Anghraine

My icon has grey eyes and black hair just for Tolkien :P

So. I generally dislike Tolkien fandom's "canonicity discourse" (yes, I'm doing it anyway) and the idea of imposing a specific ranking of texts. That said, it's occurred to me that one of the reasons I feel deeply out of step with Tolkien fandom is that The Silmarillion (as in, the published book, not the in-story accounts) is on a drastically different level of canonicity for me than basically everything else with JRR Tolkien's name on it.

I don't dislike The Silmarillion or anything. I quite enjoy it! But for me, it shows its age—not in ~a man of his time~ sense, but in an editorial sense. Christopher Tolkien did an enormous amount of spectacular editorial work over the course of his life and we are deeply indebted to him. But I think he did pretty clearly get better at it over time, and particularly at presenting his father's mass of notes and documents and so on in a way that makes the texts as accessible as possible. At the same time, in later texts, he clearly differentiates between actual words JRRT wrote (whether in the main body or in notes) and his (CT's) own understanding and explanations as JRRT's confidant and literary heir. I do give a lot of credence to Christopher Tolkien's understanding of his father's work, actually, and I deeply respect (and am grateful for) CT's efforts to carefully and clearly explain things like dates of composition (and how this can be determined), direct context, how a given point relates to his father's broader work, etc, throughout these texts.

(Tangent: Facebook keeps recommending defensive Jackson stans griping about how Christopher Tolkien just didn't get his father's work like Jackson did and was so horribly ungrateful to the filmmakers and such an inferior scholar blahblah for the crime of disliking the films. FLAMES ON THE SIDE OF MY FACE!! I am not uncritical of Christopher Tolkien, and neither was Christopher Tolkien, but I think we owe an immeasurable debt of gratitude to him. Also, even to me, his response to the films seemed harsh at the time, but at this point, I think he was pretty much right, anyway, and correctly judged the films' impact and reflection of pop culture understanding of JRRT's work.)

So what is my issue with the published Silmarillion?

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I normally try to restrain the impulse to dive back into Silmarillion discourse hell, but there’s Eärendil and Elwing wank in my activity bar, and … damn, some people want them to be proto-Aldarion and Erendis so much.

Tagged: #i actually can imagine that aldarion himself /did/ see his relationship with erendis through an eärendil-elwing filter #until it became manifestly obvious that it was in fact radically different #and even then he's like ... the real problem was not having matching lifespans!! #but that's a separate matter

heget responded:

link? (also i wonder how many children of active duty service members might have a different read to what i bet this hot take is)

I replied:

Oh, it’s nothing new (different post, same take as usual), but I was just thinking over it and like … the whole dynamic that gets promoted in these takes seems so much more like Aldarion/Erendis+Ancalimë than Eärendil/Elwing+the twins.

vardasvapors on Tumblr asked:

WAIT I FIGURED ONE OUT. One of your Tindomiel posts inspired me: do you have ideas about Elros's wife? (Imo one of the most wtf occurrences of unnamed women.) As a person, founding queen, wife, mother, sister-in-law, or whatever, any of the facets.

I replied:

I agree! It is definitely one of the most ????? omissions, and when it comes to Númenórean women, that’s saying a lot.

Rambling a bit:

I generally prefer to wiggle around canon rather than rejecting the unpleasant aspects of it, so I start with the fact that her absence is baffling. What might have kept her out of the historical record? Even a partial, male-dominated historical record?

Well, one possibility is that she had a normal lifespan, which in the historical view would make her… kind of a blip in Elros’ half a millennium of life. If so, Elros almost certainly married her well after establishing Númenor (SA 32), since their firstborn child was born twenty-nine years later (SA 61). In fact, it’s very possible that she herself was born on Númenor (though in that case, she could have a longer lifespan).

I also tend to assume she wasn’t that politically prominent (more Laura than Hillary, say—not that a US First Lady is like a Queen of Númenor, but you get the idea). I don’t just mean in terms of her own conduct, but her family. We do occasionally hear something when the queen’s family is notable: Almarian’s father was captain of the ships, Erendis’ was a descendant of the lords of the house of Bëor, Inzilbêth was the Lord of Andúnië’s niece. So I’m thinking that her own background was not particularly exceptional.

Another detail I find interesting is her four children’s names. One is clearly named after Elros’ family (Tindómiel, the ‘morning star,’ obviously refers to Eärendil). One seems a vaguer reference to the Edain. But the other two, including the firstborn son, are named for the Valar. Considering that one or both of the other children are connected to Elros, I kind of like the idea that she was the one behind Vardamir and Manwendil. So I’m envisioning her as an intense devotee of the Valar, particularly Elbereth (it is the firstborn named for Elbereth, the third for Manwë).

Also for consideration: her eldest, Vardamir, was a dedicated scholar with zero interest in politics. He took the name Nolimon, something like ‘loremaster.’ That doesn’t necessarily reflect on his mother, but it’s something to consider, particularly given her apparent obscurity.

So: I tend to envision her as a bookish type like her son, and also like him, largely disinterested in public life. Originally, she could be a wise-woman à la Adanel—odds are that she’s also Hadorian. She’s a dedicated scholar and profoundly devout in her veneration of the Valar, particularly Elbereth.

[Note: cross-posting this out of sequence because I seem to have missed it earlier and a later post references it]

I love the Tindómiel/Undómiel thing not only because Elrond names his only daughter to match Elros’s only daughter (though I do).

And I love it not only because the two names act as counterparts in terms of their relationships to their people: the morning star of Númenor, the evenstar of the Elves (though I do).

I also really, really love it because the morning star and the evening star are the same star: Eärendil.

Tagged: #they named their daughters for their dad :') #and i think it's legit interesting to see priorities there? #in naming i mean #like #2/3 of elrond's kids are named in the sinda family pattern #from elwing #while elros just went all out and named two of his for the valar #his firstborn is named for elbereth!! which seems a very elvish (and esp sindarin) sort of thing #they both have a reference to men in some of the names #but elrond does it with his firstborn kids while elros doesn't until the ... fourth iirc? #again: not what you'd assume! #but the daughters get the Peak Symbolism and that's as eärendil's heiresses #:)))))))))))

I know I've talked about it before, but I hate the bland Westernized movie crown of Gondor on Elros so, so, so much.

An aesthetic post for a textual ghost: the unknown wife of Elros and mother to Vardamir Nólimon, Tindómiel, Atanalcar, and Manwendil.


I imagined her as a Hadorian archivist in the early days of Númenor:

An anon said:

I followed for the Elrond/Elros thing cause it hurt my feelings.

I replied:

Thanks, and you’re welcome :D

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

 

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