Personal canon: Middle-earth

[anghraine]

You might notice a certain ... er, emphasis in the details of the Middle-earth that exists in my head.

 

(1) When he died, Dior was counted among the Elves.

He never had the choice given to his daughter and son-in-law. Perhaps it’s a kindness. He could never leave his wife, yet his heart yearns for more, for something beyond Arda, beyond the circles of the world.

Eärendil understands. Elwing and Nimloth never will.

(2) Finduilas was the seventh daughter of the house of Dol Amroth to marry a Steward of Gondor.

(3) Faramir’s name is Quenya – that’s why it went to the reckless prince who bore it before him – even though none of his house had received a high-Elven name since the fall of the kings. Finduilas insisted, and Denethor was in no state to refuse her.

It means jewel of the seashore.

(4) If not for love, Arwen would have chosen the Eldar without hesitation – just as her grandfather Eärendil would have chosen the Edain, and instead cleaved to Elwing.

She never considered his choice a sacrifice until the last ship sailed away.

(5) Boromir, like all the Dúnedain of Gondor, spoke Sindarin both fluently and casually.

(6) Faramir rarely loses his temper.

When he does, it’s not what most people think of as temper – just a piercing look followed by a strangely innocuous remark. Sometimes it’s not even apparent that he’s gone for the jugular with unerring accuracy.

Usually, though, the white faces and stricken eyes are pretty strong hints.

(7) Grey eyes among the Dúnedain and Eldar don’t have the yellow-brown flecks of grey eyes in real life. For some reason it’s very disconcerting.

(According to Wikipedia, I’m not a freak of nature; we’ve all got them. We should have conventions and compare the hazel bits. It could be like cloud-gazing!)

(8) Denethor loved his parents and his sisters, his wife and his sons – not in equal degree, but he loved them all.

(9) Elrond and his children are not Elves; Elros and his descendants were not Men. Not quite. Mortal or immortal, they’re all something slightly apart from both kindreds, though they must be counted among one or the other.

This is what Aragorn means when he says Elrond is the strongest of their kind, and why Elladan and Elrohir fear the Paths of the Dead.

(10) Aragorn and Arwen’s first child is a girl named Melyanna, for their great foremother. They also have a son and three more daughters.

(11) Faramir and Éowyn have three children: their daughter Míriel and two sons, Elboron and Cirion.

(12) Legolas and Gimli do go to the Undying Lands together.

(13) Denethor could perceive the thoughts of others before he so much as set eyes on the palantír.

(Ecthelion wouldn't have let any of his children near the damned thing at the time, and certainly not three-year-old Denethor. He didn't understand what he saw-heard-felt, and ran crying to his eldest sister.)

(14) Even the Tooks stare when Pippin announces the name of his firstborn son.

Belladonna and Esmeralda are nothing; Faramir is strange and foreign.

(15) The Children of Ilúvatar aren’t united until the Dagor Dagorath, when they join the Valar and Ainur in the battle against Morgoth and his servants. Victory comes at long last, and, finally, the healing of Arda.

Families and old friends unite as well, even the long-sundered House of Finwë. Arwen kisses her parents; her father weeps when he greets his brother. Assorted cousins, divided through the aeons, embrace one another. Fëanor apologises to everybody, but first of all to his stepmother. Túrin, inexplicably included with his cousin, supplies a few apologies himself and chats with Maedhros and Fingon.

On the fringes of his House, an Elf with untidy golden hair stands with a tall woman. They do not speak, but when the great Music begins, their voices are among the clearest and strongest.

(16) Meneldil wasn’t thrilled about bowing to his little cousin.

Still, he wasn’t power-hungry.

(17) Denethor might have been foolish to use the palantír, but he had every right to do so.

(18) Aragorn, the King Elessar, is far-sighted; he catches glimpses of the future, receives certainties that are very little less than prophecy.

When his Steward starts babbling about windows and doors in people’s minds (!), Aragorn has not the slightest idea what he’s talking about.

(Once, he tries to explain the power by which he heals. Faramir looks blank.)

(19) Faramir develops a raging headache when the Queen’s Noldorin relations come to Gondor.

(20) The Stewards’ House is descended from, and named after, Húrin of Emyn Arnen. He was Lord of Emyn Arnen, the direct descendant of a Númenórean lord who accompanied Anárion to Middle-earth.

That man could trace his line directly back to a great general who swore allegiance to Elros Tar-Minyatur and followed him to the Land of the Star. He and the princess Tindómiel loved one another greatly and married with her father’s hearty consent.

(21) Éowyn is honoured to meet the holbytla who saved Middle-earth.

Frodo is honoured to meet the lady who slew the Witch-king.

(22) Lothíriel is a quiet, elegant, bookish girl who has always hero-worshipped her cousins: Boromir because he was the greatest warrior in Gondor, and Faramir because he was Faramir.

(23) When they can delay the Choice the longer, Elladan and Elrohir decide to stay in Middle-earth, and to be counted among Men. Nobody is very much surprised.

(24) As Pippin saw, a number of the Ithilien Rangers lost their mounts in the flight to Minas Tirith, falling to the ground in despair.

And then they saw it: their captain wheeling around, coming for them in the face of the Ringwraiths and the black wings. They don't remember what happened next, exactly – there was light – and the darkness fled before it – and when they woke, the captain was their lord and Gondor's.

To the last man, they join the White Company.

(25) Pelendur was right.