dancing-in-the-void

┏┓

┃┃╱╲ In this

┃╱╱╲╲ house

╱╱╭╮╲╲ we love

▔▏┗┛▕▔ & appreciate

╱▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔╲

Maedhros

╱╱┏┳┓╭╮┏┳┓ ╲╲

(for those unaware Tolkien gave many of his characters Old English names. Maedhros’s is Doegred Winsterhand meaning “dawn or daybreak” and “left handed”. JRR Tolkien’s son Christopher speculated that the dawn or daybreak was a reference to his hair but he was not certain. I actually don’t even remember where this is from. A lot of the essays I’ve read out of order unfortunately)

Then when Fingon heard afar the great trumpet of Turgon his brother, the shadow passed and his heart was uplifted, and he shouted aloud: 'Utúlie'n aurë! Aiya Eldalië ar Atanatári, utúlie'n aurë! The day has come! Behold, people of the Eldar and Fathers of Men, the day has come!' And all those who heard his great voice echo in the hills answered crying: 'Auta i lómë! The night is passing!'

....

Last of all Húrin stood alone. Then he cast aside his shield, and wielded an axe two-handed; and it is sung that the axe smoked in the black blood of the troll-guard of Gothmog until it withered, and each time that he slew Húrin cried: 'Aurë entuluva! Day shall come again!'

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).

for @tolkiengenweek

I recently reblogged this post about anti-racism and got this reply from a user named folksol: 

If anyone doesn’t think there’s racism in this fandom, here’s your wake-up call.

This person not only believes that the majority of my followers are far right, they also believe that I - despite clearly loathing the far right - should cater to their horrific ideology. This is some peak white racist delusion right here. I laughed out loud. I’m still laughing at the phrasing of it. “Excuse me.” Oh, are you clutching your pearls? Are you upset because I reblogged an anti-racist post on my own blog during a worldwide uprising against racism? “We, your followers” - as if this person is my constituent to whom I am somehow beholden. I guess they didn’t read my about page, which clearly tells white supremacists they are not welcome here. 

In case anyone thinks folksol is trolling, I’m sad to say they’re not. Unfortunately, for those who are unaware, there is a long history of the far right trying to claim Tolkien for themselves the same way that the Nazis tried to claim Norse mythology and Viking symbols. And this is not a one time occurence on this blog. I’ve also received messages from other white supremacists who are upset that I’m talking about racial justice and think my blog is for them. While the far right is by no means a majority of the Tolkien fandom, some of them are obviously here. Which means it’s our job to kick them out.

I’m not sure why I should need to explain this to anyone, but Tolkien hated the Nazis and he hated apartheid. If you are a member of the far right or similar groups he would have hated you too. It’s laughably uninformed for the far right to act like Tolkien is “theirs.” He hated you pieces of shit! So do I! And I’d venture a guess that so do the majority of my followers. 

Of course, Tolkien’s opposition to Nazism and apartheid doesn’t absolve him of holding internalized racist beliefs. It’s important for white people to recognize that racism exists on a spectrum. On one extreme we have people like the Nazis and the KKK, who overtly support racism. But white people who repudiate these groups can still hold racist views. (For more information, here’s Tolkien Gateway’s article Racism in Tolkien’s Works, and Our Failure to Address LOTR’s Racism written by @weirdnaturalscience​.) The post I linked to at the top has resources for examining your own biases.

When discussing racism in Tolkien’s works, or racism in fandom, it’s important for white people to have an open mind, not get defensive, and to listen to people of color. No one is saying you can’t be a fan of Tolkien, only that Tolkien’s opposition to the Nazis didn’t stop him from incorporating some worrying tropes in his writing. It’s possible to incorporate racist ideas in writing without intending to do so. 

I also want to say that when we kick the far right out of the fandom, we can’t consider the job done. Because it’s not just the far right. If we have people in fandom who overtly support racism, then we also have people in fandom on other parts of that racist spectrum. In fandom spaces Black people and other people of color are frequently harassed, trolled, and excluded, and often white fans refuse to believe or listen to their experiences of racism.

so I made a comic of the battle of unnumbered tears for @aoaanthology! 

“Maedhros’s Old English name is Doegred Winsterhand (Ang. Doegred=dawn, daybreak, Winsterhand=left-handed). Christopher Tolkien thinks that Doegred refers to the colour of Maedhros’s hair.”

Maedhros’s OE name should rightly be Dægred or Dægræd (Christopher chose the former, I’m pretty sure, but I think the publisher of ‘The Shaping of Middle Earth’ picked a horrible font to print OE in since the ashes (æ) all look like œ/oe, and tho paleographic differences are rampant in manuscripts, with an æ is generally how most OE texts write the word for daybreak).

