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I absolutely love how much this interaction reveals about Melkor.

He is so insecure when it comes to Manwe and Varda and the mere thought that a Man believes they may have any regard for him is enough for Melkor to want even more to prove how wrong Hurin is. Hurin's loyalty to Manwe and the fact that Melkor hears this Man calling his brother "the Elder King" seems to be like someone is waving in frong of him a red cloth.

Here we have Melkor explicitly expressing that he himself is the Elder King, which says a lot about how he views Manwe as a usurper in a way. And we also know from Morgoth's Ring that by that point Melkor considered Manwe to be "faithless".

This tale ties to Tolkien conceiving Melkor as the one who corrupted Men in the Tale of Adanel. He tries to sell to Hurin the same tale (which involves exaggeration, but is to an extent inspired from the truth of how Melkor sees himself) he sold to his forefathers and Hurin is having none of it.

When Hurin spews some truths that Melkor does not want to hear, Melkor chooses to be in denial and doubles down on his delusions of grandeur. He expresses his belief that the Valar are 'masters' to Men, which I think he genuinely believes. He doesn't see the rest of the Valar as any different than himself, just like Sauron later projected his own motives upon Manwe.

His words about the nothingness that exists outside of the world are really interesting. They reflect Melkor's weariness of the Void and his unwillingness to go back into "nothing". Which of course ties into his severe punishment after the War of Wrath.

I agree, I think the comparison with the sun and the moon is VERY fitting! And I think Ancalimë and Míriel are each very emblematic of the time period they belong to within Númenor’s timeline… they sure can IMO fuction as symbolic opposites, too. And I am definitely with you on the associations with the sun for Ancalimë! I mean, I have been on board with that ever since I read [this post] of @anghraine‘s about her son Anárion - whose name means “son of the sun” (<3 <3 <3)…  And of course, you can say you have Ancalimë as the sun of Númenor’s prosperity vs Míriel as the moon of Númenor’s dark night. Ancalimë rises, Míriel wanes; Ancalimë lights the way ahead of her, Míriel can’t dispel the dark night of Númenor. And the very imagery too, with Ancalime being the sherpherdess queen, roaming the open fieds under the sun while Hallacar sings for her… while Míriel gives you a more claustrophobic feeling, with her being a sort of prisioner to her own husband too, in the palace and city that oughta have been hers. And ofc, there’s something about Ancalime becoming the first queen, rising to power even though traditionally she shouldn’t, whereas Míriel doesn’t rise to power, even though traditionally she should…. 

For more comparisons, in my HC Míriel is very close to her father, and not close at all to her mother (whom I haven’t managed to unfridge yet x_x). In my HC, the question of whether Inziladûn died because he choose to die or because he was really too old, and just naturally died, is metatextually ambiguous… but HE frames it as a choice he’s making, to go like the monarchs of old - so there’s an obscure part of Míriel that feels abandoned. In that sense, it’s possible to trace a parallel with Ancalimë, who afaik got along just fine with her dad later on, but who never forgot that time when she, as a child, clung to him but was set down on the floor as he walked out, ‘abandoning’ her and her mother (that’s UT canon)… I think Míriel and Ancalimë are both very lonely people, with abandonment issues and a complicated relationship with isolation. And there’s also the fact that they’re both married against their will. Maybe Míriel contemplates that one day, when thinking about her predecessors ;/ Ancalimë had to marry against her wishes and Vanimeldë’s husband usurped her son after she died. The only female monarch to whom marriage was never a problem was Telperiën, who never married (bless)…. by contrast, the only male monarch whose marriage troubles are known to us are Aldarion and Gimilzôr… and of course, Pharazôn. I’m sure Míriel thinks about that a lot….

