I Totally Forgot To Post The Whole Thing Lol. These Are My Favorite Main Elves From The Silm.

Maedhros still bloody from the first kinslaying when he sees Maglor already composing the first draft for the Noldolantë

We all think a lot about Maedhros’ relationships with his parents and his brothers since they loom so large in his life, but I think there are really interesting contrasts and parallels between Maedhros and Finwë and Míriel:

Finwë held himself unkinged by the Valar against his will; Maedhros chose to give the crown to Fingolfin.

Finwë was a great friend of Elwë; Maedhros was not, and even made war on his kingdom after he was dead.

Finwë wanted to have more children after Fëanor; Maedhros never had children, but he ended up with children anyway.

Míriel was known for her strong will and her tendency to make her words a law unto themselves; Maedhros swore the Oath.

Míriel chose to die; Maedhros begged Fingon to slay him and he later cast himself into a chasm of fire.

Míriel, and of course Fëanor, were well known for the beautiful things they created; Maedhros did achieve some great things, like the alliances he formed, but he was mostly remembered for what he destroyed.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

🍎🍓🫐

Maglor: I only had Elrond and Elros for a moment but if anything happened to them I would kill everyone in this room (okaaay, not you, Nelyo) and then myself.

Maedhros:

Maedhros: We've already killed everyone in this room.

I was thinking of Beren and Lúthien and how their story is so much more interesting than they get credit for. I mean, on the surface it reads like a fairy tale but it also elevates the rest of the story, it uses common fairy tale tropes but turns them upside down, and the way we see the heroine asserting her agency in this story is so fascinating. I think the story of Beren and Lúthien provides much needed contrast for the rest of the Silm, and both become more poignant because of this contrast. 

The familiar fairy tale goes like this: there's a a poor but resourceful peasant, set with a difficult task (which is in fact designed to be impossible to complete), but thanks to some magical help he is successful, retrieves treasure, and as a reward he wins the king's daughter and lives happily ever after as a prince, gaining all the earthly glory one can have in this life. But in the Tale of Beren and Lúthien, the hero is a traumatised outlaw, the king's daughter IS the magical help, she is an active and equal participant in the quest for her own hand in marriage, the treasure may actually be cursed, the hero and heroine die, and the ultimate reward is not a social rise from rags to riches. Beren does not become a member of the power-wielding elite of Doriath and he and Lúthien are not promised that their second life will be happy or long. But just that chance is worth it, and by choosing it they actually change the course of history. Lúthien is offered all the bliss that is possible to have in Arda, if she will give up Beren, but she decides that the love she has for him is still more valuable. And that idea, of loving someone so much that your love shifts the world, is so compelling to me. 

And I love that the story of Beren and Lúthien is also a rendition of Orpheus and Eurydice, and that just as the world was created in the Music of the Ainur, so is Lúthien's song powerful enough to change what those original notes dictated. She changes it with hope and a song. That is so simple and yet so beautiful, in the way some of the best myths are. (Insane that this is essentially a love-letter to Edith Tolkien.)

There is this fascinating contrast between Beren and Lúthien: at the time of their first meeting, Beren has lost literally everything and his family is either dead or lost beyond retrieval. Stumbling across Lúthien, he is fresh from terrible ordeals and suffering. But Lúthien's life has been full of happiness and without care, and she has lived in a literal fairy kingdom as the most beautiful of all the Children of Ilúvatar. She could have her pick of any prince of Eldar. But here she comes across this mortal, who has nothing to give except for his love and even that only for a brief time, and she is willing to risk all she has for it. The gall and courage it takes to take such a chance! She chooses this man and her choice changes everything. 

And that is brilliant! Because Lúthien starts with so little power and agency, and she is constantly belittled or even abused by those with more power around her. She is treated as a pawn, her will is undermined and she is coerced and imprisoned to make her compliant. But Lúthien shows her determination and courage in holding fast to her choice even when it's just her and Beren against the world. In the end, she wins agency and freedom to determine her own tale. In her beginning Lúthien is a maid dancing in the woods; by the end she will have faced Satan and death itself, and changed the world forever. Truly, to call her story "Release from Bondage" is more than appropriate. How insane is this all from Beren's point of view? He has lost everything, he is an outlaw, and has nowhere to go. What is left of his family is scattered who knows where. He has nothing but the clothes on his back and nothing to give. But here is this immortal princess, and she will go to hell and back with him! She will cross the Sundering Sea to bid him farewell! She pleads with inexorable death and for her, an exception is made!  It's so on brand for Tolkien that these two achieve with their love, and precisely because they act out of love, something that others with armies behind their backs can't even imagine doing.

Yeah. It's such a good, hopeful, bittersweet tale.

The reality of my Silmarillion fan experience is this: Yeah, sure, I feel the tragedy of the Fëanorians and like Maglor with the best of them but... but... look, there's this other elf to be found on the seashore. He's a procrastinator. He's a bloody procrastinator who had a mission from his king and yet spent years hanging around a place doing nothing because he liked the nature there. And then he got his ass kicked by the sea and lost all his companions. And somehow that did not make him bitter and when he was told by a random human on the shore that he needed to go to the secret city because Ulmo, the Vala of the sea, told him to, his reaction was "Okay, we're going."

As an adult, I guess the reality of my Silmarillion / Unfinished Tales fan experience is that Voronwë is the ADHD hero I needed in my teenage years.

I know Manwe's pardon was a stupid idea and he should have think more about it, as King of Arda, but I can't help but feeling so much for him. He's a younger brother, he doesn't understand evil and even if he did, he would have forgiven Melkor anyway. That's his older brother, of course he's gonna give him another chance, of course he believes he can change, of course he forgives him.

That's what younger siblings always do.

Best uncle 🌟🌟

(the age here are probably not canon but hey, i'm free 🫡)

*based on a real conversation between me and two of my siblings*

Celegorm: where do babies come from?

Maedhros: I don’t know but we found you in a dumpster

Maglor: *nodding sagely* with the raccoons

Celegorm: what! no you didn't!

Maedhros: yes we did, we made Atya and Ammë keep you.

Maglor: and the longer we had you the more you started to be like a little boy instead of a raccoon.

Celegorm: I AM NOT A RACOON!

Maglor: Oh look Nelyo his claws are coming back, we might have to return him.

Maedhros: *picks Celegorm up over his shoulder* Alright lets go

*various sounds of chaos ensue*

Fëanor: *from the other room* I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU TWO TOLD YOUR BROTHER HE'S A RACCON AGAIN

Nerdanel: *at the same time from a different room*: did they tell Telyco we found him in a dumpster again!?!