As to symbolism though, a red dawn is associated with ill tidings or violence in several different ways. The first thing I thought of when I saw this was “red sky at morning, sailors take warning / red sky at night, sailors’ delight” (of which there are many, many similar sayings, this is just the one I know), where a red dawn portends bad weather (the saying is applicable where the winds are prevailing westerly, like in most of North America and Europe and, presumably, Belariand and northern Middle Earth).

The other reason the dawn might be red is if the air is smoky— I can attest to this from the last few years of fires here in the western US—but this is also sometimes in literature a reference to fires/pyres after battle. I had always assumed Theoden’s “a sword day, a red day” line before the Battle of Pelennor Fields was a reference to blood, but it could also be to the fires of war. Unless I’m mistaken, Legolas’s “a red sun rises, blood has been spilled this night” in Two Towers is a movie line but not a book one (I couldn’t find it at least on a cursory skim), but it certainly follows the same principle—smoke from the pyre the rohirrim built to burn the Uruk-hai has turned the rising sun red.

tldr: I missed the most obvious bit during my initial analysis and Mae’s name in Old English makes Fingon's "utúlie’n aurë!’ speech during Nirnaeth Arnoediad even more tragic. In other news, ‘The Dawn Will Come’ from the Dragon Age soundtrack belongs on every Russingon playlist.

So I was out on a run today and realized that during my initial exploration of Maedhros’s OE name like a month and a half ago I missed the most obvious and excruciatingly heartbreaking part. 

Fingon’s makes his ‘The day has come! / utúlie’n aurë!’ speech during Nirnaeth Arnoediad as this hopeful rallying cry, meant to inspire his people that they will win this battle and have peace. In the published Silmarillion he cries this when trumpets of Turgon’s host sound, just at the point where his forces in the west are struggling and Maedhros’s forces have shown no sign of appearing. The events of this battle that made it into the final version highlight how Turgon’s forces came “unsummoned and unlooked for” and Fingon only "heard afar” the trumpets of the Gondolindrim. They are welcome allies, but not the ones Fingon is expecting.

The forces Fingon is expecting are Maedhros’s. 

While I am absolutely not an expert, especially since it has been a year since I’ve taken any Old English, I did try and have a go at what the translation of that line of Fingon’s speech would be. OE would create the perfect tense for "has come” with the verb habban in the present singular and the past particle (ġe). What a literal translation thus ends up as is:

Þæt dæg hæbbe ġecuman!

But since day coming is, ya know, like sun rising, the line could just as easily by “the dawn has come” which would, in OE, be:

Þæt dægred hæbbe ġecuman! And yep, I'm sure you all saw the buildup to this from several miles away but alas for Fingon, Dægred—Maedhros—is not the one who has come, and Turgon’s unlooked for ten thousand will not be anywhere near enough. 

“Maedhros’s Old English name is Doegred Winsterhand (Ang. Doegred=dawn, daybreak, Winsterhand=left-handed). Christopher Tolkien thinks that Doegred refers to the colour of Maedhros’s hair.”

Maedhros’s OE name should rightly be Dægred or Dægræd (Christopher chose the former, I’m pretty sure, but I think the publisher of ‘The Shaping of Middle Earth’ picked a horrible font to print OE in since the ashes (æ) all look like œ/oe, and tho paleographic differences are rampant in manuscripts, with an æ is generally how most OE texts write the word for daybreak).

As to symbolism though, a red dawn is associated with ill tidings or violence in several different ways. The first thing I thought of when I saw this was “red sky at morning, sailors take warning / red sky at night, sailors’ delight” (of which there are many, many similar sayings, this is just the one I know), where a red dawn portends bad weather (the saying is applicable where the winds are prevailing westerly, like in most of North America and Europe and, presumably, Belariand and northern Middle Earth).

The other reason the dawn might be red is if the air is smoky— I can attest to this from the last few years of fires here in the western US—but this is also sometimes in literature a reference to fires/pyres after battle. I had always assumed Theoden’s “a sword day, a red day” line before the Battle of Pelennor Fields was a reference to blood, but it could also be to the fires of war. Unless I’m mistaken, Legolas’s “a red sun rises, blood has been spilled this night” in Two Towers is a movie line but not a book one (I couldn’t find it at least on a cursory skim), but it certainly follows the same principle—smoke from the pyre the rohirrim built to burn the Uruk-hai has turned the rising sun red.

Eowyn. She is no man.