IDK if this is of interest to you, and if you also HC this, but I imagine Númenorean culture as very interested in revisiting itself and its formative cultural past, and I imagine that’s something that reaches its apex during Vanimeldë’s rule and its les arts florissants, etc. So, for some time, I played with the idea of Ancalimë and Telperiën being associated with sun-and-moon imagery during Vanimeldës time, whereas Vanimeldë herself would be associated with the stars/Varda the beloved, queen of the sky (;DDD). I think Númenorean artists would moreover be working with the name implications - “Ancalimë” meaning “most bright” (the sun) and “Telperiën” meaning “crowned in silver”* (the moon). I can also stretch it a bit and look towards Silmariën, who was born one generation too early to profit from her nephew Aldarion’s law reform, and who’s named for the legendary jewel before it became a star in the sky… and to Míriel “jewel-daughter”, which I can easily interpret as a reference to the brightest star in the sky, who’s also her great-great-etc-etc-grandfather :^) :^( (although ofc there are a lot of male rulers with names also related to stars and shining and brightness ofc, but that’s besides the point). 

Is this more or less what you expected? Do you agree/disagree, have other opinions or takes? Thank you for this question, it was very nice getting it :D

Maedhros searching for Eluréd and Elurín

I have feelings about Míriel and Amandil and what we are told about their deaths. They both die attempting to appeal to the powers to save Númenor. Amandil sails into the west, breaking the Ban of the Valar to plead for their aid, and is never seen again. Míriel is swept away as she climbs Meneltarma, trying to reach the peak where the Kings and Queens of Númenor would speak to the One.

They both die making last, desperate attempts to save their people. They both fail because their prayers are ignored.

I have feelings about Míriel and Amandil watching Pharazôn’s seduction by Sauron. Who could not avoid the royal court because of their positions as the Queen and a member of the Council of the Sceptre and so had front row seats at the atrocities committed by the new Cult of Melkor.

Finrod tells Andreth that Aegnor will always remember “the morning in the hills of Dorthonion” - presumably a reference to their first meeting. More poignantly, he talks about their last encounter by Tarn Aeluin. This is the same Aeluin described in the Silmarillion: “with wild heaths about it, and all that land was pathless and untamed, for even in the days of the Long Peace none had dwelt there.” It’s a remote place, wild and rugged enough for Barahir and his men to hide out successfully for several years (and in fact, their hideout is only discovered because Sauron torments/tricks poor old Gorlim into giving it away). It’s an unlikely place for a lovers’ tryst, even a parting. It’s clearly a place well off the beaten track, yet it’s a key location in Aegnor and Andreth’s story. You’re left with the impression that their relationship, which seems to have been relatively secret, flourished in these remote, wild places, away from the eyes of their kin.

For me, this idea is reinforced by the impression given in the Athrabeth of Andreth being an active, even athletic woman. Finrod describes the young Andreth as a “maiden, brave and eager” (he describes Aegnor in similar terms - “swift and eager”), and though the forty-eight-year-old Andreth sees herself despondently as “old and lost”, one of the footnotes describes her as being “in full vigour” at the time of the Athrabeth. This idea of physical health and activeness also comes across when she speaks of her relationship with Aegnor: “I would not have troubled him, when my short youth was spent. I would not have hobbled as a hag after his bright feet, when I could no longer run beside him!” She’s speaking figuratively, of course, but the image it conjures up in my mind is of the two of them running together across those moors and highlands of Dorthonion.

And the physical landscape also has a role to play in the end of their relationship. Finrod claims that Aegnor ended it because he has no faith that the Siege of Angband will last indefinitely, and that in times of war “the Elves do not wed or bear child.” I’ve seen Aegnor get some flack for this, with people pointing out that other Elves seem to have no problem marrying and having children during the war-torn First Age. 

However, to return to the Silmarillion, we’re told that as the Siege of Angband rolls on and Noldor and Men alike establish themselves in Beleriand, Fingolfin ponders another assault upon Angband: “But because the land was fair and their kingdoms wide, most of the Noldor were content with things as they were […] Among the chieftains of the Noldor Angrod and Aegnor alone were of like mind with the King; for they dwelt in regions whence Thangorodrim could be descried, and the threat of Morgoth was present to their thought.”

