir’s is in Númenórean Sindarin (rohir rather than rochir), not the Elvish dialect. Elrond clearly regards his family as Númenórean as well as Elvish, through Elros. And in that sense, Númenóreans as brother and nephews/niece of the King of Númenor, they’re princes.

That makes perfect sense of Gilraen’s remark about Arwen’s birth far eclipsing Aragorn’s without confining it to Elves -> Men territory. It also makes sense of the description of Elrond as ‘great among Elves and Men.’

But Elrond himself is emphasizing not that they’re Númenórean royalty through Elros, but that they’re Númenórean, full stop. And he explicitly minimizes his Noldorin heritage, which would make him the likely heir to Gil-galad (he prefers to identify with the scattered Sindarin side). And we’re told that one of the reasons he doesn’t try and take up Gil-galad’s mantle is because he sees the times of Elven kingdoms as effectively over once Gil-galad dies. There’s nothing to be king of; even Galadriel is only Lady of Lothlórien, not Queen (though part of her wants to be!).

I think it’s reasonable to extend that fatalism to lordships as well as kingdoms. He doesn’t see any point to claiming to be king of this or lord of that. Master denotes personal power and authority rather than social rank—harking more to, say, Tom Bombadil’s enigmatic authority (he is simply ‘Master,’ we’re told) than to the power struggles of the Elven and Númenórean lords. It’s what he does more than who he is.

Tl;dr: it’s a mix of pragmatism, humility, complex personal identity, and—I suspect—genuine distaste.

Comments

[ermingarden]

Wow, I never thought of it this way - and I never knew the rohir/rochir distinction, that's fascinating! Thanks so much for posting this!

[anghraine]

Thank you very much :)

[heget]

Ah, yes, one of the Good Posts.

[anghraine]

I'm still profoundly bitter, lol.