That passage alone makes sense of Aegnor’s motives. Most of the Noldor have actually grown complacent during the siege, but he’s one of the very few who hasn’t. He can’t - his fortresses are actually within sight of Thangorodrim, and the northern slopes of Dorthonion that he and Angrod rule are regarded as a key bulwark against any attack from Angband. It’s constantly there in his mind. Even setting aside the mortal/immortal divide, it’s only too easy to imagine what a shadow that would cast across his relationship with Andreth. Finrod reckons that Aegnor is too duty-bound to imagine abandoning his post and fleeing south to safer lands with Andreth; but equally, I think he’s too duty-bound to countenance the idea of marrying her and bringing her north to face the danger of the front line. (And the danger, as it turns out, is real - after all, he and Angrod are among the first casualties of the Bragollach.) Again, the landscape, and his awareness of their place in it, that influence Aegnor’s decision to call things off. 

quick inktober + aegnor/andreth headcannon

andreth: “In the language of flowers, does your gift not translate to…"the sweetest love”? Oh Aegnor <3"

Ah thank you! I will say though, I assume by fandom you mean fandom on Tumblr i.e. ao3 fandom and unfortunately, the reason I started writing about all of this was because Tolkien scholarship in journals like Mythlore are absolutely awful when it comes to analysing the question of gender in the texts, reproducing the same defensive surface level readings that characterise the sort of defensiveness one finds of Tolkien in Tumblr/ao3 fandom.

And I want to say I understand why that happens, but in scholarship especially it means there is no real attempt to engage with a feminist reading of the legendarium texts - or to refute feminist critiques solely through answers related to in-world worldbuilding, rather than recognise the broader meta-commentary being made. The question of Eowyn's fate is one such example - yes there are very good in-universe rationalisations for it, yet we cannot also avoid the fact that the women of the legendarium consistently have arcs that resolve in them being recouped into traditionally "catholic" complementarian gender roles - counsellors, healers, wives, mothers. The ridicule that readings of Shelob and Ungoliant as pathological representations of concupiscent female desire as vast, frightening, devouring, greedy, selfish, deceptive, destructive containing all these very negative associations with "bad" femininity by other means, is also pretty telling and also frankly, immensely childish. These are basic bitch readings in academia and the fact that there are certain kinds of fannish adjacent Tolkien scholarship that cannot handle it without resorting to snide ridicule or defensiveness is very very tiresome.

The rest of this re. gender, patriarchy & the Elves is long because I had a lot to say so I am putting it under a cut.

Disclaimer: the following post is written by an agnostic with absolutely no expertise in theology.

Maybe, it has been appointed so, that by my loss the kingship of Men may be restored. Therefore, though I love you, I say to you: Arwen Undómiel shall not diminish her life's grace for less cause. She shall not be the bride of any Man less than the King of both Gondor and Arnor.

This quote by Elrond always fascinates me. Fate, the will of Erū Ilúvatar, are facts of life in Tolkien's Middle Earth. Elrond's speculation that Arwen was appointed to bring about the restoration of the kingship of Men is highly probable. It puts Elrond's words into a new light, less that unless Aragorn is king, he is not worthy of Arwen, and more, if Aragorn is not king, then there would be no reason for Arwen to give up her immortality. Arwen's purpose is to give up her immortality and reconcile the race of Men to the Valar and Eldar, which is to be accomplished by marrying the King of Men. If Aragorn is not the King of Gondor and Arnor, then marrying him will not accomplish this goal.

Numenor fell, in large part, because it turned towards worship of Melkor, and away from the Valar and the Eldar. The break between Man and elves was a fall from grace from Man, and the flooding of Numenor is reminiscent of the Great Flood and Noah's arc, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Arwen's role was to reunite Man and elf. Her child with Aragorn, Aragorn's heir, is called Eldarion, and he symbolises that reunion.

Arwen's beauty, and her fate, is often paralleled in text with Luthien, so much so that when Aragorn first saw her, he had been singing about Luthien, and cried out Tinuviel as Beren did.

If we consider Arwen predestined for this fate, then Arwen's beauty itself seems something that was given to her for that purpose. She was made beautiful that the one true king of Men would fall for her at first sight, and that the beauty she possesses will create in her mind and the mind of others parallels between herself and Luthien, from whom she inherited the choice to live or die. She was given Luthien's face because she was chosen to have Luthien's fate.

That said, there is a fair deal of significance placed on Arwen choosing to give up her immortality to be with Aragorn, her decision is described as the "choice of Luthien".

This is reminiscent of the passage in Luke 1:38, where Mary accepts that she will have Jesus.

And Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

Arwen as a Madonna figure has already been explored in some degree. Aragorn is the "King of Men", just as Jesus is Biblically considered to be so. However, while Mary heralds Jesus's divinity more than grants it, Jesus is the divine figure, but that he was born to a virgin reveals that divinity, it is Arwen who, descended from the Eldar, is closer to the divine than Aragorn. She is the one whose presence is restoring grace to the Race of Man, and she is the one who is sent to Man to die for them. She, an elf, could have lived an immortal life, but for Man to be redeemed, she has to become immortal, and die.

My theory is that she took this love for Aragorn to be a sign that she was chosen to give up her immortality and make the choice of Luthien, and she agrees to do so as an act of faith to The One. Arwen's contempt for the Numenoreans and how they caused their Fall reveals the depth of her own faith and devotion, and also explains why she would give up her immortality for love, if she believed it to be her appointed duty. Arwen fell in live with Aragorn not on first sight, but on second sight, when she saw his dressed as an Elven King.

"I say to you, King of the Númenoreans, not till now have I understood the tale of your people and their fall. As wicked fools I scorned them, but I pity them at last. For if this is indeed, as the Eldar say, the gift of the One to Men, it is bitter to receive."

yes, their bloodlines obviously trace back to two twins, so technically there is that, but there's so many generations between Aragorn and Elros that the level of actual consanguinity is honestly irrelevant. moreover Numenor famously forbade marriage between cousins, so you don't even get royal bloodline fuckery. on the purely practical level, Aragorn and Arwen don't share enough blood for it to even remotely matter.

now, Elrond being Aragorn's foster father comes into play. and here the thing isn't so much what happened but what Tolkien was at such pains to avoid. cause he contrived that Arwen was with her grandmother Galadriel for the entire duration of Aragorn's youth, so that he was unaware of her and, crucially, so that she would only see him when he was older (if not an adult per se) and he would only see her, come to know of her, when he was a young man instead of a child under the roof of his foster father and sister. this contrivance makes it so that they do not, in fact, perceive each other as siblings, which is frankly like saying, I know this could have a vibe and I'm trying my hardest not to deliver that vibe.

but that's not the kicker. the kicker is what elrond says about Aragorn and Arwen marrying which is, extremely explicitly, a matter of reuniting the bloodline of Elrond with that of his twin brother Elros; and also, explicitly, about race, and the blood of "lesser men" mingling with that of the high men of Numenor. not only preoccupations of purity in blood strongly intermingle with themes of incest (as already mentioned, noble bloodlines fuckery marrying into themselves is a symptom of this), but this is also doubly linked to bringing things back in the family, in the literal sense and in the metaphysical sense (gift of men dividing fates etc). the splitting of bloodlines will be once again reunited by my daughter marrying with the descendant of my twin brother.

Elrond: ‘But in the wearing of the swift years of Middle-earth the line of Meneldil son of Anárion failed, and the Tree withered, and the blood of the Númenóreans became mingled with that of lesser men.

- The Council of Elrond

Elrond to Aragorn: Maybe, it has been appointed so, that by my loss the kingship of Men may be restored.

- The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen

There were three unions of the Eldar and the Edain: Lúthien and Beren; Idril and Tuor; Arwen and Aragorn. By the last the long sundered branches of the Half-elven were reunited and their line was restored.